Mind-blowing facts about statewide officials

[The Arizonan]

This is the thread for posting amazing facts about statewide officers. Here are a few.

Pat Leahy is the only Democrat ever elected to the Senate from Vermont.

Leslie Rutledge is the only Republican ever elected Attorney General of Arkansas.

[Del Tachi]

Mississippi has never had a Republican elected attorney general

[Calthrina950]

Mississippi has never had a Republican elected attorney general

That will change very soon.

And not sure how mind-blowing this is, but in 2018, Jena Griswold became the first Democrat in sixty years to win the Secretary of State position in Colorado. The last Democrat to hold the office was George J. Baker, who was re-elected to his last term in 1958.

[The Arizonan]

I find it amazing that in Minnesota, none of the major parties have even nominated a woman for governor. This is the same state that has elected women to the office of lieutenant governor for decades straight.

Mississippi has never had a Republican elected attorney general

I thought George E. Harris was elected to that office.

[Abner Beech]

NC last elected a Republican AG in 1896 and SoS in 1872 (not sure if it was an elected position back then).

[Politician]

Mississippi has never had a Republican elected attorney general

That will change very soon.

And not sure how mind-blowing this is, but in 2018, Jena Griswold became the first Democrat in sixty years to win the Secretary of State position in Colorado. The last Democrat to hold the office was George J. Baker, who was re-elected to his last term in 1958.

CO had an appointed Dem secretary of state from 2009-2010.

[Astatine]

Washington has not had a Democrat as Secretary of State since 1965.

Florida did not have two Republicans serving as Senators simultaneosly from 1875 until 2019.

49 states elected a Democrat to any statewide office more recently than Texas.

[Calthrina950]

Mississippi has never had a Republican elected attorney general

That will change very soon.

And not sure how mind-blowing this is, but in 2018, Jena Griswold became the first Democrat in sixty years to win the Secretary of State position in Colorado. The last Democrat to hold the office was George J. Baker, who was re-elected to his last term in 1958.

CO had an appointed Dem secretary of state from 2009-2010.

Did it really? Well, then that means Griswold is the first elected Democratic Secretary of State in sixty years.

[GlobeSoc]

15 mind blowing facts about atlas virgins, the 7th will shock you!

[Frenchrepublican]

Montana has never sent two republican senators at the same time to the US Senate since the passing of the 17th amendment

[Badger]

Washington has not had a Democrat as Secretary of State since 1965.

Florida did not have two Republicans serving as Senators simultaneosly from 1875 until 2019.

49 states elected a Democrat to any statewide office more recently than Texas.

So, all other states have elected a Democrat to Statewide office more recently than Texas?

[TrendsareUsuallyReal]

Washington has not had a Democrat as Secretary of State since 1965.

Florida did not have two Republicans serving as Senators simultaneosly from 1875 until 2019.

49 states elected a Democrat to any statewide office more recently than Texas.

So, all other states have elected a Democrat to Statewide office more recently than Texas?

Checks out.

Utah: Dems won AG in 1996
Idaho: Dems won Controller in 2002

And the Dakotas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Nebraska, and the entire South has Democrats hold high offices in the 2000’s

[President Johnson]

Earl Warren in 1946 won both primaries for governor of California and was subsequently reelected against an independent candidate with 91% of vote.

[Roll Roons]

New York hasn’t elected a statewide Republican since 2002, the longest dry spell in the country. Even Hawaii had a GOP Governor who got re-elected in 2006.

[Orser67]

Republicans have failed to win just 5 Senate elections in Kansas since it became a state in 1861. Kansas has had at least one Republican senator since 1895, which seems to be by far the longest streak for either party holding at least one Senate seat in a given state. I think Wisconsin (1957) holds that honor for Democrats, although Montana goes back to 1911 if you ignore short vacancies.

Of the first 50 governors of New York, 18 served as president, vice president, secretary of state, or Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, or were nominated for president by a major party. In the 21 presidential elections held from 1868 and 1948, the two major parties nominated a sitting or former governor of New York as their presidential nominee a total of 16 times (New Yorkers who didn't serve as governor won an additional three nominations in that period). Special mention goes to 1944, when a former governor of New York faced the sitting governor of New York; I believe that's the only time two individuals who had served in the same state office faced each other as presidential candidates.

