Voters across the country head to the polls Tuesday to decide a series of races that will test the national political landscape and the direction of the Democratic Party a year into Joe Biden’s presidency.
In Virginia, Democrats hope to prevent the pendulum of American politics from swinging back in Republicans’ favor in a governor’s race that will serve as a gauge of the national environment — both as a referendum on the early stages of Biden’s presidency and as a test of whether Democrats’ efforts to keep their opposition to former President Donald Trump at the forefront of their campaigns will continue to motivate voters a year after Trump left office.
Meanwhile, in major cities across the country, Democrats will be making decisions about the direction of the party in intra-party mayoral contests that pit progressives against establishment figures.
And in Minneapolis, the “defund the police” progressive movement faces a major test….
Loser talk already?
Gingrich Says Democrats Will Try to ‘Steal’ Virginia
Newt Gingrich told Fox News that if the Virginia gubernatorial race comes down to a narrow margin, Democrats will try to “steal it.”
Said Gingrich: “First of all if it’s really tight they’ll steal it, so you can’t afford to have a really tight election. You have to win by a big enough margin that they can’t steal it.”
NY Times piece on races around the country today……
A multitude of races across the country offer crucial signals for the fate of President Biden’s agenda, none more than the increasingly tight Virginia governor’s race between Glenn Youngkin and Terry McAuliffe….
More….
Voting has been light around my way up to now with a slight pickup….
Perhaps Ol Pusher Man has read some new numbers on the race and is twisting himself into a pretzel with these new narratives? Let’s hope.
Biden goes on the record predicting a McAuliffe win
Polls close in Virginia @ 7:00pm
The polls got the Virginia Governor race Right…..
Conforming my view here that the virus is NOT the primary issue with voters anymore and Democrats CANNOT ride on the Newsom virus thing…..
….
FiveThrityEight
According to preliminary exit poll data (yes, these numbers will change), 33% of Virginia voters named the economy and jobs as the most important issue facing the commonwealth. 24% said education, 16% said taxes, 13% said the pandemic, 9% said abortion. 53eig.ht/2ZSqvAu
….
Wash Post exit polling say basically the same
Biden/ Democrats MUST make themselves seen as getting the economy back humming going into the future…
Polls have closed in Virginia while there still may be people waiting on line ti vote there
Twitter feeds on the Virginia vote are telling people to stay on line to get to vote…..
Also GOP lawyers git a ruling allowing maskless people to vote….
Fairfax county a Dem stronghold will report numbers with a delay…….
Could be by 8
Youngkin IS maintaining an early lead but Fairfax should be strongly McAuliffe’s
Could this be a repeat of the way Biden/Trump went?
Wash Post
Virginia Governor
Glenn Youngkin (R) leads by 115,090 votes over Terry McAuliffe (D) with an estimated 24 percent of votes counted.
Number of votes and percentage of total vote received by eachcandidate
Votes
Pct.
Youngkin
GOP
420k
57.6%
McAuliffe
DEM
300k
41.7Z
Democratic votes typically come in later in Virginia
Wash Post
An estimated 32 percent of votes have been counted.
Votes received and percentages of total vote
Candidate Votes Pct.
Youngkin GOP 554,940 54.1%
McAuliffe DEM 463,872 45.2
Blanding OTH 6,629 0.6
Dave Wasserman
Right now, I’d rather be Youngkin (R). But we’ve still got a long way to go. #VAGOV
Nate Cohen
Now at 888 precincts: picture unchanged. Youngkin still ever so slightly running ahead of his targets, including nearly everywhere in the state.
If the needle was on the internet, it would be pointing his way
Dave wasserman
Brunswick Co. (Black majority, rural): McAuliffe needed to win it by 4%, per my benchmarks. He wins it by 5%. Long way to go, but this race looks tight right now. #VAGOV.
Dave Wasserman
Loudoun Co.: up to 128k votes counted, and McAuliffe winning there by just 53%-47%. McAuliffe better hope for a huge showing in the remaining VBM, but Youngkin performed *much* better than I expected w/ the early vote. Advantage: Youngkin. #VAGOV
Youngkin IS doing slightly better then needed…..
