Five Lessons From Ohio Special Election, Primaries
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Wed, 08/08/2018
As the dust settles following Tuesday’s primaries and the Ohio special election – considered by many to be a gauge of how well the “blue wave” is working out for Democrats, there are some key takeaways to consider:
The Balderson-O’Connor race in Ohio was much closer than it should have been
Democrat Danny O’Connor lost to Republican Troy Balderson by a margin of 1,754 votes in the 12th district – however AP and others aren’t calling it due to the 8,486 outstanding absentee and provisional ballots left to count.
That said, the closeness of the race should bother Republicans – as the 12th district, the wealthiest in the state, was solidly red in the 2016 election. The race should not have been so close.
Ohio Voters in urban and suburban areas turned out at much higher rates than rural, largely conservative areas
The turnout gap between the most and least populated parts of the 12th district is significant, with as much as a 15% gap in turnout between rural and suburban voters.
In both Franklin County, which includes Columbus, and Delaware County, the fast-growing suburb just north of Ohio’s capital, 42 percent of voters turned out. But in the five more lightly populated counties that round out the district, turnout ranged from 27 to 32 percent. -NYT
The left is pissed at the Green Party, and already blaming Russia in Ohio
Following Balderson’s slim victory over O’Connor, the formerly famous Alyssa Milano suggested that any green party votes were “Russian meddling”
Progressives were stopped in their tracks in the Midwest
Four progressive candidates hoping for upset victories in the mold of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ouster of the 4th most powerful Democrat in Congress, Joe Crowley, were disappointed.
In Michigan for example, progressive outsider Abdul El-Sayed was unable to unseat Senate Minority leader Gretchen Whitmer, despite the endorsements of both Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Other Ocasio-Cortez-endorsed candidates fell short as well Tuesday night.
Cortez held a whirl-wind tour of the U.S., stumping for Abdul El-Sayed for governor of Michigan, Fayrouz Saad in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, Cori Bush in Missouri’s 1st District, and is backing Congressional candidate Kaniela Ing in Hawaii.
El-Sayed lost his bid for the Democrat nomination for governor to 51.8 percent to 30.5 percent, according to numbers published by the New York Times.
Saad came in fourth in the five-way race, capturing only 18 percent of the vote.
Cori Bush lost her primary to William Lacy Clay, 56.7 percent to 36.9 percent, the Times results show. -American Mirror
Women did pretty well on Tuesday
In addition to Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer securing her bid for Governor, Kansas Democrat Laura Kelly was selected to compete for the governorship in the red state. This brings the total number of women nominated for governorships this year to 11, a “breakthrough in a political arena, executive offices, that has been especially unfriendly to women in the past,” reports the Times.
The Rest…HERE
