Off-year elections on Tuesday witnessed significant victories for Democrats, including a pro-abortion-rights referendum in Ohio and a blue state legislature in Virginia. But several less high-profile outcomes are also worth noting. Here are five results from Tuesday’s races that may have flown under your radar:
History was made as Danica Roem, the first transgender person elected to Virginia’s House of Delegates in 2017, became the first transgender person to be elected to the state Senate, prevailing against her Republican opponent, former police officer Bill Woolf. Roem attributed her success to her practical approach to constituents’ concerns, focusing on issues like traffic congestion and school meal affordability, rather than just her gender identity.
Gabe Amo, the son of West African immigrants, made history in Rhode Island as the first Black person to be elected to represent the state in Congress. Although he had never run for elected office before, Amo emerged from a crowded Democratic primary to win the general election based on a mainstream Democratic platform addressing gun control, abortion rights, and climate change.
In New Jersey, despite Republicans’ hopes of gaining control of the state Senate or Assembly through cultural issues and with the unpopularity of President Biden and a scandal involving Sen. Robert Menendez, Democrats held onto both chambers of the state legislature, offering a significant win for the party.
Conservative groups’ efforts to sway school board elections in their favor by stoking outrage over education-related matters, particularly issues of race and sexuality taught in schools, did not succeed in Bucks County, Pa., Loudoun County, Va., and suburban Des Moines, Iowa, where candidates supported by these groups lost and shifted control to Democratic candidates.
The progressive prosecutor movement faced setbacks in areas like Virginia’s Loudoun County, suburban Pittsburgh, and upstate New York’s Broome County, where incumbents were voted out, signifying potential challenges for the movement amid a rise in crime and, in some cases, political corruption.
These outcomes underscore the nuanced and evolving landscape of American politics, highlighting the diverse wins and losses across different states and regions.
