Elections of the Day: United States of America

Among the many idiosyncrasies of The United States of America, a large, erratic federal republic sandwiched between Mexico and Canada, is the practice of scattering various elections of significance on random Tuesdays throughout the year. Today a number of interesting and consequential elections are taking place across the country. The most significant is a state supreme court election in Wisconsin, where a victory for the Democratic candidate, Susan Crawford, is a necessary condition of protecting and extending some recent steps toward re-democratization in this state, undoing a lockdown for Rs not matter what happens gerrymander following the 2010 election. Her success is also likely necessary for the continued protection of abortion rights in Wisconsin. She is clearly favored, happily, although the state’s 50/50 character should function as a bulwark against over-confidence. Another closely watched race is the special election to replace Michael Waltz in Florida’ 6th district. This shouldn’t be close; it’s a Trump +30 district. But a combination of Republicans nominating someone everyone hates, Democrats nominating a strong candidate, and the turnout dynamics of special elections appear to have added up to make some people think this might be a real race. I’m not buying it but the margins are worth watching.

As is their regular practice, the journalists at Boltsmag have put together a nice primer on today’s elections. In addition to the marquee races I’ll be watching school board results in Green Bay, Kenosha, and Anchorage. It’ll also be interesting to see how much, if at all, the cloud of federal corruption charges effects the electoral support for Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the popular leftist mayor of Jackson, MS.