Election paints 116th U.S. Congress purple

Of the 5,121 registered voters on Liberty’s campus, 20.05 percent showed up to the polls, Nov. 6.  

Ninety-one percent of voters in the Vines Center cast ballots for the House of Representatives 6th district candidate Ben Cline, who took the district, and 76 percent voted for Senate candidate Corey Stewart, who conceded the seat to incumbent Tim Kaine.

Corey Stewart

Liberty’s precinct had the lowest turnout in the 6th district. Ward 1, Precinct 5, which contains parts of Rivermont Avenue and Langhorne Road, had the best voter turnout — 65 percent of 1,656 registered voters turned out Nov. 6. 

The 6th district has 53,239 registered voters, and 12,238 votes were cast for Stewart, 13,611 for Kaine and 993 for Matt Waters. The entire district had 32 write-ins. 

Matt Waters

Stewart had been trailing Kaine in the polls all summer and into the fall, and at times 18-points separated the candidates. Ten percent of on-campus voters cast their ballots for Kaine and  14 percent for Matt Waters. Two write-in votes came from the Vines Center. 

Associated Press reported Republican Denver Riggleman of the 5th district took 53 percent of the vote over Leslie Cockburn, who won 46 percent of the registered voter ballots. 

Denver Riggleman

But across the country, Americans voted for governors, house representatives, senators and other public servant positions. The results were historic and sent Americans looking to the future. 

Turmoil in Floridian election… again

National Public Radio’s Mara Liasson said Nov. 4 that the Florida gubernatorial race would predict the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Andrew Gillum was 3.6 points up in the RealClear Politics poll on Nov. 5.

“Florida is the mother of all swing states, and Trump realistically can’t be re-elected without it. He needs to get (Republican Party) Rep. Ron DeSantis elected governor so that all the political power that comes with that office can be used on Trump’s behalf in 2020,” Liasson wrote.  

On Nov. 7, it looked like DeSantis clinched the governor spot by 38,598 votes, Gillum conceded the election Nov. 7 in the evening. 

But the races were too close to call, rumblings of a recount started as votes continued to trickle in, closing the margin of difference within the margin of .5 percent which requires a recount. As of noon Nov. 10, all three Floridian races, U.S. senate, governor and agriculture commissioner, broke the .5 percent margin threshold, which meant the races had to be machine recounted statewide. The recount has to be completed by Nov. 15 by 3 p.m.

Because of the recount, Gillum withdrew his concession Nov. 10

If the Nov. 15 recount shows a winning margin of .25 percent or less, there will be a hand recount. 

Floridians also voted to reinstate voting rights to convicted felons. This impacts 9 percent of residents who are old enough to vote and is likely to change the outcome of future elections in one of the last American swing states. 

They are women — hear them roar

The 2018 election was also monumental for women and minorities. One hundred and twenty-one women will sit in the 116th U.S. Congress. 

Tennessee ushered in the state’s first female senator, Marsha Blackburn. Blackburn is a conservative and aggressive second amendment supporter.  

Rashida Tlaib will serve Michigan’s 13th District as the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress. 

Republican Kim Reynolds was voted the first woman to be governor-elect of Iowa. South Dakota also chose for the first time a female governor, Republican Kristi Noem.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was voted into Congress to serve New York’s 14th District. She is the youngest woman to sit in Congress at age 29 and an outspoken socialist. 

Sharice Davids (D-Kansas) and Deb Haaland (D-New Mexico) are the first Native American women to serve in Congress. 

The 116th Congress takes its seat Jan. 3, 2019. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) is predicted to be Speaker of the House. Pelosi told NPR that at the top of the agenda for the new House is campaign finance reform.

Update: Kryrsten Sinema (Arizona — D) claimed the U.S. Senate seat Nov. 12 which ended the vote recount in Arizona which lasted six days. “As long as I’ve served Arizona, I’ve worked to help others see our common humanity & find common ground. That’s the same approach I’ll take to representing our great state in the Senate, where I’ll be an independent voice for all Arizonans. Thank you, Arizona. Let’s get to work,” tweeted Sinema Nov. 12.

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