Across three special elections held on Tuesday in three different states, Democrats scored victories. Although at least two of the districts in which these elections took place already leaned significantly towards the Democrats, margins increased, and the persistence of the Democratic vote seems to point towards enthusiasm among everyday voters.
The elections took place in New Hampshire, Virginia, and Kentucky. In the New Hampshire race, Democratic state legislator Chuck Grassie ended up facing his Republican challenger, David Walker, for a second time after a recount of their earlier contest showed a tie. Grassie was over 100 votes ahead of Walker in results initially reported, which, while not a lot numerically speaking, is a substantial lead in context. Only small pools of voters generally vote on state legislative races in New Hampshire. “City Clerk Kelly Walters agreed the turnout was more than expected,” a publication in the area called Foster’s Daily Democrat reported.
There were a lot more votes cast in a race for a Congressional seat in Virginia formerly held by A. Donald McEachin, who died, although turnout dropped from November. Out of over 100,000 votes cast across Virginia’s Fourth Congressional District this Tuesday, Democratic candidate Jennifer McClellan received nearly three-fourths of the vote, about ten percentage points ahead of the share that McEachin won last November. McClellan will be the first Black woman to represent any portion of Virginia in Congress ever once sworn into office. The district includes areas within Richmond, which is the state capital of Virginia, and generally leans towards the Dems outside of the results from McEachin’s time in office. The Virginia Public Access Project estimated voters in the district leaned heavily towards the Democratic candidates in recent statewide elections, although none of the levels of support they estimated within the district’s boundaries for these Democratic contenders reached the share of the vote McClellan received on Tuesday.
In Kentucky, Democratic candidate Cassie Chambers Armstrong, who was a member of the city government in Louisville, won an election to take over a seat in the state Senate after its now former occupant won a post in Congress. Armstrong won over three-fourths of the vote, according to early reports. That seat already leaned Democratic, and its former occupant also spent some time as the Democratic leader in the Kentucky state Senate, where Republicans predictably have a commanding majority. “Every day we see headlines about the majority in the General Assembly attacking LGBTQ youth, continuing to starve our public schools and the children that rely on them, and writing laws that put women’s lives at risk,” Armstrong said after the election. “There is an urgent need for change in Frankfort, and I’m grateful that the voters of the 19th Senate District have given me the chance to fight for them.”
