RightDataUSA

Demographics and Elections Commentary tagged with Special

1/11/2025: 2024 Special Elections: Not So "Special" for Democrats After All [RightDataUSA]

Prior to November in 2024 there was considerable wailing and pearl-clutching on the right (and gloating on the left) over the underperformance -- if not worse -- of Republican candidates in special elections at the congressional and state levels.


Photo credit: abc7ny.com

It's true that Democrats did win the most important special election of them all. That took place in February in New York's 3rd congressional district, where ex-incumbent Thomas Suozzi (D) easily defeated newcomer Masi Melesa Pilip (R) in that D-leaning district. The election was held in order to select a replacement for freshman Republican George Santos, who was expelled from Congress in December, 2023. The impetus to oust Santos came not so much from Democrats, but mainly from Santos' own party and particularly his fellow Republican freshmen in the New York delegation. Those frightened frosh were fearful of Santos dragging them down with him in November, so they pre-emptively removed him and thought they had solved their problem.

They hadn't. As we noted even before the February special election outcome, those NY freshmen congressmen were greatly endangered regardless of the disposition of the Santos situation. Most of the other Five Freshmen -- Nick LaLota (CD-1 and the only real non-fluke), Anthony D'Esposito (CD-4), Mike Lawler (CD-17), Marc Molinaro (CD-19), Brandon Williams (CD-22) -- had won in fluke outcomes in 2022 and it was always likely that their numbers would be thinned considerably in November, 2024.


Photo credit: desposito.house.gov

They sure were, exactly as we predicted. In CD-22 Williams was victimized by a Democrat gerrymander which removed good areas of his marginal district and replaced them with bad ones; it didn't require a major change to the lines, just a little push further to the left was sufficient. In September, anti-Santos ringleader D'Esposito was accused by the liberal media of having an affair and then putting the woman on his payroll, but he was a dead man walking even before that. Molinaro went down in flames in CD-19 as well.


In another special election for Congress which took place in June, liberals cackled about Republican Michael Rulli's supposedly weak showing in Ohio's 6th congressional district, where he defeated a relatively penniless Democrat by "only" 9 points in a district which is typically much more GOP-leaning than that. We wrote about that outcome here and noted presciently that Rulli would have no trouble at all in the November rematch. He won by over 30 points. Special elections are often influenced heavily by organizational and motivational factors, and Republicans normally lack both of those in low-turnout elections which are little publicized on the right.

Moving down to the state legislative level, in September, 2023 readers were scolded by some trembling GOP establishment blogger who calls himself "Bonchie" that Republicans had failed to learn from the numerous defeats of conservative candidates in 2022 and were still fielding bad (i.e. "conservative") candidates in special elections instead of nice, squishy, electable moderates.

He specifically referenced New Hampshire where a conservative GOP nominee lost a 2023 special election in a microscopic state House (not congressional) district that was fraudulently described by the blogger as being solidly Republican. That Republican candidate, minister James Guzofski, did himself no favor by inviting the liberal media to portray him as a kook when he declared something like "Jesus told me that Donald Trump really won in 2020!", and the minister came out on the wrong end of a narrow decision in 2023. "Bonchie" concluded from this infinitesimal sample size that certain disaster awaited the GOP in the 2024 elections everywhere if they didn't heed his warning and run screaming to the left.

Guzofski ran again in November, 2024 against the same Democrat who had defeated him in that 2023 special election where less than 3,000 people bothered to vote. This time Guzofski wasn't such a bad candidate after all -- over 50% of the voters chose him and Republicans swept all 3 state House seats in that New Hampshire district.

In Florida a marginal state House district in the deteriorating Orlando area was vacated by an incumbent Republican, and the special election in January, 2024 went as expected: Democrat Tom Keen won by 2.6 points in a district which favors his party by about 2 points. As liberals were going bonkers about this "major upset" the massive GOP margin in the FL state House was merely reduced from 85-35 to 84-36. Hardly an occasion for panic, except for those who are easily rattled.

What happened the next time a real election rolled around? Keen lost by nearly 4 points to Republican Erika Booth in this Democrat-leaning district, and once again those who had previously declared that the world was coming to an end were proven to be Chicken Littles.

