Democrats have won a surprising number of state legislature seats in special elections.
And lost surprising number too. But this is, unquestionably, good. The only question - will it hold?
At least of the ones I can recall, there have been four state special election seats in formerly/currently-safe Republican areas that Democrats have won in the six months:
- OK HD 85: Cyndi Munson (D), 54% in a 61% Romney district
- GA HD 80: Taylor Bennett (D), 55% in a 56% Romney district
- PA HD 161: Leanne Krueger-Braneky (D), 48% in a 56% GOP district
- OK SD 34: J.J. Dossett (D), 56% in a 70% Romney district
The only R victory I can recall in a special in the past six months is the one Senate seat in GA, which isn't all that surprising given the fact that despite it being a 70% Obama district, all of the recent minority voting population is very young; 65+ voters are still majority-white, while the district as a whole is 58% black VAP.
Yes, but i talk about somewhat bigger time span. And include "near-misses" as, for example, failure to win open state Senate seat in Rhode Island less then 10 days ago. Yes, it was held by republican before, but it was rather strong Obama Seat (56 or 58% IIRC) and outgoing Republican state Senator supported Democratic candidate. Nevertheless - Republicans narrow held it. And last year there was a open state House district not far from Philadelphia, which preferred to elect "pro-labor Republican" instead of Democrat.
I expect a lot of strange results in 2016 specials, and may be (just may be) - in November.
