There are three special congressional elections on Tuesday — one Republican-leaning seat and one safe Democratic one in Ohio and a primary for a Democratic stronghold in Florida — plus some interesting mayoral races, ugly school board elections around the U.S., and a Minneapolis vote on whether to swap its current police force for a new Department of Public Safety. And New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) is expected to win re-election against GOP challenger Jack Ciattarelli.
But the race everyone's watching is Virginia's gubernatorial tossup between former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and Republican Glenn Youngkin.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
President Biden won Virginia by 10 percentage points in 2020, and Democrats will be watching Black turnout and what happens with the large number of white voters with college degrees in suburban Richmond and the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., Kornacki explained. Republicans will also be watching the suburbs and turnout numbers in rural, increasingly red parts of the state. He cautioned about reading too much into early returns, noting that Fairfax County, a Democratic stronghold that reported late in 2020, now plans to release Democratic-friendly early votes and mail-in votes soon after polls close.
"Whether Youngkin's momentum can overcome the state's increasing partisan lean to the left is the central question of the race," Politico reports. Youngkin has been walking a careful line between politely keeping former President Donald Trump at arm's length while trying to convince Trump voters to show up at the polls. "If Youngkin makes inroads in northern Virginia and in the Richmond suburbs, it's a sign he was able to successfully walk the line," The Associated Press reports. "Likewise, if Democrats hold the margins from their successful 2017 gubernatorial race there, it'd be a sign of continued trouble for Republicans in highly educated suburbs."
Republicans will also be watching to see how potent educational culture wars will be in the suburbs, in the statewide races for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general but also in the state House races what will determine whether Democrats keep control of the state Legislature.
-
Has Zohran Mamdani shown the Democrats how to win again?Today’s Big Question New York City mayoral election touted as victory for left-wing populists but moderate centrist wins elsewhere present more complex path for Democratic Party
-
Dutch center-left rises in election as far-right fallsSpeed Read The country’s other parties have ruled against forming a coalition
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
