After enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday filled with gratitude for family, friends and the EWA community, we’ve been getting a jump on our shopping. And we were still able to take a few minutes away from the busy start of the holiday season to bring you the top political moments of November, including down-ballot election results from earlier in the month.
US Senate
A new Democratic woman has entered the 2024 Senate field. New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy announced she will challenge indicted Sen. Bob Menendez for his seat, and she’s rapidly harnessing the power of the state’s top political influencers. Democrats in Hudson County—his home turf, right across the Hudson River from New York—have endorsed her, as have chairs in five of the other most-populous New Jersey counties.
She joins Rep. Andy Kim, who is likely to find his base of support among more progressive Democrats who bristle at the state’s strong machine-style politics that will be difficult for him to overcome. Menedez is likely to lose the competitive primary—recent polling shows support for his re-election in the single digits—and Democrats should retain the seat.
A more competitive Senate seat we need to hold, in Michigan, became even tougher this month. Former Rep. Peter Meijer, a Trump critic who is considered to be more moderate, has also officially declared his candidacy, presenting probably the most serious threat to Elissa Slotkin should he prevail in the primary next August. But wait—now that he’s running for Senate, he’s tacking to the right and is open to voting for Trump. Will the voters fall for it?
Raising & Spending
Where are the top U.S. Senate candidates raising their cash? [Cal Matters]
Adam Schiff has a ton of cash. Why that doesn’t guarantee he’ll win [Sacramento Bee]
Momentum Meets Money in Maryland Democratic Primary [Cook]
Polling & Analysis
Poll shows Delaware voters favor historic firsts for statewide races [Politico]
Trading Hard Corruption for Soft Corruption [The American Prospect]
Will Adam Schiff’s two homes be a factor in California’s 2024 Senate race? [Sacramento Bee]
Democrats are split on Israel and the race for Feinstein’s seat, as 2024 looms [LA Times]
Key Race Developments
Former Congressman Peter Meijer announces bid for U.S. Senate [Michigan Live]
Republican Who Voted to Impeach Trump Says He Would Still Vote for Trump [Vanity Fair]
Scholten weighs in on Senate race, backing Slotkin [Politico]
New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy joins primary race against indicted Sen. Menendez [NBC]
Democrats in Bob Menendez’s power base ditch him for Tammy Murphy [Politico]
Barbara Lee urged restraint after 9/11. How does she look at Israel? [Washington Post]
Silicon Valley exec Lexi Reese ends California Senate campaign [SF Chronicle]
Other News
Sinema left the Democratic Party. Democratic donors left her too. [Politico]
What will Laphonza Butler do with her power? [the 19th News]
Many Latino Californians aren’t voting. Can Senate candidates motivate them? [Cal Matters]
US House
Rep. Abigail Spanberger made it official this month: She won’t run for another term in Congress next year and will run for Virginia governor in 2025. Virginia has never elected a woman governor, and at this point, it looks like she has a great chance of becoming the first.
In a move in the opposite direction (from governor to Congress), Washington gubernatorial candidate and Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz announced she would instead run for the US House seat being vacated by Derek Kilmer (WA-06). It’s rated safe-D, and right now both primary contenders are women (Hilary and Washington state Sen. Emily Randall), so this seat is a likely pickup for women.
There was also a special election this month in UT-02, a strong Republican district that Democrats thought they could make close, although that ended up not being the case. Whether this is a fluke or a sign of Democratic overperformance reverting to the mean, we can’t say yet.
And finally, long-serving Rep. Anna Eshoo announced her retirement this month. She has been in Congress since 1993, and before that was president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. Her safe-D seat is already drawing a crowded primary field, including possibly Lexi Reese, who just ended her bid for Senate.
Raising & Spending
Liberal Donor Group Targets New York and California House Seats for 2024 [NYT]
House GOP fundraising arm lags Democrats as 2024 heats up [Axios]
Polling & Analysis
Spanberger’s Run for Governor Moves VA-07 from Likely to Lean Democrat [Cook]
2024 Ohio House Analysis: Can Democrats Keep Bucking the State’s Rightward Trend? [Cook]
The Utah 2nd District special election could be closer than you think [FiveThirtyEight]
Can a Democrat not named Katie Porter win her congressional swing seat? [Politico]
Republican Celeste Maloy Easily Prevails in Utah 2nd’s Special Election [Decision Desk]
Why New York could be the next abortion battleground [Politico]
Key Race Developments
Another Republican Joins Alaska Race Seeking to Oust Peltola [NYT]
10 California congressional races could tip the 2024 balance [Cal Matters]
Hilary Franz drops out of governor’s race to run for Congress [Seattle Times]
Top Democrats mobilizing to compete for Sarbanes’ seat [Maryland Matters]
EMILY’S List endorses Christina Bohannan in Iowa’s 1st [Des Moines Register]
Silicon Valley Congresswoman Anna Eshoo is retiring [San Jose Spotlight]
Other News
St. Louis County prosecutor drops U.S. Senate bid, will oppose Cori Bush [Associated Press]
There’s a new push to elect an Afro-Latina to Congress [the 19th News]
Virginia Rep. Jennifer Wexton navigates exhausting and gridlocked Congress [CBS News]
State & Local
A quick refresher on this year’s state and local elections, which again showed the electorate motivated by abortion to turn out for Democrats:
- A solid majority of Ohioans—57 percent—voted to add an affirmative right to abortion to the state’s constitution.
