There are sixteen notable presidential candidates and 86 weeks to go until November 3, 2020. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) entered the race last Friday, calling himself “the only candidate who will make defeating climate change our nation’s number one priority.” On Monday, John Hickenlooper (D), the former governor of Colorado, also announced that…
Elections are taking place in a number of states on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. They include: Four state legislative special elections are happening across the Kentucky State Senate and Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Texas House of Representatives. Municipal elections are scheduled in Tampa and St. Louis. Tampa voters are electing a new mayor and members…
The House passed legislation to overturn President Donald Trump’s declaration of national emergency on the southern border. The resolution passed by a vote of 245-182. Every Democrat and 13 Republicans voted for the resolution. The 13 Republicans who voted for the resolution were Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Mike Gallagher (Wis.), Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.), Will Hurd (Texas), Dusty Johnson (S.D.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), Francis…
Twenty-one state executive officials left office early in 2018, the third-highest number since Ballotpedia began tracking the figure in 2012. They included one Democrat, 13 Republicans, and seven nonpartisan officials. Nine resignations occurred for personal reasons, seven for political reasons, and two for professional reasons. Three officials did not specify their reasons for…
Three of nine seats on the Dallas Independent School District school board in Texas are on the ballot this year, and none of the three incumbents are seeking re-election. The general election is on May 4. If no candidates receive a majority of the vote in the election, the top two vote recipients will advance…
Democratic candidates for the U.S. House carried all six reverse pivot counties in 2018. Reverse pivot counties are counties that voted for John McCain (R) in 2008, Mitt Romney (R) in 2012, and Hillary Clinton (R) in 2016. The average margin of victory for 2018 U.S. House candidates in these counties was 11.05 percent.…
President Donald Trump signed a $328 billion spending bill that includes $1.375 billion in funding for barriers on the southern border. He had requested $5.7 billion in wall funding. Trump, because he said he did not get the amount requested, declared a state of emergency on the southern border and directed $8.1 billion to build…
Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Bill Cunningham retired on January 31, 2019. He served on the state supreme court from 2007 to 2019. Under Kentucky law, if there is a midterm vacancy on the state supreme court, the governor appoints a successor from a list of three names provided by the Kentucky Judicial Nominating Commission.…
Utah’s state legislature will be in session from January 28 through March 14, 2019—a total of 45 days. Utah joins 39 other states that are currently in regular session. It is one of 46 states that hold annual legislative sessions, with the other four states—Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas—meeting only in odd-numbered years.…
Each decade, the federal government conducts a census to update its population counts. Changes in population counts then require state governments to redraw their legislative jurisdiction boundaries. The average state senate district had a population of 156,339 following the 2010 census. That was an increase of 13,532 from the 2000 figure of 142,807. The average…