Another example: In a state House district which lies just north of Oklahoma City, liberals were outwardly cheerful despite yet another defeat because it was by a much closer margin than expected. Republican Erick Harris prevailed by only 5.3% in a February special election in a district that Democrats hadn't even contested since 2018. Nervous Nellies on the right got the vapors again. Democrats weren't fooled by the fluke outcome although they took the opportunity for some big talk. In November the Rats failed to come up with any nominee at all, and Harris trounced a Libertarian to easily hold the R+14 seat. The Rats never had a chance in this district, but acted as if they did and some idiots believed them.


The lesson which should be learned here is -- most of the time, anyway -- there is nothing to be learned from low-turnout special elections, especially when they take place in puny little state House districts; and even more so when the balance of power won't be affected one iota no matter what the outcome is (like in Florida and Oklahoma).

Occasionally special elections DO portend a future wave, as in 1993-94 when Republicans won U.S. House elections in places where they had never previously prevailed (like in OK-6 and KY-2) and came surprisingly close to winning in WI-1 which Democrats had held for a quarter-century at the time. Democrat Peter Barca almost lost in 1993 and did lose in 1994; the Rats have never won there again, nor have they ever won again in those Oklahoma and Kentucky districts.

There will be 3 special elections to Congress coming up in the first few months of 2025: FL-1 (Matt Gaetz), FL-6 (Michael Waltz) and NY-21 (Elise Stefanik). These vacancies have occurred because the incumbents were nominated for positions in the second Trump administration, though Gaetz has since withdrawn. Each of these 3 districts are solidly Republican, and Democrats will not be winning any of them. But the liberal media will still be watching closely. When a Republican prevails easily, you'll never hear about it -- however if a Democrat does 0.1% better than expected it will be used as anti-Trump propaganda and described as a preview of a definite Republican bloodbath in the 2026 midterms.

A bloodbath may in fact happen and the 2026 midterms may be similar to those of 2018, but that has nothing to do with these 3 elections. In all likelihood, what special elections in 2025 and 2026 will tell us about the future is. . . . nothing.

Tags:

2024 House Special (?) elections


1/19/2024: [New York] Third District Poll: Democrats with Edge to Pick up Congressional Seat [Emerson]


Photo credit: WABC

On Thursday, Emerson College released numerous 2024 election polls including one for the mid-February special election in New York's 3rd Congressional District. That election was necessitated when freshman Republican George Santos was expelled from Congress last December at the behest of his own party, so as not to serve as a distraction from Republican efforts (to lose?) in November.

The special election pits liberal Democrat Thomas Suozzi, a former Congressman, against Nassau county legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip. Suozzi opted to run for Governor in 2022 rather than seek re-election to the 3rd district; Suozzi knew full well that he had zero chance of winning the Democrat gubernatorial primary, and finished a dismal 3rd with only 13% of the vote. So why did he even run?

Pilip has a fascinating background: she is of Ethiopian-Israeli descent and moved from Ethiopia to Israel at the age of 12. She later joined the Israeli Army as a paratrooper. She is the mother of 7 children and immigrated from Israel to Great Neck (Long Island). Although allegedly still a registered Democrat, she ran on the Republican and Conservative tickets in 2021 and won a seat in the Nassau County legislature in a heavily Democrat district.

The Emerson poll, which was taken from January 13-15, has Suozzi only narrowly ahead of Pilip, 45% to 42% among registered voters. However: among likely voters Suozzi's margin increases to 14 points (51% to 37%). This reflects typical Democrat motivation and organization in an important special election, and reflects typical lack of same in the Republican party.


As if to prove the above statement, national Democrats wasted no time in fundraising or attacking the Republican candidate. It was announced in early January that the Rats had purchased $5.2 million worth of local advertising, and in fact ads supporting Suozzi (and hating Pilip) are saturating the airwaves; in contrast, national Republicans had reserved the paltry sum of $0.2 million in advertising as of January 2.

The local liberal media has rolled out the red carpet for Suozzi by offering to schedule and broadcast as many as four rigged debates in his favor. Pilip has astutely declined most of the invitations to those "gotcha" sessions.

Recent history: After liberal Democrats had been in control locally in Nassau County for years, Republicans began to claw their way back in 2021. In 2022 they captured all four Long Island congressional districts including the two Democrat-oriented districts in Nassau County (CD-3 is one of those). In 2023 Republicans reclaimed all significant county-level offices on Long Island, and so would appear to have momentum there.

