state legislatures

As we've been explaining, Republicans hold a record number of state legislative seats right now. This is not because more people vote for them. Democrats aren't losing elections, as the so-called Democrat Jim Webb asserted on Meet the Press Sunday, because Democrats are too focused on "identity politics" or because we’ve moved too far to the left. This is because Republicans prevent people from voting and racially gerrymander statehouses across the country.

Ryant WashingtonA few weeks after the Trump/Putin win, we talked about the special elections coming up in Virginia in January. It’s January. One of the three races is extremely hard— and extremely important.

Señor Trumpanzee says he will find a nice little job for McCoryThis year, 5 governors sought reelection nationally and only 1 lost: North Carolina's spectacularly failed chief executive Pat McCrory. Trump won 2,339,603 (50.6%) to 2,162,074 (46.7%) and a mediocre and unpopular Republican senator, Richard Burr, was reelected 2,371,192 (51.1%) to 2,102,666 (45.3%) but Democrat Roy Cooper edged out McCrory 2,281,155 (49.0%) to 2,276,383 (48.9%).

Assemblyman Jimmy GomezYesterday, Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, who represents a huge swath of hipster and Hispanic Los Angeles (Silverlake, Echo Park, Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Montecito Heights, Cypress Park, Chinatown, East L.A.) yielded to an animated draft movement by progressives in his district to run for the congressional seat Xavier Becerra is giving up to become California Attorney General.

Rocky Holcomb (R) and Cheryl Turpin (D)Virginia has a Democratic Governor, Terry McAuliffe, an overwhelmingly Republican House of Delegates (66 Republicans to 34 Democrats) and an almost evenly split state Senate (21 Republicans to 19 Democrats).

As I mentioned this morning, Blue America had some significant successes with the state legislative candidates we championed this cycle-- although those were mostly seats in blue areas where progressive Democrats prevailed over conservative Democrats.

Back in September we introduced an unlikely primary winner, when progressive grassroots Democrat Marcia Ranglin-Vassell beat the entrenched Rhode Island House Majority Leader John DeSimone, an anti-Choice conservative with a miserable environmental record, a failing grade from the ACLU and an NRA-friendly record on guns.

Blue America spends most of its time and energy on House races. As far as the 2016 Senate races go, after Donna Edwards (MD), PG Sittenfeld (OH) and Alan Grayson (FL) were defeated in their primaries by establishment candidates the only Senate endorsements we have left are for Russ Feingold (WI), who looks like he'll probably win a week from tomorrow, and two long-shots who beat their more conservative opponents, Ray Metcalfe (AK) and Misty Kathrine Snow (UT).

You want to know how red Tennessee has become? Obama didn't even break 40% in 2012 against Romney. All statewide officials are Republicans, including both U.S. Senators. The congressional delegation is made up of 7 right-wing Republicans, one progressive Democrat from Memphis, Steve Cohen, and a very conservative Blue Dog from Nashville, Jim Cooper who could just as well be a Republican in terms of his voting record.

The Florida Democratic Party has been pretty moribund in recent years, confining itself in a few small urban ghettos and leaving progressive ideas and values without champions in vast swathes of the state. Southwest Florida is pretty much all red now thanks to Florida Democratic Party neglect and negligence.