Election News

Long-time Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey (NY-17) announced Thursday that she will not seek reelection in 2020. Lowey, 82, is in her 16th term and is the first woman to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Her affluent 17th congressional district covers is just north of New York City, covering all of Rockland and parts of Westchester County. Hillary Clinton won here* by about 20 points over Donald Trump in 2016. While not as overwhelmingly blue as most NYC-area districts, the seat is considered safely Democratic in 2020.

MSNBC and the Washington Post will co-host the fifth Democratic debate.  It will take place on November 20, somewhere in Georgia. 

This means candidates will have until the end of the day on November 13 to qualify. Eight candidates have so far met the tougher requirements for this debate, including Andrew Yang, who made the cut by virtue of a Quinnipiac poll released earlier Tuesday.

The Democratic National Committee announced that 12 candidates have qualified for the next debate, scheduled for October 15 in Ohio. All 12 will take part in a single night, making it the most crowded presidential debate stage in history.  The debate will be moderated by CNN and The New York Times.

Republican Rep. Chris Collins has resigned from Congress.  He was indicted last summer on insider trading and is expected to plead guilty to those charges this week.

The Western New York 27th district is quite conservative. Despite the legal issues, Collins narrowly won a 4th term last November.  Looking back to 2016, Collins won by 34%, while Donald Trump prevailed by 25% over Hillary Clinton. While the retirement of an incumbent often makes House races more competitive, this vacancy will have the opposite effect. Republicans will be heavily favored to win the special election (date TBA) and hold the seat in 2020.

Long-time GOP Rep. Mac Thornberry announced Monday he will not seek reelection in 2020.  He represents the 13th congressional district of Texas; the most Republican district in the country per The Cook Political Report. Thornberry won a 13th term by nearly 65% in 2018 while Donald Trump won by 63% over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Thornberry is the 22nd current member of the House to announce they will retire or seek another office in 2020. The list includes 17 Republicans, of which 6 are from Texas.

We're refreshing our layout for the 2020 election cycle.  This includes making the site much more responsive to different display sizes.

Try it out at https://www.270towin.com/redesign. There are a few issues to work out, and some pages still to convert, but almost everything should work as it does on the 'old' layout.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has qualified for the October Democratic debate.  She received 2% support in a Monmouth University New Hampshire survey released Tuesday, giving her the required minimum of four from DNC-approved pollsters. Gabbard had previously met the fundraising requirement of at least 130,000 unique donors.

Gabbard becomes the 12th - and likely final - candidate to make the stage for the October 15 debate. With this many qualifiers, the debate may be split across two nights, although that determination has not yet been made by the DNC.  

Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has set January 27, 2020 as the date for a special election to fill the vacancy in the state's 7th congressional district. The seat became vacant when GOP Rep. Sean Duffy resigned, effective September 23.

The U.S. House now has 235 Democrats, 198 Republicans and 1 independent, in addition to the aforementioned vacancy.

The Democratic National Committee is raising the bar for candidates to qualify for the fifth candidate debate, to be held in November. These criteria only apply to this one debate.

Polling: 3% in four different qualifying polls (can be a combination of national polls or those from among the four early states) OR 5% in two polls from among the four early states. The 5% option is new; the threshold in the the four-poll rule is increasing from the 2% in place for the September and October debates. 

Rep. Joe Kennedy III announced a run for U.S Senate in Massachusetts on Saturday, setting up an intraparty primary battle with the two-term incumbent, Ed Markey. This ended weeks of speculation about whether he would enter the race. 

Should Kennedy win, he would be the 4th member of the political dynasty to serve in the Senate. These include his grandfather, Robert F. Kennedy, as well as two great-uncles, Edward Kennedy and John F. Kennedy. The latter, of course, would go on to become the 35th president.