Democrats Have Now Flipped 42 State Legislative Seats From Red to Blue
"Some states taking electoral maps out of politicians' hands"
Since Trump became president, Democrats have been on a legislative winning streak that sends a powerful signal about resistance politics.
By John Nichols
Today 10:38 am
A voting machine in Illinois. (AP Photo / M. Spencer Green)
Lauren Arthur is a former middle-school teacher who campaigned as a progressive Democrat in a special election to fill a Missouri State Senate seat that a Republican won in 2016 with more than 60 percent of the vote. Her race, which highlighted support for expanded funding of education and access to health care, was run in a district that backed Republican presidential nominees Donald Trump in 2016 and Mitt Romney in 2012.
It should have been an uphill bid.
It wasn’t. On Tuesday, Arthur beat her well-funded and serious Republican foe by a landslide, winning 60 percent of the vote.
That was a big victory for Arthur, a labor-backed state representative who declared in her victory speech that “For too long the priorities and pet projects of billionaires and corporations have been put ahead of investing in Missourians. We sent a message loud and clear that we demand great public schools [and] a transparent and responsive state government.