Democrats take back two more seats in state special elections
On Tuesday, Democrats flipped two seats in special state elections held in Florida and New Hampshire.
In Florida, Annette Taddeo won a Miami-area state Senate seat, and in New Hampshire, Kari Lerner won a special state House election.
Taddeo was able to take back the previously Republican-held seat in Senate District 40, which was vacated by Frank Artiles, who resigned from the seat after multiple scandals caught up with him.
Artiles publicly referred to Democratic rivals as “bit*hes” and “girls,” while calling some of his fellow Republicans as “ni*gers.” After the comments became public, Artiles vowed to keep his seat, but resigned the next day when he found out the Miami Herald had a story coming that revealed he’d hired unqualified young women, including a former Hooters “calendar girl,” as “campaign consultants.”
Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, Kari Lerner beat former state Rep. James Headd in a district President Trump won by a significant margin in the general election last year. Lerner carried the county seat by just 39 votes, even though registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats by 2:1 in Rockingham County.
Trump won the district in 2016 by 23 points, and Republicans have a 2-1 advantage in registrations in there.
Democrats already flipped state House seats in both New Hampshire and Oklahoma earlier this month by wide margins, replacing Republicans in two districts ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
Taddeo and Lerner continued a winning trend for Democrats, which began after Trump’s inauguration Since then, Democrats have flipped six GOP-held seats in Statehouses across the country, while Republicans have not flipped a single Democratic seat in 27 special elections.