Santos was expelled from Congress mainly because his skittish New York colleagues feared he would break that momentum and cause their fluke victories in 2022 to be reversed in 2024. That's very likely to happen anyway and always was likely, Santos notwithstanding. Even if George Santos had never existed in Congress, a GOP bloodbath in New York in 2024 was inevitably in the cards based on the narrow upset outcomes in 2022 in several districts, and a new hyper-partisan Democrat gerrymander which will be implemented before November.


Many have suggested that we never should have reached this point, and the GOP should have supported Santos instead of shunning him -- just like the Rats support their sleazebags (such as Senator Menendez) no matter what.

They support them unless there's something to be gained by a "loss" like when they jettisoned Al Franken (D-MN) in 2017, knowing he would definitely be replaced by another Democrat. Then the Rats could virtuously claim that all other Democrats in office were squeaky clean while they slandered Republican judge Roy Moore who was running for the Senate in Alabama at the time (and lost). Moore faced similar allegations to Franken. The difference is that the charges against Moore were false. Five years after that election, far too late, Moore won his defamation lawsuit.

Comparing the Santos situation to Menendez is apples and oranges. If Menendez goes, the liberal Democrat Governor of New Jersey immediately appoints a liberal Democrat replacement (just like what happened in Minnesota with Franken) and New Jersey then compliantly votes for a Democrat whenever the special election comes around. There is nearly zero risk if the Rats ever do the right thing and throw Menendez into the nearest dumpster.

However when Santos left, it opened up a valuable House seat in a district that voted for Biden by 8 points in 2020 (using current district lines), and one where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 11%. There's considerable risk that Santos will be replaced by a Democrat, but the liberal GOP establishment calculated that there was greater risk in allowing Santos to remain. For every Democrat crime that comes to light (rare though such exposure is), the leftists could always say "Oh yeah, but what about Santos???"


More polling details: Biden is hideously unpopular in NY-3 (59% disapproval, 26 points under water) and Governor Hochul (66% disapproval) fares even worse. People in this district wouldn't cross the street to spit on her if she were on fire. Actually, that might be fun to see. However, the one politician who is way more unpopular than both of those is Santos (83% unfavorable rating).

This election is meant to be a referendum on Santos. Period.

The GOP candidate is a good one, and Suozzi probably inspires about as much enthusiasm as Basement Biden does though he does have name recognition, tons of money and lots of hateful (but influential) ads running 24/7. If the current polls are accurate to any degree, instead of an 85% chance of losing this seat, maybe the probability of Republican defeat is down to around 65% now?

The media and other liberals insist that the voters in New York's 3rd Congressional District be ashamed of their earlier election of Santos and demand that those voters cleanse their consciences by going for the Democrat this time around and in November as well. We'll see in about a month if they obey those demands.

Will a plurality of the voters (however slight that plurality might be) let this election outcome be what the Democrats and the media want? Hopefully not, but probably so.

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U.S. House 2024 New York Special election The 'shame' of the Republicans


12/11/2023: It's a "Special" Time of Year [RightDataUSA]


Photo credit: AP

In 2024, mainly early in the year, a quartet of special elections will be held to fill four U.S. House vacancies which have already occurred or are upcoming. Cowardly Republicans expelled their conservative colleague George Santos (R-NY) on December 1, and three other Representatives have announced their pending retirements: Brian Higgins (D-NY), Bill Johnson (R-OH) and Kevin McCarthy (Squish-CA).

The special election to replace Santos was hastily called -- it will take place on February 13 -- by Democrats who rightfully anticipate an easy pickup of a House seat that will reduce the margin of GOP control to 7 seats (221-214). The remaining three special elections, as yet unscheduled, are unlikely to alter the balance of power any further.

Santos' election in 2022, like those of most other NY freshmen that year, was a fluke. Santos' district (NY-3) is a Democrat district and not even particularly marginal; Rats outnumber Republicans by over 10% and that fact will be apparent both in the special election and in November, 2024. Republicans normally come closer than 10% in most elections in NY-3, which means that more Democrats than Republicans cross party lines and/or "independents" break slightly more to the right than the left, however all indications point in the direction of an uphill climb for the GOP to win anything here.

