2026 Special Elections Thread

[Anonymous]

This bang on, my kid goes to college in that district and I have a lot of friends who live there - one of them has a BIL who was one of the lesser candidates.

[Anonymous]

Democrats successfully defended a conservative seat in rural Louisiana on Saturday night, as Chasity Martinez defeated Republican Brad Daigle by a dominant 62-38 margin—a massive 37-point overperformance compared to the 2024 presidential result.

Republicans had hoped to score their first legislative pickup of any kind during Donald Trump’s second term, and they had good reason to think they might succeed in the 60th House District.

Voters in the district, which includes part of Assumption and Iberville parishes (Louisiana’s equivalent of counties), had long backed state and local Democrats but had moved decidedly toward Republicans on the federal level in recent years.

https://bsky.app/profile/the-downballot.com/post/3mecxssrsfk2a

[Anonymous]

If this Louisiana seat on a Trump +13 district isn't a red flag for the GOP, I don't know what is.

[Anonymous]

Since Trump's return, here are the total # of legislative seats each party has flipped:

Democrats: 26
Republicans: zero

But special elections don’t tell us anything /s

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JGk1r1VXnxBrAIVHz1C5HTB5jxCO6Zw4QNPivdhyWHw/htmlview#gid=858741099

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Democrats successfully defended a conservative seat in rural Louisiana on Saturday night, as Chasity Martinez defeated Republican Brad Daigle by a dominant 62-38 margin—a massive 37-point overperformance compared to the 2024 presidential result.

Republicans had hoped to score their first legislative pickup of any kind during Donald Trump’s second term, and they had good reason to think they might succeed in the 60th House District.

Voters in the district, which includes part of Assumption and Iberville parishes (Louisiana’s equivalent of counties), had long backed state and local Democrats but had moved decidedly toward Republicans on the federal level in recent years.

https://bsky.app/profile/the-downballot.com/post/3mecxssrsfk2a

That the seat is open due to the republican governor appointing the former democratic rep to a state job, expecting to flip the seat, makes it so much funnier.

[Anonymous]

Considering that Trump’s behavior is only going to become more unhinged going forward I’d cautiously say that the Democrats should be in good shape for the midterms.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

MAGA may try to spin this as the R's split the vote but together they didn't even hit 45%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

MAGA may try to spin this as the R's split the vote but together they didn't even hit 45%.

Yeah, it's still an 18 point overperformance.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

MAGA may try to spin this as the R's split the vote but together they didn't even hit 45%.

Only 5% of the residents are Black, and 22% are Hispanic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leander,_Texas

So, a lot of the votes for her must have come from white people. Maybe that’s a good omen for Crockett.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]