Welcome to the Monday, November 6, Brew.
By: Samuel Wonacott
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- There are 11 rematches this year between candidates who last faced off in 2021
- School safety a central issue in elections for Virginia’s Loudoun County school board
- Biden issues one executive order about artificial intelligence in October
There are 11 rematches this year between candidates who last faced off in 2021
At long last, Election Day is tomorrow! Tuesday’s Brew will preview what’s on the ballot, and in the days and weeks ahead, we’ll bring you results and analyses of key elections. But today is the calm before the storm, so let’s take a deep breath and look at a fun election-related topic—rematches.
On Nov. 7, there are 11 rematches in our coverage scope between candidates who faced each other in 2021. In 2021, 10 elections in Ballotpedia’s coverage scope were rematches between the same candidates who ran for office in 2019.
This year’s rematches include:
- Five state legislative races
- Three county legislative races
- Three local races
Three of the state legislative races are in Virginia and two are in New Jersey. Virginia and New Jersey are two of four states holding state legislative elections this year. Three of the 2023 rematches will occur in different districts than in 2021, due to redistricting or because the election is for an office in a different legislative chamber (state House vs. state Senate).
In 2021, Democrats won four of the five elections.
Candidates Suhas Subramanyam (D) and Gregory Moulthrop (R), who are running for Virginia Senate District 32, previously met in the 2021 election for Virginia House of Delegates District 87. Subramanyam defeated Moulthrop 58.4% to 41.4% that year. This year, Moulthrop completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey.
In 2021, five state legislative elections were also rematches. One of those rematch elections was decided by a margin of 10 percentage points or fewer, the same as in 2019.
Three county-level rematches are occurring in Erie County, New York. The elections are for three seats in the Erie County Legislature, the county’s primary legislative and policy-making body.
Finally, three, nonpartisan, local-level rematches within our coverage scope. They are:
- Mayor of Garland, Texas: This election happened on May 6 between incumbent Scott LeMay and Roel Garcia. LeMay defeated Garcia 75.4% to 24.6%. In 2021, LeMay—the incumbent at the time—defeated Garcia 77.2% to 22.8%. Garland is one of the 40 mayoral elections we’re covering this year. Although the mayoral race was nonpartisan, LeMay is affiliated with the Republican Party.
- Atlanta Public Schools school board District 5: Incumbent Erika Yvette Mitchell defeated Raynard Johnson 72.5% to 27.3% in 2021.
- Manchester Board of School Committee Ward 7: Christopher Potter defeated Brian Cole 60.5% to 39.5%.
In 2022, there were 377 rematches between candidates who last faced off in 2018 or 2020, including 51 U.S. House districts, five state executive offices, and 287 state legislative seats.
Click the link below to learn more about rematches in the 2023 elections.
School safety a central issue in elections for Virginia’s Loudoun County school board
Over the past few weeks, we’ve brought you deep dives into a handful of school board elections we are watching closely next week in each of the seven states where we are providing comprehensive school board coverage: Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington.
Today, on the eve of Election Day, we’re looking at Loudoun County Public Schools, in Virginia. The district has roughly 81,131 students, making it the third largest in the state and the 38th largest in the country. Five state House districts overlap Loudoun County Public Schools. A Republican represents one of those districts, while Democrats represent the rest.
Eighteen candidates are running for all nine seats on the board.
School safety has been a central issue in the election. According to The Washington Post’s Karina Elwood, “The district is attempting to rebuild its relationship with the community after it became the center of a statewide political controversy in recent years: The board fired its previous superintendent in December after a grand jury report showed that the school district had mishandled two high-profile sexual assaults committed by the same student two years ago.”
School literacy, parental rights, teacher retention, trans issues, and school closures during the COVID pandemic are among the other issues candidates have discussed during the campaign.
A 2021 effort to recall six of the nine members of the Loudoun County Public Schools school board resulted in one resignation. Recall supporters alleged board members’ violated the state’s Freedom of Information Act and used critical race theory in employee training and student curriculum.
While Loudoun County school board elections are nonpartisan, local political parties endorsed candidates. The table below shows all candidates running for seats on the board and whether a local party endorsed them:
Anne Pogue Donohue and April Moore Chandler completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey.
Use the links below to revisit the school board deep dives we brought you in previous Brew editions:
- Anoka-Hennepin County School District, Minn.
- Central Bucks School District, Penn.
- Douglas County School District, Colo.
- Leavenworth Unified School District, Kans.
- Prince William County Public Schools, Va.
- Richland School District, Wash.
- Woodland Park School District, Colo.
- Wichita Public Schools, Kans.
- Mentor Exempted Village School District, Ohio
You can find all of our battleground school board elections here and learn more about the election in Loudoun County using the link below.
Biden issues one executive order about artificial intelligence in October
We periodically bring you updates on presidential and gubernatorial executive orders. Today, let’s look at orders coming out of the White House.
President Joe Biden (D) issued one executive order in October, bringing the total issued since taking office to 124.
The one order he issued in October was:
- Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (Oct. 30)
Earlier this year, we discussed Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) on an episode of On the Ballot, our weekly podcast. Host Victoria Rose sat down with Joe Amditis, assistant director of products and events at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, for a wide-ranging conversation about how A.I. could affect news, misinformation, and our political media ecosystem. Click here to open the episode in Spotify, or find it wherever you listen to podcasts (and don’t forget to subscribe!).
Over the last 34 months, Biden has issued an average of 3.6 orders per month. He issued 25 orders in January 2021, more than any other month of his presidency. He did not issue any orders in November 2022 and January 2023.
Biden is averaging 44 executive orders per year, the median among the seven presidents who have held office since 1981. Donald Trump (R) averaged 55 executive orders per year, the most in that time. Barack Obama (D) averaged 35 per year, the fewest in that time.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) issued 307 executive orders per year on average, the most of all U.S. presidents. William Henry Harrison (Whig) averaged the fewest, issuing none during his one month in office. Three presidents issued only one executive order each: James Madison (Democratic-Republican), James Monroe (Democratic-Republican), and John Adams (Federalist).
Click below to learn more about presidential executive orders.
