The races for the governors office in several states are absolutely critical. The reason is that the governors will play a big role in the drawing of district maps after the 2020 census. In order to limit Republican efforts to gerrymander even more districts so Democrats can’t compete, the elections for governors offices really matter.
Florida
Democrat Andrew Gillum will beat Republican Ron DeSantis. Gillum’s win will flip control of Florida’s governor’s office from red to blue.
Gillum will win for one reason: DeSantis is a racist. He has totally joined the Trump train. One of his commercials showed DeSantis building a wall out of blocks with his daughter.
Another factor that can’t be overlooked in Florida is the number of Puerto Ricans who went to Florida after the hurricanes. Those American citizens are able to vote. Obviously, they aren’t happy with the Republican Party.
Georgia
Democrat Stacey Abrams will beat Republican Brian Kemp. This election is exciting and important, because an Abrams win would make her the first black female governor in American history.
A major issue in deciding the next governor of Georgia is the sad reality that Brian Kemp is currently Georgia’s secretary of state. As secretary of state, Kemp has control over the state’s elections. How anyone can believe that’s fair is beyond me.
On Friday, a federal judge found Kemp was using a Georgia law to unfairly purge voters from the list of eligible voters. Thanks to that ruling, more than 3,000 people (most of whom are black) will now be able to vote.
Today, two days before the election, Kemp announced his office is looking into the possibility that the Democratic Party hacked into Georgia’s election System. Kemp provided no evidence to support the charge. He has also asked the FBI to investigate.
Clearly, this is absolute nonsense. Kemp is trying to rally the GOP base with more absurd claims of election fraud.
Kansas
Democrat Laura Kelly will beat Republican Kris Kobach and independent Greg Orman. This will switch another governorship from red to blue.
Orman’s candidacy is a complicating factor. Most polls show him getting about 10 percent of the vote. The likelihood is that Orman’s votes are going to hurt Kelly more than Kowbach. Still, I believe Kelly will win.
My reason for optimism in Kansas centers around the disaster known as Sam Brownback’s stent as governor of Kansas. Brownback’s tax cuts were so misguided and did so much damage that he left office with 70 percent of Kansans having a negative feeling about his performance. The Kansas Legislature, controlled by Republicans, voted to reverse much of Brownback’s foolish tax policy.
If that weren’t enough, Kowbach is dishonest and incompetent. Honestly, the fact that this race is even close speaks to how red Kansas is today.
Kowbach has led efforts to pretend there is widespread voter fraud in America. He even chaired Trump’s voter fraud commission that failed to show any evidence of major voter fraud problems before being abollished after six months.
As secretary state of Kansas, a position he still holds, Kowbach was only able to find six instances of voter fraud. Only four of those charges resulted in action being taken. In all four of those cases, the guilty person was a man in his sixties who had voted in two states.
Wisconsen
Democrat Tony Evers will beat Republican Scott Walker.
Wisconsen had been reliably Democratic until it barely went for Trump in 2016. It looks like the citizens of Wisconsen have realized the error of their ways. Both Evers and Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin are leading their respective races.
The Wisconsin race is absolutely critical when it comes to the issue of gerrymandering. After Walker won his first term in 2010, he led Republicans to gerrymander such a rigged electoral map that it basically makes most votes meaningless.
The gerrymandered map was instituted in 2011. In 2012, Republicans got 48.6 percent of the vote in Wisconsin’s, statewide election but they won 60 of the 99 seats in Wisconsin’s assembly. In 2014, Republicans got 52 percent of the statewide vote and 63 of the 99 assembly seats.
Michigan
Democrat Gretchen Whitmer will handily beat Republican Bill Schuette.
Michigan is another state that narrowly went for Trump in 2016. A number of issues including: the contaminated water in Flint, Republican gerrymandering, and things just not getting that much better for Michiganders has the state’s governor’s office turning blue.