November 5 elections: a taste of what's to come?

[PyramidHead]

In the last 24 hours,

Progressive Andy Beshear is the new governor of Kentucky

Socialist Joshua Cole just flipped Virginia's conservative District 28

Socialist Lee Carter just won re-election in District 50, also highly conservative

Progressive Steve Schewel won re-election as mayor of Durham, NC and passed sweeping housing reform.

I wonder if there is a lesson to be learned here about traditionally red or purple states, and whether gunning for a palatable middle ground rather than unapologetically championing progressive causes is the only way to win over working class voters?

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I'm too lazy to look up the link but the woman who was fired because she flipped off Fuckhead's motorcade won election onto city council in Virginia somewhere.

[Keith&Co.]

I wonder if there is a lesson to be learned here about traditionally red or purple states, and whether gunning for a palatable middle ground rather than unapologetically championing progressive causes is the only way to win over working class voters?

I wonder if the lesson is that 'socialism's only chance is a hideously corrupt president.'

[PyramidHead]

I wonder if there is a lesson to be learned here about traditionally red or purple states, and whether gunning for a palatable middle ground rather than unapologetically championing progressive causes is the only way to win over working class voters?

I wonder if the lesson is that 'socialism's only chance is a hideously corrupt president.'

Must be why we've had a socialist government since Reagan, right?

[Cheerful Charlie]

The GOP. Not a womens' issues friendly party. That is costing them and will continue to do so on voting day 2020. Gonna get bitch slapped. Bevin lost due to his bad health care policies. The women in the suburbs didn't like that.

[Half-Life]

Ah, the socialists. Who can forget socialist hero Fidel Castro, who threw gays in camps and had people fleeing Cuba in droves? What a progressive hero and legend!

Most progressives are actually regressive.

[hurtinbuckaroo]

I'm too lazy to look up the link but the woman who was fired because she flipped off Fuckhead's motorcade won election onto city council in Virginia somewhere.

Lou don County Board of Supervisors. Guess who has a golf course there?

[Horatio Parker]

Sam Wang:

This is amazing. In next month's election in Kentucky, 4% of the voting age population could get their voting rights restored if
@AndyBeshearKY
is elected governor. Enormous consequences:

https://mobile.twitter.com/samwangph...02503598514178

Meaning perhaps McConnell go bye bye.

[lpetrich]

Election Day 2019: winners and losers - Vox - "Winner: Democratic enthusiasm. Loser: Donald Trump."

Loser: Donald Trump
He said about KY Gov Matt Bevin

“If you lose, they’re going to say Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world,” Trump said. “You can’t let that happen to me!”

Trump likes to speak in superlatives. But it's not just one race. "The 2018 trend of the suburbs rebelling against the president and his party is continuing."

Winner: Democratic organization and enthusiasm

Democrats also won their enthusiasm test in Virginia. A caveat here — Virginia has been trending more and more blue every year, so winning was not a huge surprise. However, Democrats were looking for signs of enthusiasm, and they got them in Virginia. Anecdotally, turnout was up significantly in the state. That’s important especially because Virginia had no governor’s race or US Senate contest on the ballot, presenting both Democrats and Republicans with a unique opportunity to show how strong the party apparatus was.

Winner: Medicaid expansion
"In Kentucky, Mississippi, and Virginia, Medicaid expansion — arguably one of the most effective and life-saving provisions in the Affordable Care Act — was on the line." It won in KY and VA.

Winner: Teachers in Kentucky

When Kentucky’s Republican governor Matt Bevin went after state pensions in 2018, teachers across the state took to the streets in protest. And when Bevin responded by calling them “ignorant” and “thugs,” Kentucky teachers rallied around the phrase “Remember in November” to make education a top priority for voters. It wasn’t enough to flip the state’s seats in Congress in the 2018 midterms, five out of six of which are still held by Republicans.

But on Tuesday, they did remember for the governor’s race.

...
And Bevin didn’t try to endear himself to teachers; he called them “selfish” and said kids were likely exposed to sexual assault because teachers were protesting instead of staying in the classrooms. He eventually apologized, but not without saying teachers were acting like “thugs.”

There have been teacher strikes in a number of states in recent years, and a lot of people have either sympathized or not objected very loudly. Very different from the air traffic controllers' strike of the Reagan years, which nobody liked, not even other labor unions.

Loser: the NRA
The Democrats' win in Virginia was a defeat for the National Rifle Association.

Loser: Republican gerrymandering in Virginia
The Democrats will be doing the upcoming redistricting in that state, and they can then undo Republican gerrymandering.

Winner: Voting reform
Ranked-choice voting in NYC was accepted

Winner: Equal rights amendment
Virginia may ratify it now that the Dems have both houses of its legislature

[lpetrich]

2019 Virginia election is a reminder: women candidates can win - Vox - The state election is a reminder that women are “electable.”

Two years ago, a historic number of women, including the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker, won seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

And on Tuesday night, female candidates helped turn the state legislature Democratic for the first time in 20 years. Female Democrats held onto their seats from 2017, and newcomers like Ghazala Hashmi, the first Muslim woman elected to the Virginia legislature, flipped key seats to help give Democrats a majority in both the House of Delegates and the state Senate.

...
The fact that so many of those women won — and more picked up seats on Tuesday — is a counterweight to a persistent narrative that women aren’t “electable” when they run for office. That narrative got its latest support from a recent New York Times/Siena College poll that showed former Vice President Joe Biden, but not Sen. Elizabeth Warren, beating President Trump in several battleground states.

Like female candidates winning big in 2018 in the US House.