Like Minnesota. Like Connecticut. Democrats win gubernatorial elections. A problem arises after the new Governor scans the legislature and selects one or two members to join the cabinet. The selection is a long-time, valued legislator in a swing district. The district swings.
It happened again in Kentucky. Two Democratic seats in Kentucky’s House were up for election on February 25. Both seats were vacant because the new governor had appointed Democratic legislators to executive posts. Rachel Roberts kept one of those seats Democratic, defeating Mary Jo Wedding whose residency was challenged. Bill Redwine could not do the same for Rocky Adkins old seat. Adkins had become senior advisor to new governor Andy Beshear. The Kentucky House will have a 62-38 Republican advantage. Democrats have a tough time in the border states.
Republicans will keep Georgia’s SD 13 Republican. The March 3 runoff will feature two Republicans. In Minnesota, the Republicans kept HD 30A and the Democrats kept HD 60A Democratic.
In Mississippi, Democrats gained a House seat. Not because of a February special election. The Mississippi House seated Hester Jackson-McCray, who had defeated the incumbent in November by 14 votes. The incumbent’s complaint about election irregularities was rejected and Jackson-McCray was seated.
In Wisconsin, the trend of Republicans choosing the more conservative candidate and Democrats choosing the more progressive candidate continued. Republican State Senator Tom Tiffany will face Democrat Tricia Zunker who is an associate justice of the Ho-Hunk Nation supreme court in the Special Election for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District. Circuit Court Judge Jill Karofsky will run off against incumbent Supreme Court Dan Kelly, who received 50.1% of the vote in the non-partisan primary.
If we are to take anything away from the special elections in February, it is that things are likely to remain the same. If that proves to be true, we would continue to have a Democratic House, a Republican Senate, and Donald Trump would remain president. If we are going to get change, we all have to work at making the change.