What Went Down During The 2021 Elections

With Proposals 3 and 4 (to legalize same-day voter registration and no-excuse absentee voting, respectively) currently failing in New York, many liberals have been critical of the fact that there was no big push to pass them (whereas Republicans actively campaigned against them). And it seems like voting-rights advocates left a lot of votes on the table as a result:

Ranked-choice tabulations are complete in Minneapolis, and they’ve confirmed that moderate Jacob Frey will be reelected as mayor, defeating two progressives who had charged that Frey hadn’t done enough to reform the police both before and after last year’s murder of George Floyd. Minneapolis voters also passed City Question 1, which gives the mayor’s office more power, and rejected City Question 2, which would have replaced the police department with a department of public safety. Add it all up, and it appears Minneapolitans have issued a vote of confidence in the status quo despite the past year-plus of turmoil in the city.

If you’re looking for an illustration of how dominant national political trends are these days, even in local elections, look no further than New Jersey’s 3rd Senate District. Republican Edward Durr, a truck driver who claims to have spent only $153 on the primary portion of his campaign, is on the verge of defeating Democratic Senate President Stephen Sweeney, one of the most powerful politicians in the state. How was this possible? Trump won Sweeney’s district by 2 points in 2020, and while Sweeney hasn’t had too much trouble garnering crossover votes here in the past, the current anti-Democratic political environment was likely too much for him to counter.