Name: Daily Mail's 2023 Election Guide: The key races TONIGHT in Glenn Youngkin's Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi and abortion on the ballot in Ohio - WSTPost
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Daily Mail's 2023 Election Guide: The key races TONIGHT in Glenn Youngkin's Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi and abortion on the ballot in Ohio - WSTPost

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Americans still have to wait a full year to vote for president.&nbsp;But on Tuesday night, a handful of crucial elections will offer vital clues about how potent issues and the strength of the parties nationwide could impact the vote in 2024.&nbsp;Two governors’ races will determine whether Democrats have a chance in the deep red south, despite Joe Biden’s dismal polls showing him behind Donald Trump in battleground states.Virginia’s&nbsp;House of Delegates races&nbsp;Glenn Youngkin, who has been touted as a potential late entry into the GOP White House race.&nbsp;Elections Tuesday in Kentucky, Ohio, Mississippi, Virginia and Pennsylvania could test the temperature of American voters ahead of the presidential election next year&nbsp;Kentucky’s incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear is up for reelection Tuesday and is being challenged by Republican Daniel Cameron, the state’s attorney general.&nbsp;Beshear is Kentucky political royalty, the son of the state’s former Democratic governor Steve Beshear, and was first elected in 2019.But he and Lt. Gov.&nbsp;Jacqueline Coleman are the only&nbsp;Democratic statewide elected officials.And the race increasingly looks like a nail-biter.&nbsp;An&nbsp;Emerson College Polling survey released Friday found the two candidates tied at 47 percent.&nbsp;&nbsp;The state has two Republican senators – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul – and went for former President Donald Trump by around 26 points over President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.&nbsp;As election day approached, Beshear had to distance himself from Biden, whose poll numbers are less-than-stellar.&nbsp;Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is locked in a tight race with his GOP opponent&nbsp;Republican Daniel Cameron, the state’s attorney generalRepublican Attorney General Daniel Cameron (right) speaks during a gubernatorial debate against Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear (left) at Northern Kentucky University last monthBeshear told Fox News Monday that his gubernatorial race ‘has nothing to do’ with the unpopular Democratic president.&nbsp;‘The governor’s race has nothing to do with who’s in the White House. It has to do with what’s going on in your house. It has to do with bringing in good jobs. We’ve got the second and third-best years for wages in our history. It’s about expanding health care, so you don’t have to drive two hours or take two buses to see a doctor,’ Beshear told Fox.&nbsp;&nbsp;Presley, 46, is gaining traction thanks to his famous last name and tragic to triumphant backstory.&nbsp;He outraised his rival, incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, and in late October had the Cook Political Report moving the race from likely to lean Republican, in a state that voted for former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden&nbsp;in 2020 by more than 16 points.&nbsp;Presley also has help from the best-selling author John Grisham, a former Mississippi state lawmaker who has set many of his books in the state.&nbsp;The Democratic hopeful was born into poverty just three weeks before Elvis died in 1977.&nbsp;He grew up – and still lives in his childhood home – in the town of&nbsp;Nettleton, Mississippi.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Mississippi’s Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Brandon Presley holds up a picture of his second cousin, Elvis Presley, in a video announcing his campaign. If polls are correct, he’s in striking distance of beating Republican Gov. Tate Reeves&nbsp;Brandon Presley (left) debates Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Tate Reeves (right). Presley has tried to link Reeves to a scandal connected to&nbsp;former Green Bay Packers player Brett Favre&nbsp;‘My cousin grew up just down the road in Tupelo. You’ve probably heard of him,’ Presley said in his announcement video, holding up a picture of The King.&nbsp;&nbsp;The candidate’s grandfather, Noah, was Elvis’ grandfather Jesse’s brother.&nbsp;&nbsp;Family tragedy continued during Presley’s childhood, as his alcoholic father was murdered on his first day of third grade and his uncle, Sheriff Harold Ray Presley, was killed in the&nbsp;line of duty.&nbsp;His mother raised him and often had trouble paying the bills.&nbsp;‘Growing up here, we could see through the floor, straight down to the dirt,’ Presley said in his introductory video. ‘She was our rock and never let us feel as poor as we really were.’