In addition to all the regularly scheduled elections that took place on Tuesday, nearly three dozen special elections to state legislatures in 10 states were also held—and Democrats kicked some serious ass on that front, too. In all, five GOP-held seats flipped to the Democrats and none went the other way. In addition, Democrats held a difficult seat in Michigan that had flipped from Barack Obama to Donald Trump last year.
The biggest of them all, by far, was the race for Washington's 45th State Senate District, which wound up flipping the chamber to Democrats, and with that, control of the entire state government. Because that race was so huge, we’ll address it in depth in a separate writeup, but the other contests are also important.
Three of the seats that changed hands were in Georgia, and one was crucial. In the 6th State Senate District, which went for Hillary Clinton by a 55-40 margin, two Democrats beat out a fractured field of five Republicans to advance to a Dec. 5 runoff, guaranteeing the seat will turn blue no matter what—and breaking the GOP's supermajority in the chamber. That second round still matters, though, because attorney Jen Jordan has established herself as the bona fide progressive voice in the race while her opponent, dentist Jaha Howard, was exposed for repeatedly expressing shockingly homophobic and misogynist views on social media. Jordan edged Howard 24 percent to 23 and has the support of most local Democrats (as well as Daily Kos), so hopefully she'll ride to victory next month.
(While we're pleased about this outcome, though, we still remain adamantly opposed to top-two primaries because they deprive voters of the chance to vote for candidates from their preferred party—and because next time, it'll be Democrats who get screwed in a situation like this.)
Another flip came in the 119th State House District, where software engineer Jonathan Wallace was the only Democrat facing three Republicans. Wallace avoided a runoff by capturing an impressive 57 percent of the vote in a district that Trump won by a sizable 51-44 margin. Finally, in the 117th State House District, Democratic attorney Deborah Gonzalez beat Republican consultant Houston Gaines by a 53-47 margin, picking up a seat that had gone 49-46 for Trump—and one that Democrats hadn't even contested this entire decade. Until last night, Democrats had held just two Trump seats in the entire state House.
Meanwhile, Democrats continued to roll in New Hampshire, where they took their fourth state House seat from Republicans this year.
In the 15th Hillsborough District, Democrat Erika Connors, a Manchester School Board member, edged Republican Al MacArthur, a firearms instructor, by a narrow 50.4 to 49.6 margin. Trump had also done well here, winning the district 53-43. And finally, Democrats also held Michigan's 109th State House District, which looked like a very difficult race because the seat had swung to Trump, who won it 49-45, after Obama had carried it 53-45 four years earlier. But Marquette City Commissioner Sara Cambensy kept this one in the blue column nevertheless, dispatching former Marquette School Board president Rich Rossway 57-42.
Ever since Trump's election, we've been tracking special elections across the country, and the Democratic enthusiasm they pointed to proved to be a portent for Tuesday night. While Democrats did not outperform recent presidential election results this week to the same degree they previously had, they nevertheless continue to exceed Clinton's margins by an average of 9 points and Obama's by 6. If that trend holds up—and we now have 60 separate data points to back it up—then Republicans will be back on their heels come 2018.
