Let’s see what the canary in the coal mine does today. Election Day 2025: Here are the key states with major races American voters in states including New Jersey, Virginia, New York, California, Colorado and Texas will head to the polls on Nov. 4. WASHINGTON — Voters across the U.S. will head to the polls on Nov. 4, 2025, for Election Day. While not as widespread as an Election Day during presidential election years, these races can offer insight regarding party strength as the 2026 midterm elections approach. Here’s a look at the states holding elections in November 2025: New Jersey Governor race: Democrat Mikie Sherrill, currently a U.S. House member, and Republican Jack Ciattarelli, the 2021 GOP nominee, will challenge one another to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. Jersey City Mayor race: Seven candidates are running in an all-party primary. If no candidate receives a majority, the top two will move to a runoff election scheduled for Dec. 2. Virginia Governor race: Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle‑Sears are vying to replace term-limited Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The winner will become the state’s first female governor. Lieutenant Governor race: Democrat Ghazala Hashmi, a state senator, is challenging Republican John Reid, a talk-radio host. Attorney General race: Incumbent Republican Jason Miyares faces Democrat Jay Jones, a former state delegate in an intense race. California Proposition 50: This ballot measure would adopt new congressional maps for the next three election cycles. It could add as many as five Democratic-held seats to Congress and serves as a response to aggressive map changes in states like Texas. Colorado Proposition MM: This measure proposes raising income taxes on households earning at least $300,000 annually. The revenue would fund a program to provide free meals for public-school students statewide. Georgia Atlanta Mayor race: Incumbent Andre Dickens seeks a second term in the officially non-partisan race. Four candidates have qualified for the ballot, making this a competitive local contest. Maine Question 1: This measure would overhaul the state’s election rules by requiring photo ID for all voting, shortening the absentee voting period, and banning absentee ballot requests by phone. Question 2: This measure would allow family or household members to petition courts to temporarily restrict someone’s access to weapons if they’re deemed a threat to themselves or others. Michigan Detroit Mayor race: With three-term incumbent Mike Duggan not seeking re-election, this open race will determine the next leader of Michigan’s largest city. Minnesota Minneapolis Mayor race: Incumbent Jacob Frey faces a challenge from state Sen. Omar Fateh and others in a ranked-choice election, adding complexity to the city’s political future. New York New York City Mayor race: Democrat Zohran Mamdani and Republican Curtis Sliwa are on the ballot, but former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is also running as an independent after a loss in the Democratic primary. Incumbent Eric Adams has dropped out but also remains on the ballot. Ohio Cincinnati Mayor race: Incumbent Aftab Pureval runs for re-election against challenger Cory Bowman, the half-brother of Vice President JD Vance, in this officially non-partisan city race. Pennsylvania Supreme Court Retention: Voters will decide whether to retain three Democratic justices. With Democrats holding a 5-2 majority, the outcome could shift the court’s ideological balance. Pittsburgh Mayor race: Democrat Corey O’Connor, having defeated incumbent Ed Gainey in the primary, faces Republican Tony Moreno in the general election. Texas U.S. House, 18th District: A special election is set following the sudden death of Rep. Sylvester Turner. If no candidate earns over 50 % of the vote, the top two will go to a runoff. Proposition 15: A constitutional amendment to affirm parents as primary decision-makers for their children and protect choice in education and child-rearing. Proposition 16: This measure would add language explicitly requiring U.S. citizenship to vote in Texas.
+1 for Abigail Spanberger in Virginia. This state doesn't have Ohio's old reputation, but Glenn Youngkin's election on the back of the anti-CRT panic 2021 feels like a canary in the coal mine for the broader backlash against the Democrats' post-2020 social positions. Here's hoping that Spanberger wins.
Desperate and cowardly. Sums up his self-serving, ass-kissing political identity: "If you're afraid of Trump, vote me, because you know I will suck that d*ck!"
