Political Crumbs
Rally ‘Round the Candidate
Ruben Gallego won Arizona’s Democratic U.S. Senate nomination unopposed on Tuesday night, which has become par for the course for the party in recent decades. Democratic nominees for the office in Arizona have been crowned without opposition on the ballot in five of the last six cycles: Richard Carmona (2012), Ann Kirkpatrick (2016), Mark Kelly…
Read MoreDean Phillips Wins Another County
In Nebraska’s Democratic presidential primary, Minnesota U.S. Representative Dean Phillips came out on top in Logan County, winning five votes to Joe Biden’s four. Logan County is located in the central party of the state where more than 175 voters cast their ballots in the GOP primary. This is not Phillips’ first county-wide victory. Prior…
Read MoreIt’s A Date
Due in part to South Carolina’s political parties previously funding their presidential primaries as well as various cycles in which primaries were not held due to incumbents running for reelection, the 2024 cycle is just the fourth time in which the Palmetto State will hold both Republican and Democratic primaries. The 21-day gap between the…
Read MoreEarly(ish)
The date of the New Hampshire presidential primary was officially scheduled for January 23, 2024. That is the third earliest date on which the primary in the Granite State has been conducted following the cycles of 2012 (January 10th) and 2008 (January 15th). The only other cycle in which the primary was conducted in January…
Read MoreParty Like It’s 1928
With Joe Manchin announcing he will not seek reelection to his U.S. Senate seat, West Virginia Republicans are poised after 2024 to hold all offices elected on a statewide ballot for the first time in nearly 100 years. In 1928, Herbert Hoover topped the GOP ticket in the state with a 17.4-point victory with Henry…
Read MoreYou Can’t Please Them All
Joe Biden critics have had a field day for the last several months as oft-described ‘fringe’ candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has variously polled in the low double-digits in several state and national surveys. This brings to mind the 1996 reelection bid of Bill Clinton – another Democratic incumbent who did not have to participate…
Read MoreIdeological, Not Partisan
The next high profile electoral battle (for a technically nonpartisan office) will take place in two months for Wisconsin’s open Supreme Court seat. Over the last 100 years, Wisconsin has held 77 elections to its Supreme Court. Just 16 of these were open seat contests – in 1925, 1949, 1956, 1961, 1963, 1977, 1978, 1979,…
Read MoreA Tale of Two Cycles
At this point during the 2020 cycle, eight Democrats had already jumped into the race for president: Maryland U.S. Representative John Delaney (July 28, 2017), New York businessman Andrew Yang (November 6, 2017), West Virginia State Senator Richard Ojeda (November 11, 2018), former HUD Secretary Julian Castro of Texas (January 12, 2019), California U.S. Senator…
Read MoreThe Elusive Majority
By getting swept for a third straight cycle in the states’ four constitutional elections this week, Minnesota Republicans have now failed to win a majority of the vote in 46 consecutive statewide contests dating back to 1996. [Republicans were plurality winners in seven]. The DFL has won exactly half of these 46 elections with a…
Read MoreNow What Do They Do?
Since the Election of 1990, no political party in Minnesota had enjoyed unified control of the executive and legislative branches save for a 2-year DFL stint following the Election of 2012 during the 88th legislative session. By flipping the state senate, holding the state house, and sweeping the four elections for constitutional offices for a…
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