Election News

The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates has announced the schedule for the 2020 general election.  There will be three presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate.  Each will begin at 9:00 PM ET and run for 90 minutes, with no commercial interruptions. 

This is the same number of debates that were held in advance of the 2016 presidential election.  However, each 2020 debate is more than a week closer to Election Day than the corresponding one in 2016. This is partially due to a later calendar date, as well as the fact that the 2020 election is five days earlier (November 3 vs. November 8) than in 2016.  For example, the final debate in 2016, on October 19, was 20 days before the November 8 election. In 2020, the final debate will be October 22, just 12 days in advance of the November 3 election.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii is considering a boycott of next Tuesday's Democratic debate. In a video posted to her Facebook page, she says that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the media are trying to rig the 2020 nominating process. She says it is a repeat of 2016, when these same parties favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

After not qualifying for the September debate, Gabbard was the 12th and final Democrat to meet the criteria for October. She is polling at just under 1% nationally.  While this threat will gain her some publicity, it is hard to see how an actual boycott will help her candidacy.

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.

Lowey is the 23rd current House member to announce they will retire or seek another office in 2020. Two of the six Democrats on the list (Lowey and Jose Serrano) are from New York. The retirement map^ has been updated.  

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.

Since the September debate, Tulsi Gabbard and Tom Steyer have met the minimum requirements of 2% in four qualifying polls and 130,000 unique donors.

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.

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.

Feedback welcome. If you have an issue getting to the redesign, please enable Cookies on your web browser.

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.