Do we have clues to the future? After some early disasters, Democrats flipped a Republican seat in Pennsylvania . A Progressive Mayor (running as an Independent) was reelected as he defeated a Republican in San Antonio.
Primaries were clues to something. A protégée of AOC (She’s not old enough to have protégées) came within 45 votes of upsetting the Queens borough president for DA. Republicans keep nominating the most conservative candidate, as they did in NC 03. They won that seat. Republicans won NC 09 as well, not by a lot, but by enough to remind us how important ending gerrymandering in NC is.
Mississippi Republicans nominated the most conservative candidate for Governor — Lt. Governor Tate Reeves. Amazingly, he is not an automatic winner in November. The Democratic Attorney General could defeat him. If Jim Hood won Mississippi’s governship, he might not be alone. Louisiana’s Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards could well be reelected. State attorney general Andy Beshear, whose father was governor of Kentucky not too long ago, could defeat an extremely unpopular governor. Three southern Democratic governors could make you think it was the old days.
In recent contests in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and California Democrats didn’t win local contests, but did better than Democrats did in 2018.
Democrats continue to dominate cities. Regina Romero won Tuscon’s mayoralty primary and is likely to be another of the country’s female Democratic mayors. Judge Steven Reed led the all party primary for mayor of Montgomery, Alabama. He is now the favorite against the owner of television stations to be the first African American mayor of Montgomery. Moderate Democrat City Councilor John Cooper, whose brother is a Congressman was elected mayor of Nashville.
Daily Kos reports that to date, this year, Democrats are outperforming Hillary Clinton’s margins by 5.5 points and Obama’s margins by about 1 point. The Republican failure to nominate moderates does not help their cause.