Dave wasserman
Fairfax: 133k early votes reported and McAuliffe winning the batch 74%-26%. That seems to exclude the vote-by-mail that could be even better for McAuliffe. To my eye, we’re on pace for a close statewide finish. #VAGOV
Kornacki’s Magic Wall
#VirginiaElection results are trending to follow the traditional model of Republican Votes coming in at the beginning of the night, and Democratic votes coming in later in the evening. We should know within the next hour or so if that is happening
Meaningless but the first numbers dump…
🚨Virginia Gubernatorial Election🚨
🔵McAuliffe (D) – 54.6%
🔴Youngkin (R) – 44.1%
1% of precincts reporting
#Elections2021 #ElectionDay #ElectionResults2021 #VirginiaElection #GoVote
Wash Post Has Youngkin up in their first vote totals at 2% in
4% in
Wash Post
Candidate Votes Pct.
Youngkin GOP 65,952 52.7%
McAuliffe DEM 58,335 46.6
Blanding OTH 782 0.6
Virginia Governor
Glenn Youngkin (R) leads by 13,187 votes over Terry McAuliffe (D) with an estimated 6 percent of votes counted.
Number of votes and percentage of total vote received by eachcandidate
Votes
Pct.
Youngkin
GOP
126,240
52.3%
McAuliffe
DEM
113,053
46.9
Wash Post
Turnout in Fairfax and Prince William Counties, plus Henrico around Richmond will be the wild cards tonight, but votes in so far seem to be indicating a 1-2 point Trumpkin win.
Dave Wasserman
I’ve seen enough: Glenn Youngkin (R) defeats Terry McAuliffe (D) in the Virginia governor’s race. #VAGOV
I am hoping that Terry pulls it off in Fairfax
But ?
This is NOT about Trump
This is about a TERRIBLE Campaign
This is about a Bad economy
About mandates for Republicans who’d rather get sick they someone tell them to get better
This is about Democrats fighting among themselves before the Republican come back into power
Have we seen this before?
You bet your ass…..
Democrats BETTER get their shit together
Donald Trump is gonna be a happy man tonight
And Biden is still fighting with his own party?
Predictions on the other races…
NJ: Murphy 53-44 over Ciattrelli
NYC: Adams 64-36 over Sliwa
Buffalo: 52-48 win for the Socialist lady over Byron Brown
Yes
Moderate Democrats will WIN….
Good candidate’s that don’t have foot in the mouth problems
Except for the Socialist , eh
DSD should be smiling
Seriously
Virginia IS about a lousy campaign by a lousy candidate in a lousy economy….
I could never fathom Democrats’ nomination of McAuliffe over two very talented candidates(sand Fairfax and his sexual misconduct scandals). Guy doesn’t even inspire flies on horse shit and was a classic boomer running in a millennial/gen z era. At least Biden had charisma enough to actually win a tight race.
And Terry only won in 13 because of the singular awfulness of Ken Cuccinelli and his culture warrior candidacy.
I can’t being very impressed with McAuliffe as a presidential candidate or as Chairman of the DNC.
Log in (free) to Tubi whose news section carries ABC, NBC (and CBC) national plus local stations (mainly Fox) in Boston (Wu leads Essaibi George heavily), the Twin Cities (polls just closed), New York City and DC/Va/Md (WUSA). You can jump around, which I’ve been doing with only limited success.
Outside Boston, there are several mayoral (and council) races in significant towns such as Somerville, Fall River and New Bedford.
Eric Adams as expected will be the next Mayor of the City of New York its second Black….
Dave Wasserman
@Redistrict
Needless to say, tonight’s results are consistent w/ a political environment in which Republicans would comfortably take back both the House and Senate in 2022.
I hope she’s wrong and NOT a sub for Biden in 2024
Caleb Smith
@CalebJSmith
Kamala Harris four days ago: “What happens in Virginia will in large part determine what happens in 2022, 2024, and on.”
Nate Cohn
@Nate_Cohn
I assume this is just boring at this point, but the race still isn’t called so I will just note that Youngkin continues to be on track for that 2 pt win that he’s been on track for since the 7:20 pm.
No surprise…..
‘Defund the Police ‘ is DOA…..
