The November 5, 2019, elections

In Kentucky’s gubernatorial election this week, Democratic candidate Andy Beshear defeated Republican incumbent Matt Bevin, winning 49.19 percent of the vote to Bevin’s 48.83 percent — a difference of just a few thousand votes.

A third candidate, Libertarian Party candidate John Hicks, took part in the race as well — and he won about 28,426 votes, far more than the difference in votes between Beshear and Bevin.

Kentucky’s Republican governor Matt Bevin lost reelection to Democrat Andy Beshear Tuesday, but he’s refusing to concede the election — all while his party floats a number of schemes, some more harebrained than others, to give him one last shot.

The race was extremely close; Beshear eked out a win by roughly 5,000 votes — with 49.19 percent of the vote to Bevin’s 48.83 percent. The Libertarian candidate John Hicks received 1.97 percent of the vote. The state Democratic Party and Beshear have already declared victory and Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s chief election officer, also deemed Beshear the victor on Wednesday.

Amazon poured nearly $1.5 million into local elections in its hometown of Seattle, hoping to install a majority of business-friendly politicians on the city council and to defeat an incumbent socialist who’s also a vocal Amazon critic. The dynamic between council members and Amazon has been a contentious one over the last two years, highlighted by a very public battle over a proposed business tax in 2018.

Early election results for the Seattle City Council show that the company’s loudest opponent, the incumbent councilmember Kshama Sawant, trailed an Amazon-backed candidate as of Tuesday night. But results indicate that Amazon’s favored candidates won’t make up the majority of the council.

The nation’s most powerful gun rights organization was dramatically outspent in Virginia in 2019 by gun control organizations, helping Democrats gain control of the state legislature for the first time in more than two decades.

According to the Virginia Public Access Project, the National Rifle Association spent $350,269 this cycle to help pro-gun rights candidates beat back Democrats who were running on a gun control platform, one that became particularly poignant after a mass shooting in Virginia Beach on May 31 left 12 people dead. (An NRA spokesperson cautioned that total spending numbers for the organization will not be available until later this month.)

In November 2015, then-Gov. Steve Beshear (D) signed an executive order restoring the voting rights of more than 100,000 people with felony records in Kentucky. But in December of that year, Beshear’s successor, Gov. Matt Bevin (R), undid the executive order — just as easily taking away from ex-felons what the former governor had given them.

On Tuesday, though, Bevin lost his reelection bid to Democrat Andy Beshear, the former governor’s son. And the new governor-elect is poised to sign another executive order that restores voting rights to at least some people with felony records after they’ve served their sentences — potentially increasing the voter rolls by more than 100,000.

Two years ago, a historic number of women, including the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker, won seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

And on Tuesday night, female candidates helped turn the state legislature Democratic for the first time in 20 years. Female Democrats held onto their seats from 2017, and newcomers like Ghazala Hashmi, the first Muslim woman elected to the Virginia legislature, flipped key seats to help give Democrats a majority in both the House of Delegates and the state Senate.

Update: Republican Tate Reeves has won the race for governor.

Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood and Republican Lieutenant Gov. Tate Reeves have run a tight gubernatorial race in Mississippi.

James Mueller, the handpicked successor of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, is officially the new mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

Buttigieg, who opted not to run for another mayoral term in light of his presidential bid, has heavily advocated for Mueller, whose win will maintain a more than five-decade streak of Democratic mayors in South Bend.

Update: Ballot Question 1 has been approved — New York City will adopt ranked-choice voting.

New York City voters will head to the polls on Tuesday to decide something that will have a big impact on future elections: how they vote.

After 20 years of Democrats being out of power in the Virginia House of Delegates, a blue wave has swept the state capitol in Richmond.

Democrats pulled off a major win on Tuesday night, taking both the state House and state Senate. This ensures a trifecta: Democrats will have a majority in both legislative chambers, and the party is led in the state by Gov. Ralph Northam. Decision Desk called both races as of 9:30 pm Tuesday.

New York City has become the latest — and most populous — city to adopt ranked-choice voting, a major milestone for voting reform efforts.

Voters in the city overwhelmingly approved Ballot Question 1 on Tuesday, enabling voters to begin using ranked-choice voting in local primary and special elections beginning in 2021.

Democrat Andy Beshear has won the Kentucky governor’s race, ousting sitting Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, and giving Democrats a big win in a conservative state.

It’s a major loss for Republicans in a state where they hold supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature, both US Senate seats, and five out of the state’s six House seats. Bevin pulled out all the stops to clinch a win; President Donald Trump rallied in Lexington, Kentucky, Monday night ahead of the election to turn out voters. But even that last-ditch effort wasn’t enough — a sign that Trump’s influence isn’t omnipotent.

Update: Democrat Andy Beshear has won the governor’s race.

Kentucky Republican Gov. Matt Bevin is among the most unpopular governors in the country. On November 5, 2019, Kentuckians get to decide whether they want to throw him out of office, or give him another chance.

On Tuesday, New York City residents will vote on whether to double the number of Americans who use a new system of voting — ranked-choice voting — to elect officials.

Technically, Ballot Question 1 amends the City Charter to “Give voters the choice of ranking up to five candidates in primary and special elections for Mayor, Public Advocate, Comptroller, Borough President, and City Council beginning in January 2021.”

Kentucky Republican Matt Bevin has the distinct reputation of being among the country’s most unpopular governors. On November 5, 2019, Bevin is up for reelection, and the race is a total toss-up.

Democrats are banking on Kentucky’s Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear to unseat him. Earlier this year Beshear, who has out-fundraised and out-spent Bevin, led in the polls, but going into Election Day the two are in a dead heat; a mid-October Mason Dixon Line poll showed 46 percent of likely voters backing Bevin, and 46 percent backing Beshear.

Elections for Virginia’s state legislature are Democrats’ first big enthusiasm test before the 2020 elections start.

That said, they’re a bit of an oddity. Tuesday’s elections are happening in an off-year. That means there are no statewide offices like governor on the ballot — the elections for the House of Delegates and state Senate are the biggest races.