Tuesday's election tremor shakes out lessons for Missouri, region, in 2018
Source: St Louis Post Dispatch
“Gillespie walked into a trap,” said Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, the chairman of the Democratic Governor’s Association, whose group spent $7 million to help get Democrat Ralph Northam elected.
A CNN exit poll showed that 34 percent of voters in Virginia said they came to the polls to vote against Trump, 17 percent to support him, with 47 percent saying Trump was a non-factor.
Democrats attempt to tie local GOP congressional candidates to Trump bear watching, especially in congressional districts he modestly won, including Metro East districts held by Republican incumbents Mike Bost and Rodney Davis, and the Missouri 2nd held by Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin. Davis and Wagner both criticized Trump and withdrew support for a time during the '16 campaign.
• The Democrats’ statewide victories were in states that they should have won, but the down-ballot results happened in red pockets or with candidates who may not have been legitimate challengers a year ago. That portends more robust local elections in states like Missouri, where one party has been dominant in recent elections. Democrats may end up taking control of the Virginia state assembly, in part by electing the first two Latinos and the first Asian-American candidate, all women, and by choosing a transgender candidate over a well-known Republican legislator in the D.C. suburbs who had served in Richmond for over a quarter century.
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/tuesday-s-election-tremor-shakes-out-lessons-for-missouri-region/article_09e7fa4f-5ca3-5d55-a4c0-6ca4f6009210.html
