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Welcome to the Thursday, Jan. 30, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Gates wins runoff for Texas House District 28
- 2019 local ballot measures in review—Top 100 Cities, CA, NC
- U.S. Supreme Court allows DHS to enforce public charge rule
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Gates wins runoff for Texas House District 28
Gary Gates (R) defeated Elizabeth Markowitz (D) 58-42 in the runoff election for Texas House District 28, according to unofficial results. Political analysts and news outlets described the race as a possible bellwether for the 2020 general elections.
About 30,000 people voted in the race, representing approximately 20% of registered voters in the district. In the 2018 general election, then-incumbent Rep. John Zerwas (R) defeated Meghan Scoggins (D) 54-46. Zerwas was unopposed in the three preceding elections. Nearly 82,000 votes were cast in the 2018 general election for the district. Donald Trump (R) defeated Hillary Clinton (D) in the district by about 10 percentage points in 2016.
The election gained national attention when several Democratic presidential candidates endorsed Markowitz. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), among other Texas officials, endorsed Gates. Both candidates received funding by national groups affiliated with their political party: the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee for Markowitz and the Republican State Leadership Committee for Gates.
The seat became vacant after Zerwas resigned last year to take an executive position with the University of Texas System. The two candidates advanced from a field of seven in the general election on November 5, 2019. Markowitz, the lone Democrat in the race, received 39.1% of the vote. Gates received 28.4%, while three other Republican candidates split another 30%.
Gates and Markowitz could potentially face off again in the November general election. Markowitz is unopposed in the Democratic primary, and Gates faces Schell Hammel in the Republican primary on March 3.
Heading into the election, Republicans held an 83-64 majority in the House with three seats vacant. All 150 seats in the chamber are up for election in November 2020.
This was the 13th state legislative special election in 2020; 28 have been scheduled for 2020 thus far in 13 states. No seats have changed hands. In 2019, eight seats flipped as a result of state legislative special elections, while that number was 16 in 2018.
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2019 local ballot measures in review—Top 100 Cities, CA, NC
The first big local ballot measure election dates are less than 6 weeks away. We’re expecting more than 300 local ballot measures in March in California alone. So before we dig into what lies ahead, let’s look back at last year.
Ballotpedia covered local ballot measures on the ballot in the top 100 largest cities and all of the local measures in California and North Carolina in 2019. In California, Ballotpedia covered 78 local ballot measures at nine different election dates last year. Here’s a rundown of those election results:
- Voters approved 62 measures and defeated 16.
- Out of California's 58 counties, 22 featured ballot measures in 2019.
- Of the 78 measures on local ballots, 65% were tax measures, 17% were related to city governance, budget, and elections, 15% related to property and housing, and the remaining about a mix of other topics.
In 2017, 135 local measures appeared on California ballots. Of those 135 measures, 64.4% were approved, while 35.6% were defeated. Twelve ballot measures were decided by a vote margin of less than 2%.
Within the Top 100 largest cities outside of California, Ballotpedia covered 175 local ballot measures in 2019 in 21 states.
- Voters approved 149 and defeated 26.
- The most common topics addressed were:
- Bond issues (41)
- Taxes (37)
- City governance issues (27)
Ballotpedia also covered 13 local measures in North Carolina in 2019, as part of our comprehensive election coverage of the Tar Heel state. Of those, 12 were approved, and one was defeated.
Some notable 2019 measures included:
- New York City voters approved a ranked-choice voting (RCV) system for all city primary and special elections, making the city the most populous jurisdiction in the U.S. to use RCV.
- Voters in Denver, Colorado, approved a first-of-its-kind citizen initiative designed to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms.
- Tucson, Arizona voters rejected Proposition 205, a citizen-initiative proposing to declare Tucson a sanctuary city.
- Albuquerque, New Mexico would have become the second city (after Seattle) to adopt government-disbursed vouchers, known as democracy dollars, that voters could contribute to candidates if Proposition 2 had been approved; it was defeated 51% to 49%.
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U.S. Supreme Court allows DHS to enforce public charge rule
The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to begin enforcing a rule that authorizes the federal government to deny immigrants a visa or a green card if they rely on government assistance. Here’s a quick summary of how we got here.
- On August 14, 2019, DHS issued the final rule detailing how federal agencies determine the inadmissibility of immigrants likely to become public charges (e.g. dependent on government assistance).
- Five federal judges later issued injunctions blocking the rule from taking effect. Appellate courts lifted three of the injunctions in December 2019, but a nationwide injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and a statewide injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois remained in effect.
- On January 13, 2020, DHS requested that the U.S. Supreme Court stay the nationwide injunction issued by Judge George B. Daniels of the Southern District of New York. In his October 2019 order, Daniels held that the plaintiffs in State of New York et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al. would likely prevail in their claim that DHS promulgated the rule in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and that they would suffer irreparable harm under the new policy.
The U.S. Supreme Court granted the request for a stay. Justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh ruled in favor of the stay while Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. In a concurring opinion filed with the order, Gorsuch urged lower courts to curtail the practice of issuing nationwide injunctions, arguing in part that the broad orders impact individuals who are not parties to the cases at hand.
The decision allows the rule to take effect nationwide pending a final decision in State of New York et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al. The statewide injunction blocking the rule in Illinois remained in effect as of January 29.
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The Lucy Burns Institute, publisher of Ballotpedia, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible to the extent of the law. Donations to the Lucy Burns Institute or Ballotpedia do not support any candidates or campaigns.
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