state legislatures

When you woke up yesterday, Democrats were still sweating how to win back the state House of Representatives in 2020. There were 54 Republicans and 46 Democrats in the body so the Dems have to win 5 seats. That changed before everyone went beddie-bye. Now there are 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats in the House. One Republican switched parties-- and not just any Republican. Andy McKean is was the longest serving Republican in the state legislature-- 40 years. He re-registered as a Democrat. Why? Señor Trumpanzee, of course.

Two years ago Berniecrat and Democratic Socialist Lee Carter accomplished the "impossible" in Manassas (Virginia's HD-50). He ran, with more hostility than support from the Democratic establishment, against incumbent Jackson Miller, Republican majority whip of the House of Delegates. Carter, a former Marine, was targeted and derided by the GOP as a socialist-- and voters flocked to the polls to vote for him.

When Pennsylvania state Senator Guy Reschenthaler (R) resigned this year to take a seat in Congress, an open seat was created in a very white district in the far western part of the state, parts of Allegheny (South Hills) and Washington counties, west and south of Pittsburgh. On Tuesday morning when voting began, Republicans held a 26-21 majority in the state Senate.

That backfired... biglyWhen Democratic state Rep. Major Thibaut resigned at the end of last year, after being elected president of Pointe Coupee Parish, Republicans counted his seat as a sure pickup. Thibaut was very popular and the GOP hadn't bothered to field candidates to run against him in 2011 and 2015.

Blue America doesn't endorse many candidates running for state legislatures-- only men and women we feel have the potential to make profound impacts on their state and significantly strengthen the Democrats' congressional bench. Unlike most states, where people will elected their legislatures in 2020, Virginia is electing theirs in 2019-- 8 months from now.

First time I spoke with Eric Coleman, I didn't really get to know him and I don't think I conveyed much about who he is (since I didn't really know). That first post included an introduction I inserted about how some crazy Republicans in the Tennessee state legislature were trying to criminalize gay marriage.

Over the weekend, Natalie Allison reported for The Tennessean about the new effort by Republicans in the state legislature to outlaw same sex marriage... again. State Senator Mark Pody (Lebanon) and Rep.

You've heard the argument that any white men who grew up on the Virginia Peninsula at the time Northam did can be expected to be somewhat racially insensitive. Virginia's 3rd Senate District is mostly on that peninsula and it is represented by Tommy Norment, the Republican majority leader, who, as it turns out with his yearbook editor-- a yearbook filled with racial and antisemitic slurs... and picture of young men in blackface.

This week, Erik Loomis' essay at Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Big Electoral Story of 2019 reminds us that "we don’t pay nearly enough attention to how power is actually built–through local and state races and organizing.

From a Laura Kelly ad that drove the GOP insaneNumerically, Kansas Republicans won't even feel the loss. The state Senate in Topeka has 40 members. Until yesterday there were 30 Republicans, 9 Democrats and an Independent. Today there are 39 Republicans, 10 Democrats and an Independent. No, there was no special election, instead state Senator Barbara Bollier switched parties.