While
the world has slowly become a stranger place, some may have to remember that
there are still elections going on in some states if they haven’t happened
already. Just because they have covered the presidential primary doesn’t mean
that they’ve yet done the races for this or other offices yet. But I figured
that I might as well cover what I can of this after talking about the biggest
news story of the year thus far.
The
craziest thing that has happened in the world since 2000 wasn’t the election of
Trump or 9/11, but it was the covid19 pandemic. The virus has already delayed
the election in Ohio where they defied a court order and pushed their primary
dates back. Other things to note regarding the elections for governor would be
how each governor handled the virus in question or even if they lasted beyond
it as they could have died or at least be affected between now and then. Did
they go too far? Did they not go far enough? What affects will this have? We’ll
see.
I
forgot to write down some things like party affiliation of those in control of
each state or who was running for reelection versus who couldn’t. What I know
is that there will be elections for the office of governor in the states of Delaware,
Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah,
Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia.
Now
I’m going to write what I feel are some interesting facts about some of the
races and those who are in office. Mike Parsons of Missouri ascended to the
office after his predecessor resigned. Gary Hart of Utah also ascended to the
office. I know that Mike benefited from a scandal which brought forth his predecessor’s
resignation. I don’t know why Gary’s predecessor resigned from office.
One
of the most potentially interesting races this cycle is the one in West
Virginia. The last Republican governor of West Virginia elected was in 1996 and
left office in 2001. And yet, they have a Republican governor now. Did this
person ascended to the office? The answer is now. Jim Justice of West Virginia
was elected as a Democrat and switched to being a Republican at about six
months into his term. There are multiple Republicans and Democrats in the race.
It will be as much a referendum on Jim Justice as the Republicans will be
making it a vote as to who of them is the real conservative in the race and
what Democrat wants to reclaim what they feel is rightfully theirs.
I
won’t know right away which races I’ll want to cover in the future. In my mind,
the main ones that I care most about are Indiana and Missouri since they both
border Illinois. Eric Holcomb had endorsed my state’s former governor and so
was the Missouri governor who has since resigned from office. (Wisconsin’s
governor at the time also did this and has also left office, losing reelection
like my state’s old governor.) I plan to donate to the Indiana Democrat in the
governor race. With me having no beef with the current Missouri governor, I
might pay attention to one of the other governor races and West Virginia might
fit this bill. I can’t be sure that there will be a post of that in this blog,
but do hope that it will happen in the future.
Here
is where the post ends. I would include a schedule of primary dates, but don’t
see a point in that as I don’t know them, the dates could be subject to change,
and I’m sure that some of them might have already happened at some point
anyways. So keep in touch as the general election is still set for November 3,
2020 this year and I hope to be back with more soon.