&nbsp;After college, Presley returned to&nbsp;Nettleton and ran for mayor – winning the race and becoming the youngest mayor in the state’s history, at age 23.&nbsp;He went on to serve as the Public Service Commissioner for the Northern District of the Mississippi Public Service Commission, first appearing on the ballot in 2007 and last winning reelection in 2019.In his campaign against&nbsp;Reeves, Presley has played up his working class roots.Presley has also played up his Christian religion and is more conservative than most Democrats on issues like abortion and guns.&nbsp;Reeves isn’t a popular governor in Mississippi and has been dragged down by a welfare scandal and – more recently – a spending scandal.&nbsp;While Reeves has denied wrongdoing, he’s gotten tied up in a $77 million welfare scandal involving&nbsp;retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre.Reeves also spent taxpayer dollars on upgrading the Mississippi governor’s mansion, The Daily Beast reported in September.&nbsp;The state made national headlines just weeks after the Dobbs decision, when a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim was forced to go to Indiana to obtain an abortion because terminating her pregnancy would be criminal in the state.&nbsp;The ballot initiative, simply called ‘Issue 1,’ would prevent the state from banning abortions, contraception, miscarriage care and other reproductive healthcare – to a point.&nbsp;It would still allow for some late-term abortions to be banned – pregnancy terminations after the point of fetal viability, generally around 22 to 24 weeks, unless the mother’s life was in danger.&nbsp;In August, state Republicans had called a special election in an attempt to make the ceiling for approving constitutional amendments higher.&nbsp;&nbsp;Instead of a simple majority approving an amendment, Republicans wanted it moved to 60 percent of the vote.&nbsp;That effort failed – 57 percent to 43 percent.&nbsp;A woman wears a pro-choice button encouraging Ohio voters to vote yes on Issue 1, which wouldn’t allow the state to ban abortion&nbsp;A group of pro-life voters rally at the Columbus Christian Center ahead of Tuesday’s election, which could see abortion rights protected in the Buckeye State&nbsp;One quirky aspect about these two off-year elections is that in the August vote, abortion rights proponents needed to vote ‘no’ – as they rejected raising the threshold to pass a constitutional amendment to 60 percent.But in Tuesday’s election, they’ll have to vote yes – to keep abortion legal in Ohio.&nbsp;The language swap could confuse some voters.&nbsp;Still, statewide protection of abortion has been successful on the ballot thus far – in both the swing state of Michigan and the more traditionally red Kansas.&nbsp;But at the same time,&nbsp;Ohio has drifted to the right politically in recent years.&nbsp;Former President Donald Trump won the state in both 2016 and 2020, after Democratic President Barack Obama captured it twice.&nbsp;And the state elected a Republican, Sen. J.D. Vance, in last year’s midterm elections.&nbsp;Ohio voters will also vote on whether to legalize marijuana.&nbsp;While in 2016, Pennsylvania was the key state to flip the presidential election to former President Donald Trump, Republicans didn’t have luck the year before – losing three state Supreme Court seats to all Democrats, turning the court into a 5-2 majority.&nbsp;This year, Republicans can start chipping away at that majority if supreme court candidate&nbsp;Carolyn Carlucci, the GOP hopeful, is able to beat Democrat Dan McCaffery.&nbsp;The two candidates are vying for an open seat, with $22 million already spent on the race.&nbsp;In Pennsylvania,&nbsp; jurists stay in their roles for 10 years before they must run for reelection.&nbsp;Pennsylvania Supreme Court Republican candidate Judge Carolyn Carluccio waves as she is introduced at a meet and greet at County Corvette in West ChesterCandidate for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Judge Daniel McCaffery speaks to supporters at Snipes Farm in Morrisville, Pennsylvania&nbsp;The race is seen to be a bellwether for how Keystone State voters might vote a year from now – when the White House and Pennsylvania’s Democratic Sen. Bob Casey will be on the ballot.&nbsp;Casey has already attracted a Republican rival, David&nbsp;McCormick, who lost last year’s GOP Senate primary to Dr. Mehmet Oz, who lost to now Democratic Sen. John Fetterman.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;If&nbsp;Carlucci wins, she’ll tip the court’s balance 5-3, with liberals still holding the majority.&nbsp;In Virginia, all100 House of Delegates seats are on the ballot, as well as all 40 state Senate seats, though some candidates are running unopposed.The most interesting race, by far, features so-called&nbsp;‘porn Dem,’ Susanna Gibson, who is running to represent a suburban Richmond district in the House of Delegates.