Aside from 1944, the other same-state presidential matchups are 1860 (a re-match of the 1858 IL Senate election), 1904 (NY vs. NY), 1920 (sitting governor of Ohio vs. sitting senator from Ohio), 1940 (NY vs. NY), and 2016 (NY vs. NY again). Also 1992 (TX vs. TX) if you want to count Perot. To be clear, these are state of residence, not state of birth.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

New Jersey is the only state in which the Governor appoints all other statewide officials (technically including the LG since gubernatorial nominees choose their own running mates).

[lfromnj]

Montana has never sent two republican senators at the same time to the US Senate since the passing of the 17th amendment

#populism

[CourtlyHades296]

Every county in Pennsylvania except Montgomery County voted for Democrat Robert Casey in his reelection bid for Governor. Casey won staunchly Republican Synder, Wayne and Union Counties, and is the only Democrat in the 20th or 21st centuries to do so.

[TrendsareUsuallyReal]

Every county in Pennsylvania except Montgomery County voted for Democrat Robert Casey in his reelection bid for Governor. Casey won staunchly Republican Synder, Wayne and Union Counties, and is the only Democrat in the 20th or 21st centuries to do so.

That actually does surprise me. I would have thought Wayne would have voted Democrat for at least someone else in the past 100 years

[Calthrina950]

Every county in Pennsylvania except Montgomery County voted for Democrat Robert Casey in his reelection bid for Governor. Casey won staunchly Republican Synder, Wayne and Union Counties, and is the only Democrat in the 20th or 21st centuries to do so.

That actually does surprise me. I would have thought Wayne would have voted Democrat for at least someone else in the past 100 years

Wayne County last voted Democratic at the Presidential level in 1892, for Grover Cleveland. Snyder and Union Counties have not voted Democratic since before the Civil War; in fact, the last Democrat that Union County voted for was Andrew Jackson in 1832! That has to be the longest non-Democratic streak of any county in the country, at least of those counties that have voted Democratic at some point since 1828.

Wayne, Snyder, and Union were three of the four counties Barry Goldwater won in Pennsylvania in 1964. The fourth was Lebanon County; Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 was the last Democrat to win that county, and the only one since the Civil War, at the presidential level, to do so.

Another interesting fact is that in 1986, Democratic Senator Wendell H. Ford obtained 74% of the vote in Kentucky and won every single county in the state, even rock-ribbed Republican bastions like Leslie, Owsley, Rockcastle, Jackson, and McCreary, which have not voted Democratic since the Civil War. Ford is, to my knowledge, the only Democrat ever to sweep all of Kentucky's counties, at least in a presidential or Senate race (and almost certainly gubernatorial as well).

[Orser67]

Speaking of Pennsylvania, in the 2017 elections Democrats won several Chester County row offices that had existed since the 18th century and that the party had never previously won (unless you conflate the Democrats and the earlier Democratic-Republican Party). Chrissy Houlan is the first Democrat to represent Chester County in the U.S. House of Representatives since before the Civil War. Democrats also won row offices in Delco for almost the first time; the lone previous exception was a single race for sheriff in 1934.

[ElectionsGuy]

Wisconsin's SoS position has been held by a Democrat since 1975, all but one term by Doug LaFollette.

+ He has survived Republican waves '94, '10, and '14, but only did 2 points better than '10/'14 in last year's blue wave.

[TDAS04]

Georgia never elected a Republican Governor in the 20th century, and never a Democratic one in the 21st, so far.

[Tekken_Guy]

Until Kevin Cramer entered the Senate, the last time the GOP held all four Senate seats in the Dakotas was in....1960.

Despite being such a liberal state, New Jersey has never had a woman in the senate. Same with Connecticut.

Vermont is one of the most liberal states in the county. It’s also the only to have never sent a woman to congress.

[Bojack Horseman]

Frank Kelley was appointed Attorney General of Michigan in 1961 and was re-elected 10 times before leaving office in 1999, earning him the nickname “Eternal General.” Under the term limits law, he’s still eligible for one more term.

The last Michigan governor to lose re-election after one term was John Swainson in 1962. He asked that his official portrait be deliberately left unfinished because his defeat left him too much unfinished business in the state capital.