Election News

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has drawn a high-profile opponent for 2024. Democratic Rep. Colin Allred (TX-32) will look to unseat the incumbent Republican.

I’m running for U.S. Senate because Texans deserve a Senator whose team is Texas. Ted Cruz only cares about himself.

Join our campaign today: https://t.co/2dROrrQrPV pic.twitter.com/9iz9yu1rFb

— Colin Allred (@ColinAllredTX) May 3, 2023

Cruz narrowly won a second term in 2018, fending off then-Rep. Beto O'Rourke by less than three percent. That race drew national attention and, at the time, was the most expensive Senate race in history. 

Allred was first elected to Congress in that same 2018 cycle, upsetting longtime Republican Rep. Pete Sessions. In 2022, he was reelected to a third term by a 65% to 35% margin.

The Dallas-area 32nd is oddly shaped, part of a gerrymander in 2021 redistricting that largely eliminated competitive districts across Texas. In 2022, Republicans won 25 of 38 districts, and only two seats were decided by a margin of 10% or less.

After a very quiet April, the election calendar picks back up Tuesday with the mayoral election in Lincoln, Nebraska. There are also mayoral primaries in Indiana and Ohio and state house special primaries in Massachusetts.

Looking ahead, several cities in Texas will elect mayors this Saturday.  May 16 will be the busiest day of the month, including the Kentucky statewide primary. In the Bluegrass State, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear will be seeking a second term. Most of the focus will be on the Republican primary, where a dozen candidates are vying to challenge the incumbent in what is likely to be a competitive general election.

Mayoral Elections

Three of the nation's 100 most populous cities will hold mayoral elections or primaries on Tuesday.^{1 1}City rankings are based on July 1, 2021 Census Bureau population estimates. They are for the city itself, not the associated metropolitan area. Lincoln, Nebraska will hold a general election, while Indianapolis and Fort Wayne in Indiana will hold primaries.

We'll also have results for the Akron, Ohio Democratic primary. 

The four cities are ordered by population.

Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said Monday that he will not seek a 4th term in 2024. Inslee, 72, served eight terms in the U.S. House before winning his current office in 2012.

Democrat Ben Cardin, Maryland's senior U.S. Senator, will not run for a 4th term in 2024. He released this video announcing the decision on Monday afternoon.

A wide open primary battle is likely for this rare open Senate seat in Maryland. The last was in 2016, when Barbara Mikulski (D) retired; then Rep. Chris Van Hollen won the seat.

President Biden confirmed Tuesday that he will run for a second term in 2024. The announcement, long anticipated, comes on the same calendar date as in 2019, when he launched his ultimately successful campaign for the presidency.

There are 560 days until the presidential election on November 5, 2024.

Mike Pompeo, who served as C.I.A. Director and Secretary of State in the Trump Administration, said Friday that he will not run for president in 2024.

Democrats have chosen Chicago to host their 2024 national convention. The scheduled dates are August 19 to August 22. The city beat out New York and Atlanta.

This will be the 12th time Chicago has hosted the Democrats. The first of those was in 1864, when Gen. George McClellan was nominated to challenge President Abraham Lincoln. The most recent was in 1996, when Bill Clinton was renominated for a second term. 

Since 1956, the party that does not hold the presidency has held its convention first. This tradition will continue next year, as Republicans gather in Milwaukee on July 15 to July 18 for their 2024 convention. Wisconsin went to Joe Biden by less than 1% in 2020, and the state is expected to be a hotly contested battleground again in 2024.

Two of the most important elections of 2023 will reach their conclusion Tuesday. In Wisconsin, the ideological lean of the Supreme Court is on the line. Meanwhile, residents of Chicago will choose between two Democrats on either side of that party's political spectrum.

Several other cities are holding mayoral elections or primaries. There is also a competitive State Senate special election in Wisconsin. Additionally, toward the bottom of this article, we've included links to results for some Wisconsin ballot measures as well as a high profile City Council Special Election in Los Angeles.

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Conservative justice Patience Roggensack did not stand for reelection. She is completing her second ten-year term, during which she served six years (ending in 2021) as the Chief Justice. The other six members of the court are split evenly between progressives and conservatives. As a result, this election has drawn national attention (and spending), with some calling it the most important election of the year.

Milwaukee County Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz and former State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly were the top two finishers in the February 18 primary which featured two liberal and two conservative candidates. Protasiewicz, a liberal, received 46% of the vote, while the conservative Kelly got 24%. However, the aggregate vote hewed more closely to the narrow partisan split in the state, with progressive votes totaling 54% to 46% for the conservatives. 

The outcome may foreshadow how the Court will rule on issues that could come before it over the next couple years. These include abortion rights, legislative gerrymandering and challenges around the 2024 presidential election.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday he will run for president in 2024. Hutchinson made his intentions known during an interview on ABC's "This Week". A formal announcement will come later this month.

Hutchinson joins a still developing field of candidates looking to challenge former president Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. Other announced candidates include former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is widely expected to enter the race at some point. While others may join the race as well, national polling for the nomination to this point has Trump and DeSantis running well ahead of the field, all of whom are seeing single-digit support. The caveat to this, of course, is that there is no national primary, so all these candidates will hope to break through in one of the early voting states. 

While we have a couple legislative special elections on the calendar this Tuesday, attention will quickly turn to next Tuesday, April 4. That day brings an election to determine the ideological edge going forward on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The general election for Chicago mayor will also take place, featuring two Democrats with strongly different views on the city's crime problem. The latest poll showed the race to be within the margin of error.

Legislative Special Elections

Virginia State Senate District 9

Democrats hold a narrow 21-18 margin over Republicans in the Virginia State Senate. There is one vacancy. Members serve four-year terms; the next regularly scheduled elections are in November.

The open seat is in the Richmond-area District 9. Democrat Jennifer McClellan resigned prior to being sworn in to the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month. She won a special election last month to complete the term of the late Donald McEachin (D).