&nbsp;In September, The Washington Post reported that Gibson, a 40-year-old nurse practitioner, and her husband, attorney&nbsp;John David Gibson, performed livestreamed sex acts on the site Chaturbate, a&nbsp;portmanteau for chatting while masturbating.More than a dozen of those videos ended up on a secondary site,&nbsp;Recurbate, in September 2022 and were discovered by Republican operatives.In one of the leaked clips,&nbsp;Gibson tells her husband, ‘I’ll let you f*** me in the a** doggy style in a private room if someone wants to pay. That’s the deal.’&nbsp;The Democratic hopeful tells the audience that she’s in an open relationship with her husband, though he ‘doesn’t like sharing,’ adding that the money requested was ‘for a good cause.’&nbsp;On Tuesday, Virginia voters will head to the polls and decide if they want the so-called ‘porn Dem,’ Susanna Gibson (pictured), to represent a suburban Richmond district in the House of DelegatesVirginia’s State Assembly elections will test the strength of the commonwealth’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has brushed off pleas to jump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary by saying that he’s laser-focused on these racesShe is running for a vacant seat opposite Republican businessman David Owen.The Virginia Public Access Project&nbsp;says there are seven highly competitive House of Delegates seats, including for the 57th District, Gibson’s race.&nbsp;The group also said there are four state Senate&nbsp;races that are expected to be the most competitive – and three of the four of them are open seats.&nbsp;One of the newly created Senate districts, District 27, features a race between state Republican Rep. Tara Durant and Democrat Joel Griffin.Durant jumped into politics after saying she felt threatened driving through a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia in June 2020, with her story highlighted on Tucker Carlson’s then-Fox News show.Now as she seeks a state Senate seat, the left-leaning Huffington Post investigated her claims and reported they were exaggerated, even releasing new parts of the 911 call where the Virginia Republican suggests to the operator she might try to run over some of the protesters with her car.Gibson is photographed outside her&nbsp;Henrico, Virginia in the days following the news that she and her husband had livestreamed sex for tips. She’s in one of the most hotly contested races in Virginia on Tuesday&nbsp;Republican Virginia state Rep. Tara Durant is now seeking a Virginia state Senate seat. She launched her political career after saying she felt threatened driving through a Black Lives Matter demonstration in&nbsp;Fredericksburg in June 2020State Rep. Danica Roem is running to represent District 30 in the Virginia state Senate. She made history in 2017,&nbsp;becoming the first trans person elected to the Virginia General AssemblyIn another newly formed district, District 31, the Democrat is an ex-CIA agent named Russet Perry, while Youngkin’s candidate, Republican&nbsp;Juan Pablo Segura, co-founded the D.C.-based District Doughnut and the app Babyscripts.&nbsp;In District 17, two current Virginia delegates are fighting it out to represent their hometown in the newly formed Senate district – Democrat Clinton Jenkins and Republican Emily Brewer.&nbsp;The District 24 race features Democratic incumbent state Sen. Monty Mason, who is being challenged by Republican&nbsp;Danny Digg, a former sheriff.Just outside&nbsp;those four highly competitive races is state Rep. Danica Roem’s state Senate race.&nbsp;Roem, a former journalist, made history in 2017, becoming the first trans person elected to the Virginia General Assembly.If Republicans get control of both houses, Youngkin can push ahead with his conservative agenda, which includes banning abortion at 15 weeks with some exceptions.&nbsp;Additionally, a Virginia win for Youngkin will have a set of GOP donors licking their lips, as they try to pry the 56-year-old governor off the sidelines of the 2024 presidential race.

Americans still have to wait a full year to vote for president.&nbsp;But on Tuesday night, a handful of crucial elections will offer vital clues about how potent issues and the strength of the parties nationwide could impact the vote in 2024.&nbsp;Two governors’ races will determine whether Democrats have a chance in the deep red south, despite Joe Biden’s dismal polls showing him behind Donald Trump in battleground states.Virginia’s&nbsp;House of Delegates races&nbsp;Glenn Youngkin, who has been touted as a potential late entry into the GOP White House race.&nbsp;Elections Tuesday in...

Daily Mail's 2023 Election Guide: The key races TONIGHT in Glenn Youngkin's Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi and abortion on the ballot in Ohio - WSTPost

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