- Virginians rejected Gov. Youngkin’s promise of a 15-week abortion ban by keeping Democrats in control of the state Senate and delivering to them control of the state House of Delegates.
- Kentuckians re-elected Gov. Andy Beshear, who vetoed a sweeping abortion ban last year, though his veto was overridden by the legislature.
Overall, women fared well in state elections, with representation increasing in the Virginia, Mississippi and Louisiana legislatures (New Jersey being the outlier that will see a decrease). Democrats also held a critical seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and flipped a state senate seat in New Jersey.
On the local front, voters:
- Elected the first Black woman mayor, Cherelle Parker, in Philadelphia;
- Elected the first woman mayor, Connie Boesen, in Des Moines;
- Re-elected women mayors to blue cities in red states, including Erin Mendenhall in Salt Lake City, Lauren McLean in Boise, and Regina Romero in Tucson;
- Elected Lisa Brown in Spokane, flipping the office from Republican to Democrat.
Explore more data in the Center for American Women and Politics’ post-election report:
Results for Women Candidates in Election 2023 [CAWP]
Raising & Spending
Here’s how much more the Florida GOP pulled in than the Democrats [Tampa Bay Times]
Abortion drove spending on PA Supreme Court races [Spotlight PA]
Virginia campaigns set fundraising records [Open Secrets]
Polling & Analysis
What legal battle over racial makeup of Detroit districts means for Michigan [Bridge MI]
Kansas might have an answer to Democrats’ rural voter problem [Politico]
Rural voters shift toward Democrat in Kentucky governor’s race [KY Lantern]
Republicans can’t sugarcoat their losses on abortion rights anymore [Vox]
Why Democrats Are Betting Big on State Legislature Races in 2024 [the Messenger]
Why a Blue-Leaning Swing State Is Getting Redder [the Atlantic]
Key Race Developments
Abortion rights backers extend post-Dobbs winning streak in Ohio [Politico]
Abortion rights groups seek ballot measures in 9 more states in 2024 [NBC News]
Spanberger won’t seek reelection, will run for Va. governor, sources say [Washington Post]
Democrat Cherelle Parker will become Philadelphia’s first female mayor [Philly Enquirer]
Houston mayor’s race goes to runoff election [NPR]
Other News
Missouri becomes the 14th state with a majority-women supreme court [the 19th News]
Race called for Andrea Katz in 8th District, boosting Democrats’ Assembly gains to six [NJ Monitor]
National & Women
November saw President Biden’s support continuing to drop in the polls, with his popularity taking a particularly hard hit among young voters and Arab voters due to his handling of the Israel-Gaza war. With a temporary ceasefire ongoing, maybe we will start to see those numbers tick back up, although the President’s age continues to be the most limiting factor for voters.
In this respect, Vice President Kamala Harris has been a major asset on the world stage and the campaign trail, plugging in her expertise where a younger, more progressive voice is needed. Check out everything she’s been up to in the new subsection:
Kamala Watch
Kamala Harris seizes agenda as Rishi Sunak’s AI summit kicks off [Politico]
An interview with Kamala Harris on what’s at stake for 2024 [NYT Audio]
Could Kamala Harris Be a Cure for Biden 2024 Anxieties? [NY Magazine]
Kamala Harris Is Set to Visit South Carolina for Campaign Kickoff [Washington Post]
Kamala Harris to visit Houston for Hispanic outreach event [Texas Tribune]
Harris to announce $900 mln in pledges to boost women in green sectors [Reuters]
Raising & Spending
Liberal Super PAC Is Turning Its Focus Entirely Digital [NYT]
Donations to GOP drop as worries mount about the party’s finances [Washington Post]
A New Political Fundraising Platform Wants to Help Donors Give More Efficiently [TIME]
Campaign fundraisers are hitting high notes at Taylor Swift and Beyoncé concerts [Politico]
Polling & Analysis
What the 2023 elections can — and can’t — tell us about 2024 [FiveThirtyEight]
Poll: Democracy, abortion are top priorities for single-issue voters [NBC News]
Poll shows Biden support slumping among Michigan Muslims [NBC News]
Eyes on 2024: Five 2024 clues in Tuesday’s elections [NBC News]
Why Biden Is Behind, and How He Could Come Back [New York Times]
Biden bets big on early ads over door-to-door campaigning [Axios]
We Talked to Some Kamala-but-Not-Joe Voters. Here’s What They Said. [NYT]
The ‘Year of The Woman’ is Dead [Global Newswire]
Is 2024 the year of the Instagram moms? [The 19th News]
Other News
In Memory of Rosalynn Carter [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
Hamas Must Go [The Atlantic, editorial from Hillary Clinton]
The White House wants to close the gap on health care research for women [The 19th News]
Jill Biden will lead new initiative to boost federal government research into women’s health [AP]