Good for Biden’s ambitions?
US Democrats win several elections
November 8th, 2023, 6:04 p.m
After a sobering survey for the Democrats is making the rounds in contested states in which Joe Biden is losing out to Donald Trump, the party can now score points in reality: successes are achieved in several US states. That could have a signaling effect.
US President Joe Biden’s Democrats have achieved several successes in votes in various US states. While surveys show that the 80-year-old Biden is struggling with low popularity ratings in various groups of voters, observers see the outcome of Tuesday evening’s elections as a possible indicator for the upcoming presidential elections next year.
Among other things, Democratic Governor Andy Beshear was re-elected in conservative Kentucky. In the Virginia legislature, Democrats achieved a majority in both chambers, making it more difficult for Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin to govern. Daniel McCaffery, a fifth Democrat, will sit on the bench of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania alongside two Republicans – the state is one of the few in which judges are directly elected.
And in Republican-governed Ohio, the right to abortion is enshrined in the state constitution following a referendum. In particular, the fight over access to abortion has become an important election campaign issue for the Democrats: After the US Supreme Court overturned the previously constitutionally protected right to abortion in June last year, the issue is now of intense concern at the state level. Although abortion rights were not explicitly on the ballot as in Ohio, they also played a central role in Kentucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
It all boils down to Biden and Trump
President Biden is running for a second term among the Democrats – without serious competition. Among the Republicans, ex-President Donald Trump is currently far ahead in polls among his party’s candidates. This could lead to another race between the two. Polls suggest this could be close.
Things haven’t gone so well for the Democrats elsewhere recently. The New York Times reported via a survey together with Siena College, according to which Biden is trailing Donald Trump, the candidate for the Republican nomination, in five of the six key battleground states. However, the error tolerances were between 1.8 and 4.8 percentage points.