A Republican state legislator in Massachusetts who was first elected a decade ago has seemingly been defeated by a Democratic candidate who had the support of the state’s newly victorious governor-elect by a single vote following a recount.
The evidently defeated legislator, state Rep. Lenny Mirra, saw his district evidently significantly reshaped in the redistricting process that followed the last census. Mirra led before the recount by under a dozen votes, so the flip in the district — which did maintain some of the previous jurisdiction — didn’t create an overwhelmingly dramatic change in the raw figures. Mirra’s team challenged some ballots throughout the recently concluded recount, and the legislator has indicated challenges in court are forthcoming after the recount process concluded. His team was evidently required during the recount to challenge any ballots to be covered in a later court case. Kristin Kassner, the victorious Democrat, made no indications of any belief in an intentional conspiracy to deny her a rightful victory — unlike so many Republican figures.
Mirra complained about the signatures submitted with certain mail-in ballots in making his case. He previously opposed a bill in the legislature that turned a temporary roll-out of universal mail-in voting options during the pandemic into something more permanent, a bill that also kept expanded opportunities for early and in-person voting available to residents. Notably, he also voted against redistricting plans covering his district. Democrats were on track to add several seats to their large majority in the Massachusetts state House with Kassner’s win and were largely successful across the state, winning all the statewide elections on the ballot. Trump had at least previously aligned himself with the Republican running for the governorship, Geoff Diehl, who is a past state legislator.
Trump’s pick for governor in Maryland also lost, marking two flips towards the Dems, who added four new states to the list in which the party will now hold unified control of the state legislature and executive roles, although the party lost its unified control in Nevada. Democrats also won in key races for governor or Senate in Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, in addition to other locales. Losing Republican candidates in Arizona have filed legal challenges over their defeats, although there is no particularly compelling indication that any of the outcomes in these major races will be turned around. The race for attorney general, in which the Republican is among those challenging results, is already going to a recount, with the Democrat ahead by hundreds of votes.
