Between federal and major statewide contests, the various contributors to DDHQ keep their eyes on local elections and specials. Here’s a rundown of the major ones from last night.
Jacksonville- Municipal Elections
The top of the ticket wasn’t even contested this go-around, in stark contrast to the 2015 race which saw Republican Lenny Curry narrowly defeat Democratic incumbent Alvin Brown, and Brown’s own narrow victory in 2011. Florida Democratic analyst Matt Isbell summed up the results rather succinctly:
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry walked to an easy re-election against councilwoman Anna Brosche. The Duval Democrats didn’t even run a candidate, but opposed Curry. Brosche went on to win heavily African-American precincts and some of liberal Riverside #flapol #sayfie pic.twitter.com/0FLvEYgH0S
— Matthew Isbell (@mcimaps) March 20, 2019
The city had voted for Hillary Clinton, Andrew Gillum, and Senator Bill Nelson, but without a major Democratic candidate at the top of the ticket, Republicans swept every major race last night: Sheriff, Property Appraiser, and Tax Collector.
Iowa Senate District 30- Special Election
You may have seen the #SD30 hashtag around election Twitter over the last few weeks. Last night, Democrats easily held onto it, with candidate Eric Giddens defeating Republican Walt Rogers by almost fifteen points. This race earned some national attention as eight Democratic Presidential candidates (former Rep. John Delaney, current Rep. Beto O’Rourke, businessman Andrew Yang, Senators Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Elizabeth Warren, and Governor John Hickenlooper) took time to drop in and stump for Giddens. Giddens’ win was considerably larger than Hillary Clinton’s in the same district (it narrowly voted for her in 2016), so a good showing for the Iowa Democrats.
Minnesota House District 11B- Special Election
As the Iowa district stayed true to its color, so did Minnesota’s last night. HD11B is a deeply Republican district, and GOP candidate Nathan Nelson defeated DFL candidate Tim Burkhardt by a decisive 37% margin. Our own Aaron Booth tweeted out his performance compared to the last Republican high water mark, the 2016 Presidential election:
The final margin in tonight’s #HD11B special election was 36.88%. That margin is 7.26% better than Trump’s 2016 margin which represents the recent GOP high water mark in the district. pic.twitter.com/7X13Cz8SE9
— Aaron Booth (@ActorAaronBooth) March 20, 2019
Next week is relatively quiet, but April 2nd is just around the corner, and with it, the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, the Chicago Mayoral runoff, and a special state senate election in Pennsylvania that could prove critical in eventually deciding chamber control next year, SD37.