The political events I’m most looking forward to in 2021

With just a few days remaining in the year, I started to look ahead to the significant dates, elections, and events that will take place next year. State and local election authorities are still working on and releasing their 2021 calendars, so we should learn about even more items in the weeks ahead.

Since everyone makes year-end lists, I figured I’d do one, too! But in typical Ballotpedia style, we’re looking at the elections and events that have caught our eye on the 2021 calendar. So here’s my top 11 elections and political events in the first six months of next year. Some of these will likely be obvious (looking at you, Georgia), while others will hopefully be a fun surprise.

Think I missed anything? Send us the election dates and events that have caught your attention!

January 5 - Georgia voters will decide runoffs for two U.S. Senate seats after no candidate received a majority of votes in either the regularly scheduled election or the special election on Nov. 3. The runoff elections will determine which party has a majority in the U.S. Senate. Republicans have secured 50 seats in the next U.S. Senate compared to 48 seats for Democrats (including two independents who caucus with them). Incumbent David Perdue (R) and Jon Ossoff (D) are running in the regular election. Incumbent Kelly Loeffler (R) and Raphael Warnock (D) are running in the special election. We’ve been following this race closely with our free daily newsletter. Click here to subscribe to Ballotpedia's Runoff Report for a closer look as these races enter the final home stretch.
January 5 - The first state legislative elections of 2021 will take place in Virginia, as voters will decide two special elections for seats in the House of Delegates. Twelve state legislative special elections have already been scheduled for next year in eight states. Between 2011 and 2019, an average of 77 special elections took place each year. You can track all of 2021’s state legislative special elections here.
January 21 - Proponents of state statutes and veto referendums in Maine have until this date to submit 63,067 valid signatures for measures to go before voters in 2021. Four of the 26 states with a process for citizen-initiated measures—Colorado, Maine, Ohio, and Washington—allow for ballot initiatives or veto referendums in odd-numbered years. The chart below displays the signature deadlines and requirements in each of those states in 2021:
February 16 - Wisconsin voters will decide spring primaries for the state’s superintendent of public instruction and various judges. All offices are officially nonpartisan. Gov. Tony Evers (D) was elected superintendent of public instruction three times before winning the state's gubernatorial election in 2018. Seven candidates are running, with the top two primary finishers advancing to the spring general election. Carolyn Stanford Taylor—who is not running for election in 2021—is the incumbent after Evers appointed her in January 2019 following his November 2018 gubernatorial win.
March 2 - Voters in St. Louis will decide a nonpartisan top-two primary for mayor and other municipal offices. This is the first election in which the city will use an election method known as approval voting after voters passed the measure establishing it last month. Candidates of all political affiliations will run together in the primary election without party labels, and voters may select any number of candidates. The two candidates that receive the most votes will advance to the general election on Apr. 6. St. Louis voters approved Proposition D—the Approval Voting Initiative—on Nov. 3, 68% to 32%. Mayor Lyda Krewson (D) announced on Nov. 18 that she would not seek re-election after she became the city's first female mayor in April 2017. The last time a Republican occupied the mayor's office was in 1949.
April 1 - The U.S. Census Bureau says it will release data from its decennial count to states as close to this date as possible. This will enable authorities to begin redrawing district boundaries for Congress, state legislatures, and certain other state executive offices nationwide. In November, U.S. Census Bureau Director Steve Dillingham announced an expected delay in processing population totals for the 2020 U.S. Census, and the New York Times reported that those census calculations could possibly be delayed until mid-February. In the 2010 cycle, the bureau delivered redistricting data to the states between Feb. 3 and March 24, 2011.
April 6 - Wisconsin holds spring general elections for the superintendent of public instruction and any judicial offices where more than two candidates filed to run. Voters will decide between the top two finishers from the state’s spring primaries on Feb. 16.
May 18 - Pennsylvania holds partisan primary elections for the state supreme court seat currently held by Justice Thomas Saylor (R). Saylor is the current chief justice and has served on the court since 1998. Currently, five judges on the court were elected in partisan elections as Democrats, one judge was elected as a Republican, and one judge was appointed by a Democratic governor.
June 8 - Virginia holds primaries for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and all 99 seats of the lower chamber of its general assembly. Virginia’s governor cannot serve consecutive terms, making this an open-seat race every election. The current governor is Ralph Northam (D), and the partisan composition of the House of Delegates is 53 Democrats, 45 Republicans, and two vacancies.
June 8 - New Jersey holds primaries for governor and all 120 state legislative seats. Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced in November that he was running for re-election. The partisan composition of the state Senate is 25 Democrats and 15 Republicans, and of the General Assembly is 52 Democrats and 28 Republicans.
June 22 - New York City voters will decide partisan primaries for mayor, comptroller, public advocate, and all 51 seats on the city council. Bill de Blasio (D) was first elected in 2013 and is ineligible to run for re-election due to term limits.

Our Elections team will continue to track down primary elections, candidate filing deadlines, and other important dates nationwide, so we’ll be updating this information early next year. But it’s clear Ballotpedia has lots of interesting elections and political events to cover in 2021.

You can stay up-to-date on upcoming election dates and all these important stories by bookmarking our elections calendar, subscribing to our newsletters, and visiting our front page every day!

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The political events I’m most looking forward to in 2021

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