Midterm Election Results and What That Means for Us
Midterm season has come and gone, and we bet our Democratic Jerks are happy about taking control of the house. For our Republican Jerks, congrats on maintaining the senate. Changes on Capitol Hill are one of the biggest takeaways from this election, but a lot of other positions were up for grabs as well.
For those of you who weren’t up all-night watching broadcasters play with their fancy color-changing maps, here is a breakdown on what happened in the elections, more specifically what happened Syracuse-related elections:
First off, John Katko (R-N.Y.) beat democratic opponent Dana Balter to hold on to New York’s 24th district, a targeted district Democrats wanted to pick up. Katko is ranked as the seventh most bipartisan congressperson according to a bipartisan index by The Lugar Center, so expect him to be moderate in his future positions.
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand also maintained her seat in congress, beating Republican challenger Chele Chiavacci Farley in the race for senate. As a vocal opponent of President Trump, Gillibrand was speculated by some as a possible presidential candidate for 2020. However, Gillibrand said that she would serve her 6-year term as senator and not seek presidential election should she win the race.
Turning toward the gubernatorial—ever heard that word before???—race, the governorship of New York remains in the hands of Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) following his victory over Republican opponent Marc Molinaro. This will be Cuomo’s third term as governor, so expect New York to be run similarly to how it has been for the past eight years.
For New York comptroller, incumbent Thomas DiNapoli (D-N.Y.) beat Republican challenger Jonathon Trichter. At the state level Democrat Letitia James beat Republican Keith Wofford to become the first African-American to hold the position of Attorney General. This also makes her the first black woman to hold statewide office.
In the race for state supreme court justice of New York’s fifth judicial district, James Murphy, Gerry Neri, Donald Greenwood and Scott DelConte picked up the four available seats.
What is notable about these midterms is the number of “firsts” elected to office.
Democratic candidate Ayanna Pressley became the first black woman to represent Massachusetts in the house.
Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) became the first Muslim women to be elected to congress.
Jared Polis (D-Colo.) became the first openly gay man to be elected as governor
Sharice Davis (D-Kan.) became the first Native American congresswoman. She is also the first openly-lesbian woman to be elected to congress in the state of Kansas.
We’ve thrown a lot of information at you Jerks, and we bet you’ll need to take some time to process everything that has just happened—Google helps with this. But one more takeaway from the election is that Syracuse University grad Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) won her race for congress. So no matter your political ideology, at least you can be happy about this victory for one of your fellow Orangewomen.