The Wall Street Journal
@WSJ
Minneapolis voted against replacing its police department with a public safety department in the first municipal election since George Floyd’s murder
FiveThirtyEight
@FiveThirtyEight
·
In the race for Boston mayor, Michelle Wu leads Annissa Essaibi George 64% to 36% with 77% of precincts reporting, and Essaibi George has just conceded the race. Wu becomes the first-ever woman or person of color to be elected mayor of Boston. https://53eig.ht/3jXb4h1
Van Jones liked
CNN
@CNN
·
CNN PROJECTION: Ed Gainey will become mayor of Pittsburgh, making him the first Black mayor in the city’s history
Cook Political Report and 2 others follow
Aaron Jacobs
@AFJacobs
Democrats tonight have won in NH’s biggest city and NH’s reddest city. #NHPolitics
Occupy Democrats
@OccupyDemocrats
BREAKING NEWS: Democrat Ed Gainey defeats his pro-Trump opponent, becoming the first Black Mayor in the history of Pittsburg. RT IF YOU THINK THAT THIS IS GREAT NEWS!
Dave Wasserman
@Redistrict
The theory that “high turnout will save McAuliffe b/c Virginia is a blue state” was never much more than wishcasting on this site. There was record-shattering turnout today, and Youngkin won. #VAGOV
Rough night for Democrats in my neck of the woods….
The Democrat running for DA lost….He ran on bail reform….
The County Exc
is inwas in a close race right now….Over in NYC?
A former cop is gonna be Mayor….
I repeat what have said here over and OVER….
Playing to the Democratic left to much might make them happy….
But is mostly a disaster for the party OVERALL…
The sweet spot IS in the middle…
McAuliffe comes back a bit more ….
But it does NOT look like enough….
Votes received and percentages of total vote
Candidate Votes Pct.
Glenn Youngkin GOP 1,582,998 51.0%
Terry McAuliffe DEM 1,496,966 48.3
Princess Blanding OTH 21,779 0.7
An estimated 95% of votes have been counted.
Wash Post
(The race has NOT be actually called yet)
Richard Fausset, Reporting from Atlanta 33m ago
Historic night in Durham, N.C., where Elaine O’Neal, a former interim dean of N.C. Central University Law School, will become the city’s first Black woman mayor.
…
Richard Fausset, Reporting from Atlanta 9:53 PM ET
Youngkin’s showing tonight is of interest to two possible Georgia governor’s candidates, Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican David Perdue — who, like Youngkin, might seek to unite pro- and anti-Trump G.O.P. factions.
…
Dana Rubinstein 9:30 PM ET
Alvin Bragg will become Manhattan’s first Black district attorney, according to the Associated Press. He will inherit a high-profile case against former President Donald J. Trump.
NYTimes…
LIVE Results: N.J. Governor
Candidate Party Pct.
Ciattarelli
Rep. 50.3%
Murphy*
Dem. 49.0
Source: A.P. | 74% est. votes reported
NY Times…
Looking like SE aced it…..
Shontel Brown, a Democrat, won a House seat in a special election in Cleveland on Tuesday, defeating her Republican opponent, Laverne Gore…
More…
More on the Buffalo race that is a bit confusing….
Mayor Byron W. Brown of Buffalo, an incumbent four-term Democrat, declared victory on Tuesday night in his write-in campaign to defeat his own party’s official nominee, India Walton. But Ms. Walton refused to concede.
The results were far from final in a race that drew national attention for reflecting the ideological schism in the Democratic Party: With nearly 70 percent of the vote counted, about 60 percent of the votes so far were marked for “write-In,” and many of those could eventually translate into votes for Brown, though that process of counting will be laborious and could take weeks to finish.
Ms. Walton, a democratic socialist who had earned the endorsements of some of the nation’s best-known progressives, said on Tuesday night that “every vote needs to be counted” and railed against the Brown campaign, which did not reject support from Republicans, a small cohort in this heavily Democratic city.
“Right now it’s ‘Walton’ against ‘Write In,’ whoever that is,” she said. “Who Write-In is remains to be seen.”
Indeed, there is at least one other write-in candidate who has actively campaigned — Benjamin Carlisle, a former Democrat. Ballots marked “write-in” will have to be checked individually to see which candidate — Mr. Brown, Mr. Carlisle, or others — is indicated. And absentee ballots will not be tallied until mid-November….
More…
Ciattrelli leads by 1.6%, 31K votes with 74% reporting. Overperforming in North Jersey by significant margins.
With 88% reporting, Ciattrelli up 1.2K votes on Murphy. The bulk of what’s out is in Camden and Essex Counties, big Democratic vote sinks.