Particularly the February special election, where Rat voters and the Rat party organization will be highly motivated while the RNC as usual will likely sit on its hands and blame Santos for ruining the district -- when it simply reverts to what it has always been in recent years. In special elections, low voter turnout is the norm and motivation/organization is everything.

Some have suggested that the series of fluke GOP House wins in New York in 2022 was a coattail effect from having a popular GOP nominee for Governor (Lee Zeldin was not quite popular enough, unfortunately) at the top of the ticket. Nothing like that is going to happen again in NY in 2024, and after the Democrats take the NY-3 special election barring a major upset, they will be significantly favored to hold it next November.

Anthony D'Esposito, the liberal "Republican" Santos-backstabber from the next-door 4th district in New York will (along wth some other GOP House members from New York) probably be ousted in 2024 too, but count on him running hysterically to the left even more so than he already is over the next several months in his frantic effort to keep his cushy job.


As to the other special elections, the Republicans have zero chance for a pickup in Higgins' district which includes the ghetto area of the city of Buffalo, however the GOP should easily hold the other two soon-to-be-vacant seats in California and Ohio.

Well, maybe California. Squish McCarthy's district (CA-20) is the most Republican in the entire state, so it's not a question of a Democrat winning here unless that Democrat puts an "R" after his name (see below) and runs on the GOP ticket. The question, at this moment anyway, is whether there will even be a special election. With the outcome a foregone conclusion, the Democrats are not anxious to send a new Republican to Congress, particularly one who may not be as accommodating as McCarthy was.

The Republicans, bless their hearts, are making plans as if there will be an election early next year and have already formed the customary Circular Firing Squad. The establishment is specifically aiming their fire at MAGA conservative state Senator Shannon Grove, who was the first to announce her candidacy for the opening in CA-20 [Update: After "prayerful considerations and thoughtful discussions" with her family, i.e. after the CAGOP explained to her that conservatives need not apply, Grove has withdrawn from the race.]. A couple of McCarthy-type moderate state legislators are also expected to jump into the race. The filing deadline is only a couple of days away, so we'll know soon.

In Ohio, Rep. Bill Johnson is resigning from Congress sometime before March in order to become President of Youngstown State University, much to the chagrin of the snowflakes at that institution and the ones in the local media. More information on that special election will come later.

Tags:

2024 Special election George Santos Kevin McCarthy Bill Johnson New York California Ohio


4/7/2023: GOP's electoral silver lining: Wisconsin legislative supermajority, Illinois school board wins [Just The News]

So the GOP held (not gained) a state Senate seat in Wisconsin which for now gives the Republicans a supermajority and therefore gives the party license to do all kinds of great things like impeach Democrats -- as if the Senate RINOs won't chicken out and backstab conservatives at the first sign of anything "controversial". Even one defection renders the supermajority impotent.

Before those of us on the right get any more drunk on all the champagne we've consumed celebrating this wonderful event, perhaps we should sober up and consider what is to stop the true winners on Tuesday -- Wisconsin Democrats -- from using their new-found control of the state Supreme Court to:

a.   Stop anything and everything the Republican supermajority eventually works up the courage (ha) to attempt and, far more importantly....

b.   Arbitrarily invalidate the district maps for the state Assembly, state Senate and Congressional districts and then replace those maps with hyper-partisan Democrat gerrymanders?

Not only will those gerrymanders result in "Goodbye, Republican supermajority" but very likely also "Goodbye, any Republican majority at all". It may also result in two Congressional districts flipping from R to D as well: CD-1 and CD-3.

Who's going to stop them? As those of us here in Pennsylvania found out in 2018 and again in 2022 under similar circumstances, the "law" is whatever a Democrat-controlled Court says it is, and all the Republican party can (or will) do is bend over and take it.

Seeing as how the Democrats campaigned on doing exactly what is stated in item "b" if they won the Supreme Court election -- which they did, in a "landslide" -- can anyone explain why they somehow won't do it?

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Wisconsin 2023 Supreme Court Special election Adios, GOP control


1/13/2023: Youngkin's political brand at risk after GOP losses in Virginia [The Hill]

We were told one year ago that the magnificent GOP sweep in Virginia in 2021 was largely the result of learning from the nationwide debacle of 2020 and having GOP poll watchers everywhere in order to minimize Democrat vote fraud. Furthermore, that "Virginia model" for ensuring election integrity was going to be implemented nationwide, and no longer would the Democrats so easily be able to commit massive statewide fraud in places like Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, etc.

