Election News

The Road to 270 is a weekly column leading up to the presidential election. Each installment is dedicated to understanding one state’s political landscape and how that might influence which party will win its electoral votes in 2020. We’ll do these roughly in order of expected competitiveness, moving toward the most intensely contested battlegrounds as election day nears. 

The Road to 270 will be published every Monday. The column is written by Seth Moskowitz, a 270toWin elections and politics contributor. Contact Seth at s.k.moskowitz@gmail.com or on Twitter @skmoskowitz.

Massachusetts

Massachusetts has raised some of our most famous and powerful political figures. John Adams, Daniel Webster, Calvin Coolidge, John F. Kennedy and George H.W. Bush - to name just a few - all have roots in this small, New England commonwealth. In recent presidential elections Massachusetts has been one of the most Democratic states in the nation. It was the only one to vote for Democrat George McGovern in the Republican landslide of 1972.

It wasn’t always this way. In fact, Massachusetts wouldn’t vote for the Democratic Party until 1912, nearly a century after the party’s creation. Looking back at the state’s history helps to explain its flip from reliably Republican to staunchly Democratic.

Bernie Sanders was the clear winner in Saturday's Nevada Democratic caucuses. However, not all the results have been counted, and the Buttigieg campaign is questioning irregularities in the vote.  

The estimated delegate allocation for Nevada is below, as well as the total to date. You can also see the results for County Convention Delegates, which is the count that translates into national delegates. As of this writing, a majority of delegates remain to be allocated; the tables below will update as more information becomes available.

For more on the process, see our overview of the Nevada caucuses.

The Nevada Democratic Party holds its caucuses Saturday.  This was preceded, for the first time, by an early voting period that saw nearly as much voter participation as the entire caucus count in 2016. 

Saturday's caucuses begin at noon local time (3:00 PM ET).  Results will follow - at some point.  The Party plans to have results out today, and hopes to avoid the issues that caused extensive delays in Iowa.  However, this is structurally a similar event, so we'll have to see how it plays out. For its part, the State wants to make clear that it's not on them if there are problems.

As in Iowa, there will be three sets of numbers released. Live results will appear below. 

Round One - First Alignment:  This will be the initial preference of caucusgoers across the state. The percentage results here should be somewhat consistent with the statewide polling that has preceded the caucus (if that proves accurate - there hasn't been a lot of polling here). In the final average, Bernie Sanders had a sizable lead at 30% support, with Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren in the mid-teens. 

A new poll by Quinnipiac University of key rust belt swing states show President Trump ahead of each prospective Democratic nominee in Wisconsin while trailing in Pennsylvania.  The race is closer in Michigan, with some Democrats slightly ahead, others in a virtual tie.  All three states voted for Trump by less than 1% in 2016; their 46 combined electoral votes propelling the president to victory. It was the first time in a generation any of these states had voted for the Republican nominee in a presidential election.

A new update from Sabato's Crystal Ball indicates the prospects have dimmed a bit for the two most endangered Senate incumbents in 2020. The rating in Alabama has moved from Leans to Likely Republican, while in Colorado, the race has moved from Tossup to Leans Democratic.

In Alabama, Democratic Sen. Doug Jones is likely to face a more formidable GOP opponent than Roy Moore, who he defeated in a 2017 special election.  In addition, the vote will take place alongside the presidential election, which is likely to increase turnout heavily in support of Donald Trump.  The state's primary is March 3.

In Colorado, the analysis notes that Republican "Gardner has long appeared endangered by the Centennial State’s shift toward the Democrats. He has emphasized some local issues but has generally stuck with the president on the bigger-picture ones that are increasingly more salient in our nationalized elections. Gardner is in a tough spot: After distancing himself from Trump in 2016, Gardner risks losing his own base voters if he criticizes Trump, but if Trump again loses the state, voters may not have much reason to split their tickets in Gardner’s favor."

The presidential calendar is quiet Tuesday, but we will have results for the special primary election in Wisconsin's 7th congressional district.  The seat has been vacant since former Rep. Sean Duffy (R) resigned this past September to deal with family health issues. 

The nominees will meet in the general election on May 12, with the winner serving out the remainder of Duffy's term.  The seat, along with all others in the U.S. House, will be contested again in November.

The 7th district is the largest by land area in Wisconsin, covering the mostly rural northern third of the state.  Voters narrowly supported Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in 2012, but swung sharply for Donald Trump in 2016; the president won here by 20 points over Hillary Clinton.  Duffy won reelection in 2016 and 2018 by similar margins. The general election is seen as Likely to Safe Republican.

It was an active Tuesday for Super Tuesday polling.  We saw polls from six states, including three of the four largest in terms of pledged delegates available that day. The polls in Virginia, Oklahoma, Maine and Vermont were the first we've seen this year.

There were also several national polls and one from New Jersey, which holds its primary in June.  You can view a running list of the most recent polls here.

Super Tuesday is two weeks from today, March 3. Over one-third of the Democratic Party's 3,979 pledged delegates will be up for grabs across 16 contests.

Mike Bloomberg surged into 2nd place with 19% of the vote, according to a new national poll from NPR/PBS/Marist released Tuesday morning. This showing has qualified him for Wednesday's Democratic debate in Las Vegas.

Bernie Sanders continues to lead the field, surpassing 30% support in a national poll for the first time this cycle.  Joe Biden was 3rd, with 15%, with Elizabeth Warren at 12%. The shift in the state of the race in recent weeks is nicely illustrated by comparing these results with those from the previous NPR/PBS/Marist poll from mid-December.

The Road to 270 is a weekly column leading up to the presidential election. Each installment is dedicated to understanding one state’s political landscape and how that might influence which party will win its electoral votes in 2020. We’ll do these roughly in order of expected competitiveness, moving toward the most intensely contested battlegrounds as election day nears. 

The Road to 270 will be published every Monday. The column is written by Seth Moskowitz, a 270toWin elections and politics contributor. Contact Seth at s.k.moskowitz@gmail.com or on Twitter @skmoskowitz.

Kentucky

Kentucky is all but certain to vote for Donald Trump in November. It has voted Republican at the presidential level - with few exceptions - since 1956. The president carried the state by 30% in 2016, continuing a fairly consistent trend of increasing GOP margins in each election since 2000. 

Given this inevitability, the second half of this piece is dedicated to the boogeyman of the left, Mitch McConnell. Democrats revile the cunning effectiveness of the Senate Majority Leader and hope, perhaps naively, to oust him in November.

Polling from Nevada is very infrequent; this is the first we've seen since the middle of January.

Bernie Sanders leads Joe Biden by seven points in The Nevada Poll^TM, conducted by WPA Intelligence, that was released Friday.  Sanders saw 25% support to Biden's 18%; both candidates are polling statewide above the 15% threshold for winning delegates.  Also in double-digits are the four other candidates actively campaigning here:  Elizabeth Warren (13%), Tom Steyer (11%), Pete Buttigieg (10%) and Amy Klobuchar (10%).