On Tuesday, November 5, elections took place in several states, but according to National Public Radio, the most notable were in Virginia and Kentucky. 

“Democrats had a strong election night on Tuesday, leading the race for governor in Kentucky and taking back full control of the Virginia legislature,” Jessica Taylor of National Public Radio wrote. 

Kentucky elected Democrat Andy Beshear, as their new Governor. However, Beshear’s opponent and current Republican Governor Matt Bevin, requested a recanvass on Wednesday November 6, due to Beshear only winning by five thousand votes. The recanvass is scheduled to take place on November 14, 2019. 

On the other hand, Virginia had several clear Democratic victories. According to the Washington Times, both the Virginia House of Delegates and the State Senate are under the control of Democrats for the first time in nearly 25 years. 

“Democrats in Virginia on Tuesday flipped both the state Senate and the House of Delegates, giving them control of both the governor’s office and the legislature,” Alex Pappas of Fox News wrote. 

Virginia Democrats were successful due to the redrawing of gerrymandered voting districts. Virginia has had issues with gerrymandering in the past, as African American populations were packed into a few districts. This violated the Constitution because it lessened the power of African American votes. In 2017, this directly impacted an election for the State Senate and House of Delegates in Virginia.

“Both candidates received exactly the same number of votes, so the state held a random draw…as a consequence, the Democratic Party came up one seat short of taking back the House,” Annalisa Merelli of Quartz wrote. 

After the election, the Supreme Court ordered that the government of Virginia redraw district lines to eliminate gerrymandering. The redrawn boundaries positively impacted the election on November 5. 

“This was the first election in which the redrawn districts had a chance to express their preference, and it resulted in four flipped seats for Democrats,” Merelli wrote. 

Some believe that these elections will influence who will become the president in 2020, as Democrats have become more prevalent in recent years. 

“Democrats have finally gotten their act together in state-level politics… It’s taken Democrats almost a decade to rebuild and regain ground in the states, but they’re close to pulling even,” Andy Kroll of Rolling Stone wrote. 

More states are electing Democratic officials, and it could possibly lead to more conflict in the upcoming presidential election.