Special elections are still painting a good picture for Democrats, overall

[mcar]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/06/21/special-elections-are-still-painting-a-good-picture-for-democrats-overall/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.efe68a7f7f71

...But as I argued Tuesday, it's easy to overstate the significance of a special election in one out of 435 congressional districts — especially a unique one that shifted so bigly between the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections. And the totality of special elections this year is still painting an increasingly clear picture: Democrats are over-performing, even if they aren't winning the big ones....

It's been true in a strong majority of special elections so far this year (except Georgia), from Kansas to Montana to a lower-profile congressional race Tuesday in South Carolina to a slate of state legislative races.

The good folks over at Daily Kos Elections have been tracking it all and comparing the results of each race to the presidential race in that district in November, where available. And thus far, Democrats have done better than Hillary Clinton in 17 out of 23 races and better than President Obama in 2012 in 16 of 23....

But once you start including more special elections in more districts, those unique variables in each district matter less and we get more of a sense for which side's voters are more enthusiastic and which side is doing a better job of persuasion nationwide. Right now, that's the Democrats.

[DeminPennswoods]

1. Thanks. Josh Marshall thinks similarly

over at TPM http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/thoughts-on-the-disappointing-result-out-of-georgia-6

[mcar]

2. Thanks!