Oops.

Like Trump's win in 2016, Youngkin's win in 2021 was very much a fluke and had little to nothing to do with suddenly vigilant Republican poll watchers:

1. Both Trump and Youngkin had the luxury of facing the single most repugnant and unpopular Democrat available at the time (Hillary Clinton, Terry McAuliffe).

2. Democrats took both Republican candidates less than 100% seriously and therefore committed just a wee bit less fraud than usual.

3. That overconfidence was costly to the Democrats, and still the Republicans just barely managed to win.

Pick whatever reason you like to explain the outcome (fraud and demographics are two good candidates), but 2025 in Virginia is very likely to look like 2020 did nationwide -- the glorious victory of 4 years prior is almost certain to be reversed. Youngkin of course cannot run again since Virginia prohibits consecutive terms for the same Governor.

As far as what happened in Tuesday's election, nobody aside from leftist media gloaters who are simply trying to damage Youngkin can hold him mainly responsible for the razor-thin GOP loss in a marginal state Senate district. But at the same time Youngkin is clearly no king-maker either, any more than Trump has been.

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Virginia Special election State Senate Glenn Youngkin


11/29/2022: [Virginia] House Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin dies at 61 [ABC27]


Photo credit: abc27.com

Myth #1: Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin gets to appoint a replacement, which means the GOP gains a seat!!!

Fact: Governors never get to make appointments for House vacancies, only Senate vacancies.

Myth #2: OK, then we'll just win the special election!!! We're motivated!!! We're inspired!!!

Fact: Republicans have approximately a 0% chance of winning this D+16 district.

Youngkin at least ought to delay the special election for as long as possible just to forestall the inevitable Democrat win. This district (CD-4) up through 2016 was historically represented by a Republican or by a moderate-to-conservative Democrat (back when conservative or even moderate Democrats actually existed).

This district as currently configured was designed by judicial fiat in 2016, specifically to transfer the seat from Republican to Democrat hands. Republicans thought they had taken care of things in the 2011 redistricting, but a liberal judge told them they were wrong a few years later.

Along those same lines, the 2 states which had the happiest outcomes in the House on November 8th -- Florida and New York -- are both likely to have the same thing done to them as was done in Virginia and also occurred in Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania during the past decade: there will be new district maps, mandated by liberal Democrat judges, with the new maps deliberately designed for the sole purpose of flipping as many House seats as possible from R to D under the guise of "racial equality" or something equally fatuous.

Don't be at all surprised if/when it happens; the GOPe better enjoy its "control" of the House while it lasts.

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U.S. House Virginia Special election 2023


8/24/2022: Pat Ryan (D) defeats Marc Molinaro (R) in special election in NY-19 [Albany Times Union]


Photo credit: Tony Adamis/Special to the Times Union

Anyone assuming that Republicans are going to win most of the close ones in November is delusional. We have to turn out in numbers that make these races far less close.

Four years ago, in the highest-turnout midterm election in U.S. history, the GOP was annihilated and some presumed it was because Republicans weren't motivated (wrong) while the Rats were highly motivated by their hatred of Trump (bingo). R turnout was actually up substantially that year over where it had been in 2014; but D turnout was absolutely off the charts.

The days of Republicans being able to run the table in comparatively low-turnout midterms such as 1994, 2010 and 2014 are over. 2018 is the new midterm turnout model, and 2022's turnout in November (at least on the left) is going to be "2018 on steroids".

The GOP establishment, the ones who control the ad buys and the purse strings and who normally support only liberals and moderates while giving the shaft to conservatives, better get on the ball and run good, effective, hard-hitting ads anywhere the Democrat-controlled media will permit them to run -- and run them for ALL candidates, not just their RINO pets -- and try to get Republican enthusiasm to be as great as Democrat enthusiasm. It wasn't in 2018, it wasn't in 2020, and we're heading for a repeat in 2022.

If they don't get on the ball (and surely we can count on Ronna Romney, Mitch McConnell and the RNC/NRSC to do the right thing, LOL) then there are going to be a lot of so-called experts with dazed expressions on their faces on November 9th, looking around helplessly and wondering where "muh red wave" disappeared to.

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U.S. House New York Special election 2022 Bad candidate Narrow loss