Elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and other Major U.S. Cities

Yesterday, November 2nd, 2021, was election day for some key locations throughout the United States. In Virginia and New Jersey, the gubernatorial election (i.e. governor’s race), the elections for lieutenant governor and attorney general, and house of delegates races took place. Meanwhile, several major cities and state capitals across the U.S., including New York City, New York, Atlanta, Georgia, Miami, Florida, Boston, Massachusetts, Detroit, Michigan, Cleveland, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Seattle, Washington, are having their mayoral elections.

The Virginia gubernatorial race has focused primarily on candidates Terry McAuliffe (D) and Glenn Youngkin (R). The lieutenant governor candidates are Hala Ayala (D) and Winsome Sears (R), while the attorney general candidates are Mark Herring (D) and Jason Miyares (R). As of 10:00 AM on 11/3/2021, Youngkin, Sears, and Miyares (all Republican) have won their respective positions in the Virginia government. Youngkin won with 1.67 million votes (50.68% of votes) compared to McAuliffe’s 1.59 million votes (48.55%). Virginia is often called a “purple state” in its gubernatorial elections because it tends to elect candidates of the opposite party to that in the White House. In recent years, this trend has only been broken once: by Terry McAuliffe in 2013.

In New Jersey, the situation is different. The main gubernatorial candidates are incumbent Phil Murphy (D) and former state assemblyman Jack Ciatterelli (R). The main lieutenant gubernatorial candidates, meanwhile, are incumbent Sheila Oliver (D) and former NJ senator Diane Allen (R). As of 10:00 AM on 11/3/2021, the race is still too close to call. Murphy has 1.187 million votes (49.8%) while Ciattarelli has 1.180 million votes (49.5%). Many polls predicted that Murphy would win by a considerable margin and some organizations have accredited this with Murphy’s success in his prior term as governor, especially with his handling of taxes, which are rather in New Jersey, and his dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, which was rather successful considering that it was one of the first states hit. His opponent Ciattarelli, meanwhile, wants to lower taxes and prevent mask and vaccine mandates, the latter of which are not that popular in the state. Interestingly, the New Jersey American Civil Liberties Union has also put forth a lawsuit to keep the polls open longer since many potential voters were turned away by “technical difficulties and delays” but the suit was thrown out by Judge William Anklowitz.

Lastly, we come to the numerous mayoral races spread around the nation, many of which are occurring in major cities and capitals. Many of these races are seeing the incumbents running for reelection, such as Detroit, where incumbent Mike Duggan is competing with Anthony Adams, while some, such as the races in Cleveland (Justin Bibb vs. Kevin Kelly) and Seattle (Bruce Harrell vs. Lorena Gonzalez), are seeing completely new candidates vying for the mayoral seat. The largest city in America, New York City, is also having its mayoral election. There are currently nine candidates on the ballot but the two key candidates are Eric Adams (D) and Curtis Sliwa (R). As of 10:00 AM on 11/3/2021, Adams won the race with 676,481 votes (66.1%) compared with Sliwa, who has 293,127 votes (28.7%).