Two Elections And A Ballot Initiative To Watch Today

It’s Election Day!

But it’s an off year; nationwide elections for all House seats and a third of the Senate seats won’t occur until next November. But still, there are a few interesting elections to watch — and here they are.

VIRGINIA GOVERNOR

With a slew of elections in deeply blue states and cities, the biggest election of 2021 is for governor of Virginia. Although President Joe Biden thumped Donald Trump by more than 10 points in 2020, things have gone decidedly south since Election Day.

Most polls in the last week have put Republican Glenn Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe within the margin of error — although one Fox News poll put Youngkin up by 8 points. But McAuliffe is clearly worried; he’s called on Biden to campaign for his twice, along with first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

During an interview at a campaign stop last weekend, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl said to McAuliffe: “You’ve got [former Georgia gubernatorial candidate] Stacey Abrams in here, two visits by the president, a visit by the Former President Obama, a visit by the first lady, a visit by the vice president. Why all the — why do you need all the help?”

“Well,” McAuliffe said, “we did this last time. I mean, we did the same thing in ’13. I mean, we always bring them in. This is what — this is the biggest race in America. Who doesn’t want to be here?”

In the waning days of the election, an alleged sexual assault in a school girls bathroom by a male student wearing a skirt — a story broken by The Daily Wire — along with outrage over school boards unilaterally deciding what children will be taught, took center stage. That has reportedly led to high enthusiasm by Republicans to hit the polls.

“In the 2021 election’s closing days, one McAuliffe aide conceded Republicans are more excited about scoring a dramatic upset that would send a message to the country than Democrats are about preserving the status quo — especially as many polls suggest that voters believe the country is on the wrong track,” the Associated Press wrote last week.

MINNEAPOLIS CITY QUESTION 2

Voters in Minneapolis will decide if they want to abolish their police department and instead use the money to build a “Department of Public Safety” to take its place.

City residents were incensed over last year’s death of George Floyd at the hands of the police,