Election News

Tom Steyer has become the 11th candidate to qualify for the October Democratic debate.  He has now received the required 2% support in four qualifying polls, after a Nevada poll released this past weekend. 

Steyer will join the 10 Democrats that qualified for both of the fall debates, including one this Thursday in Houston.  With the total qualifiers now exceeding 10, the October debate will likely return to a two-night format, although this has not yet been announced by the DNC.  It is scheduled on October 15 and/or 16 from an Ohio location yet to be announced.

Other candidates have until October 1 to make the debate stage. In addition to four qualifying polls, participants must have at least 130,000 unique donors. Both Tulsi Gabbard and Marianne Williamson have met the fundraising requirement, but both are short of the required polls.  Gabbard has two, Williamson one.  

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin announced he will not seek reelection in 2020.  Now in his 21st term, he has the 2nd longest tenure among current House members, after Don Young of Alaska.  His retirement is the 2nd of the day, after Texas Rep. Bill Flores.  The decision comes about a week after his fellow Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy announced he would resign from Congress in late September.

Wisconsin's 5th district covers much of the northern and western suburbs of Milwaukee. It is a conservative district; Donald Trump won here by 20% over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Rep. Bill Flores of Texas announced Wednesday that he would not seek reelection in 2020. He becomes the 5th member of the Texas GOP delegation to retire this cycle. Overall, 13 Republicans and 3 Democrats have made similar decisions.

Flores first won election to Congress in the Tea Party wave of 2010. He handily won reelection four times, although his margin of victory has declined significantly since an 80-20 win in 2012.  After a 32 point win in 2014, Flores won by about 25 points in 2016 and 15 points this past November.  Despite the narrowing spreads, the 17th district, which includes Waco, College Station and northern portions of the Austin area, is still considered safely Republican for 2020.

The Senate Interactive Map has been updated with the Georgia special election.  The initial consensus rating is Leans Republican.

The added Georgia election will be for the final two years of Sen. Johnny Isakson's term. Isakson recently announced his resignation, effective at the end of this year.  Gov. Brian Kemp will select a replacement who will serve until the winner of the special election takes office in January, 2021.

Long-time GOP Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois announced Friday that he would not seek reelection in 2020.

Rep. John Shimkus announcing now on KMOX that he will not seek re-election. Statement: pic.twitter.com/xX6I4g7uQl

— Jordan Haverly (@jhaverly) August 30, 2019

The state's 15th congressional district is the largest by land area. It is also the most conservative; Shimkus won a 12th term in 2018 by 44%; President Trump's margin was slightly better than that in 2016. 

Shimkus is the 15th current House member to announce a 2020 retirement.  12 are Republicans, 3 Democrats.  The retirement map excludes Rep. Sean Duffy (R, WI-7) who said earlier this week that he will resign his seat on September 23.  

We found out yesterday that 10 Democrats qualified for the next debate. Now we know where they'll stand on stage.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said she was dropping out of the presidential race after failing to qualify for the 3rd Democratic debate in September.  Her campaign had focused on women's equality and abortion rights but those issues were not enough to get her traction in the large Democratic field.  

Citing health issues, Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia is resigning at the end of 2019.  The Republican was elected to a 3rd term in 2016. 

There's a Republican gubernatorial primary runoff Tuesday in Mississippi. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and former Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr. are on the ballot. The winner will face the Democratic nominee, Attorney General Jim Hood in November. 

Polls close at 7:00 PM Central Time (8:00 PM Eastern).  Results will appear below after that time.

Rep. Sean Duffy will resign from Congress effective September 23. He made the announcement in a Facebook posting Monday morning, citing family issues. The five-term Republican represents Wisconsin's 7th congressional district. It is the state's largest district by area, covering much of the northern half of the state.

Duffy was preceded in Congress by Democrat Dave Obey, who served over 40 years before retiring in 2010. Duffy won that year by 8 points over Democrat Julie Lassa. The district was made more Republican in 2011 post-Census redistricting, leading to fairly easy reelection races for the incumbent. He won his final term by about 22% in 2018, about the same winning margin as President Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016.