State Senate President Steve Sweeney also poised to lose his seat to a gadfly. GOP comes close but not quite to a power trifects in NJ.
Differential turnout flipped in Virginia, as rural counties & cities rallied to Republican calls about Critical Race Theory, transgender athletes, etc., while the metropolitan cities and suburbs whose soccer moms had swung Va Democratic in 2016, 2018 & 2020 had relatively low turnout.
Rent control seems to have passed in both Minneapolis & St Paul, but Defund/Redirect the Police failed in most neighborhoods of Minneapolis and by a small margin city-wide, while losing more decisively in St Paul.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey won by far the most first-choice votes for re-election, but less than 50%. He’s likely to surmount 50% with the sum of second and third choice votes.
Atlanta Mayor Kassim Reed may not make it from the preliminary election tonight to a runoff next month. He came in either second or third.
Michelle Wu gave a rousing victory speech after fellow Boston City Councillor Anissa Essaibi George had called to concede the runoff Mayoral election. Acting Mayor Kim Janney will serve until January. Janney, who took over some duties when then-Mayor Marty Walsh became U.S. Secretary of Labor, did not survive the preliminary vote earlier this fall (with the two other Afro-Americans splitting the vote with her, leaving none of them in the final).
I forgot to add that several progressive incumbent members of the Minneapolis city council were in very tight races for re-election.
Murphy now ahead in NJ by 7,195 votes.
Murphy will win…..
Adam’s percentage wasn’t important….
He had the job after the primary….
Did I get the call on Buffalo incorrect last night?
Bobby Valentine has recorded another loss during the World Series. Just not in the World Series this time.
The former MLB manager conceded defeat in the Stamford, Connecticut mayoral election on Tuesday, congratulating opponent Caroline Simmons, a former assemblywoman of the Connecticut state legislature, on her victory…
More…
FiveThirtyEight
@FiveThirtyEight
Right now, Murphy leads Ciattarelli in the New Jersey governor’s race just 50% to 49%, but it’s been tough to know how to interpret that result since we don’t have reliable numbers about how many votes are outstanding and what type of ballots they are. https://53eig.ht/3BFRV9x
AP just announced Murphy as the projected winner for NJ Governor….
Most of the remaining vote comes from Camden, Essex, and Union counties, all with big Murphy leads.
Hence the AP call…..
Hey DSD?
Sorry about Buffalo
The Socialist has lost…..
GOP Adds 13 Democratic House Seats to 2022 Midterm Target List after Election Night Successes
By BRITTANY BERNSTEIN, National Review
November 3, 2021 1:46 PM
The House GOP campaign arm is now targeting an additional 13 Democratic House seats ahead of the 2022 midterms after Republicans had a number of surprising successes on Election Day, including a win for Republican Glenn Youngkin in the Virginia gubernatorial election.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) now has its sights set on the seats of Representatives Greg Stanton of Arizona, Ed Perlmutter of Colorado, Joe Courtney of Connecticut, Darren Soto of Florida, Sanford Bishop of Georgia, Frank Mrvan of Indiana, David Trone of Maryland, G. K. Butterfield of North Carolina, Annie Kuster of New Hampshire, Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico, Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, Jim Cooper of Tennessee, and Jennifer Wexton of Virginia.
The new additions bring the total to 70 House Democrats who will be targeted ahead of the 2022 midterms.
“In a cycle like this, no Democrat is safe,” said NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican. “Voters are rejecting Democrat policies that have caused massive price increases, opened our borders, and spurred a nationwide crime wave.”
The expansion of the GOP’s offensive efforts came after Republicans had an outstanding showing in Virginia, winning the races for governor and lieutenant governor and also flipping six seats in the Virginia House of Delegates, giving them a 51-49 majority. Meanwhile, several outlets have also called the Virginia attorney general race in favor of Republican Jason Miyares.
Also of great concern to Democrats is New Jersey, where the gubernatorial race remains too close to call despite predictions that Democratic governor Phil Murphy would comfortably defeat his Republican challenger, Jack Ciattarelli. The race is sounding alarms for Democrats, given that President Biden won New Jersey by 16 points just one year ago.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/gop-adds-13-democratic-house-seats-to-2022-midterm-target-list-after-election-night-successes/
Democrats ARE IN TOUGH place …..
YUP….