Results and analysis from the presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, attorneys general and state legislative races.
Despite winning the Presidential race in Illinois and retaining their majorities in both state legislative chambers, Democrats had a weaker than expected night, ceding ground from their Blue Wave strength in the Chicago suburbs in 2018.
All eyes were on North Carolina last night as results were tallied in one of the nation’s most critical swing states. Some of the state’s polling places had technical difficulties in the morning, leading the State Board of Elections to vote to extend some precincts’ closing times in an emergency voting session.
In what can only be described as a red Republican wave, upsets resonated across the Palmetto State on Tuesday night and into the day Wednesday. Penry Gustafson defeated Democrat Vincent Sheheen, who served 20 years in the Senate, by a 51-49 margin, while Floyd Nicholson, who represents a district that has been Democratic since at least 1966, was defeated 56-44% by Republican Billy Garrett. Republican Josh Kimbrell also defeated Spartanburg Democrat Glenn Reese 55-45. With the retirement of Senators John Matthews and Paul Campbell, there are now five open seats on the influential Senate Finance Committee.
Since 2016, Texas added 1.8 million registered voters to the voter rolls and hit an all-time record high of 16.9 million registered voters. During the early voting period, almost 9.7 million people, or 57.3% of registered voters in the state, voted early. This was a 47% increase from the number of voters who voted early in the 2016 general election. In fact, before Election Day, 735,000 more people had voted early this year in Texas than had voted in the entire 2016 presidential election. On Election Day, over 1.4 million people voted in Texas, making this the highest election turnout our state has ever seen with over 11.1 million people in total voting. While the Democrats were hopeful for big wins in Texas, that was not the case in last night’s election. 2021 in Texas state politics will look very similar to 2020.
Virginia’s 2020 election results — like numerous other states’ — are still being tabulated given the unprecedented number of early votes cast in person and via mail-in ballots. Due to changes in election procedures passed by the General Assembly during the spring 2020 session, as well as court rulings that witness signatures are no longer required for mail-in ballots given the risks caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the landscape of how Virginians voted this year changed dramatically. Additionally, several races may not be called until after noon on Friday given that this is the first year Virginia can count absentee ballots that arrive after Tuesday — through noon Friday — as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.
Read more on the U.S. Elections on McGuireWoods Consulting’s website.