I’m astonished he thinks this is an actual selling point…this can’t be a real person y’all give it up for AI Cuomo…hologram Cuomo…alien shapeshifter Cuomo
The democrat here, Sherrill, has a terrible plan for rising electricity prices in NJ. She wants to declare an emergency and freeze utility rates. Sounds good, right? But, the way the regulatory compact works in electricity is that the regulated utilities sum up all their costs plus an approved rate of return and allocates those costs to all the customers according to their class (resi, commercial, etc), demand (kW), and consumption (kWh). They will never eat the costs and they will never take a lower rate of return -- it's written in the law. So freezing the rates might give customers some temporary partial relief, but they will nevertheless have to pay the same in the end. There is no escaping that reality. In the regulated utility paradigm it is the customers who face the cost risks, not the shareholders. In truth, there isn't a whole lot governors can do about electricity costs. They are climbing in New Jersey for 2 main reasons. The first is that the NJ utilities use an auction among wholesale suppliers to buy forward the electricity to supply to ratepayers. Electricity prices index to the price of natural gas. Uncertainty in international gas markets from the war in Ukraine came at a bad time for the timing of the auction so the utilities had to bake in the cost of that uncertainty into their rates. If they could more continuously trade their position in commodity markets and wear risk themselves like a supplier would, they could more effectively hedge (customers in NJ can sign with alternative suppliers, and right now the offers there are in fact lower than the utility). The second reason is that NJ participates in PJM, a very efficient multi-state wholesale market, for capacity (kW) and supply (kWh). PJM runs forward auctions for capacity. Those auctions are also getting very pricey because expectations of demand growth from data centers and other large loads are making generation more valuable. We need to build more generation, and those high capacity auction prices are the price signals we need to tell investors to build the generation. So it'll come. But what can New Jersey Governor do? Not a lot. Build "more cost-efficient" generation? Sit down Sherrill, the market is already built to do that. She could subsidize new plants in New Jersey. But, while there is something to be said for local (because there are transmission constraints and line loss when you move electricity long distances), those NJ power plants will be selling to the highest bidder in all of PJM. New Jersey could leave PJM, but it is well-documented the economic efficiency of wholesale markets like PJM and prices in NJ would go up because they would no longer have access to the flexibility and depth of the larger regional market. Ciattarelli's plan isn't much better. He's using it as an excuse to pull out of RGGI, which is a regional carbon cap-and-trade system. It adds a little to the cost of electricity, but it isn't significant compared to the other drivers I described. So apart from accelerating the destruction of the planet, his plan is to do nothing. Which I guess is okay because the governor isn't in a great position to fix the price of power. In my humble opinion, there are 2 meaningful things the state legislature could do (but won't do) to get the most efficient electricity prices. The first is to pass a bring-your-own-generation law for large loads. Data center investors are spending like drunken sailors to minimize "time to power." Put them on the hook 100% for building the power plants and the transmission for the demand they have. If you don't, the costs of incremental new load will be schmeared across all customers-- data centers save a little by not shouldering the costs alone, while residential customers with high price-sensitivity get a crisis. But NJ can't do that by themselves. They need all PJM states to do the same. The second, and even more unlikely thing, is to take the electricity retail market to the Texas model and eliminate the utilities' regulated Standard Offer entirely. They consider SO as a backstop, but in truth it distorts the market at the retail level which increases both supplier retail offers and supplier SO auction offers. A governor could champion those things and push his legislature to enact things. But the actions they're actually talking about doing are so little they won't do anything to help NJers with their household budgets.
Cause we all want to vote for people who issue threats. Bunch of fing corrupt people is what they are.
Interesting and I agree, freezing the rates is only delaying the inevitable. I’d like to see an electricity premium for data centers and other large industrial consumers to offset what consumers pay until we can get generation (clean wnergy) to a place where the rates are reasonable.
Well there is the pickle. Cuomo is a scumbag, so no surprise that he said what he said. However, he is also a very successful politician that is very good at getting the programs and policies he wants passed. So - people either vote for the nice guy that is far to the left - or they vote for the scumbag that is center and has a track record of getting things done.
But what does he want done now? Trumpian things? Rocket River Better to shoot for the sky and miss than shoot for sh*t and hit
There is action ongoing in many state legislatures and utility commissions to price these large load customers differently and to make rules to make sure they don't mess up the system for everyone else. Fortunately, most of that work hasn't gotten to be high-profile political fodder because when that does happen the sides tend to become intractable and the status quo (which is bad for residential consumers) would prevail. Texas already passed a large load bill which puts the cost of new transmission on the large load that caused it and requires them to be flexible for curtailment in grid stress events. I think Texas will still see price increases in the medium term because new power plants will take longer to build than the data centers that need them, but we should hit a new price equilibrium after a spell.
He would in theory run NYC like he did before - so he is the status quo candidate. I am not saying I like or think Cuomo is the person New Yorker's should vote for -- but I can see why the establishment wants him to win.
Yea . . .. unfortunately the Establishment does not have The People's best interest at heart Rocket River
Why should residential and small business customers bear higher prices caused by massive new power users like data centers? Shouldn’t large load customers pay the full cost of the grid upgrades and generation capacity they require?
Massive line to vote. I don’t think this polling station was adequately staffed based on historical off-year voting numbers.
