Victories & Good News Roundup: 2020 Election Edition

This election season was unlike any the country has seen. Despite a global pandemic, more Americans cast ballots this year than ever before, included an expected record-breaking turnout for young voters. While there were some hard losses nationally and statewide, including the U.S. Senate race here in Maine, there is much good news to report from the polls. We’ve captured some of the brightest victories below. Know of any we missed? Send us an email at suitupmaine@gmail.com. 

Maine News 

• Democrats held their majority in both state legislative chambers and picked up a seat in the Maine Senate. Some races of note:
  • Democrat Chloe Maxmin flipped SD 13, defeating Senate Republican Minority Leader Dana Dow. 
  • Democrat Joe Rafferty flipped SD34, defeating Republican Michael Pardue for an open seat that was last held by a Republican. 
  • Democrat Stacy Brenner won the SD30 seat, a critical win that allows Democrats to hang on to a seat they flipped in 2018. 
  • Democrat Dr. Richard Evans won HD120, beating incumbent Independent Norman Higgins and the Republican candidate, Chad Perkins. This seat has not been held by a Democrat since 2012. 
  • Democrat Traci Gere won the HD9 seat, a win that allows Democrats to hang on to a seat they flipped in 2018.

• Portland and Rockland passed measures to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. 

• Democrat April Fornier won an at-large seat on the Portland City Council, the first Indenous person elected to that body.

• Voter turnout in Maine broke state records, with more than 75% of the voting-age population casting more than 800,000 ballots. 

• Portland banned the use of facial recognition technology by police, following in the steps of Boston, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon.

• Rep. Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) has been nominated for the post of Speaker of the House. Since Democrats hold the majority, he is expected to be confirmed Dec. 2 to become the youngest House Speaker in the country and the first out LGBTQ individual to hold that post in Maine. 

• Two women will hold the Maine House Democrats’ top leadership positions this session. Democrats elected Rep. Michelle Dunphy (D-Old Town) House Majority Leader and Rep. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) House Assistant Majority Leader. Talbot Ross is the first person of color to hold a leadership position in the Maine Legislature. 

• 29 candidates endorsed by Everytown for Gun Safety were elected to the Maine Legislature, including four state senators and 25 state representatives. 

National News

• Joe Biden received more votes than any presidential candidate in the country’s history. Biden had received 78.6 million votes as of Nov. 14, a number that is expected to rise by the time all votes are tallied. So far, he has received more than 5.6 million more votes than Trump, the largest margin of victory in history.

• Biden flipped 5 key states: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Biden is the first Democrat to win Georgia since 1982 and the first to win Arizona since 1996.

• Voter turnout nationwide is poised to break a century-old record. More than 150 million people cast ballots this year, for a voter turnout of 66.9%. 

• Young voters turned out in large numbers, especially in battleground states. An estimated 53% of eligible young voters cast ballots this year, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. Young voters also turned previously red states into battleground states: Young voters made up 14% of the total ballots cast In Pennsylvania, 15% in Michigan, 16% in North Carolina, 17% and Arizona and 21% in Georgia. 

• More Native Americans were elected to the U.S. House than ever before, with 6 Native Americans winning races in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, and Hawaii.

• Sarah McBride became the first and only openly transgender state senator in the U.S., winning her race in Delaware.

• Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush in Missouri won her Congressional race, becoming the state’s first Black woman elected to the U.S. House.

• A record number of women of color—at least 50, including 46 Democrats—are headed to Congress.

• Florida voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. 

• Nevada became the first state to protect marriage equality in its constitution. Voters repealed a 2002 amendment that had defined marriage as between one man and one woman. 

• Mauree Turner became the first openly non-binary elected to a state legislature, winning a seat for the Oklahoma House of Representatives. 

• New Mexico elected all women of color to its U.S. House delegation, only the second state in the nation to do that. 

• Democrats Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres of New York won their races for the U.S. House and will become the first openly LGBTQ Black members of Congress. 

• Democrat Mark Kelly won his election to the U.S. Senate, taking the Arizona seat from Republican Martha McSally.

• Oballa Oballa, who came to the U.S. as a refugee from Ethiopia six years ago and became a citizen just a year ago, was elected to the city council in Austin, Minnesota.

• Mississippi voters ditched the state flag, which incorporated the confederate flag, for one with the state flower on it.

• Two years after Arizona’s teachers went on strike for more school funding, voters there approved a tax on high-income households to fund education. 

• Marilyn Strickland was elected to the U.S. House from Washington’s 10th Congressional district, becoming the first Korean American U.S. representative in the country and the first Black woman to serve from Washington. 

• Nebraska and Utah voters rejected slavery as a punishment for crime, removing language in their state constitutions that allowed “involuntary servitude” as a punishment.

• Three counties in Georgia elected their first Black sheriffs ever. They promised an end to ethics violations plaguing incumbents and an end to cooperation agreements with ICE.

• Pro-ICE sheriffs were also rejected by voters in Hamilton County, Ohio (which also elected its first woman and first openly gay sheriff), Charleston, South Carolina, and Maricopa County, Arizona, formerly under the tyranny of the infamous Sheriff Arpaio. Paul Penzone defeated a former Arpaio deputy. 

• San Francisco will now have a sheriff’s oversight board, with subpoena power, and ended a minimum staffing requirement for its police department, which will make it possible to re-envision police funding.

• Los Angeles county voters approved the diversion of funds from building jails to developing jail alternatives.

• Over 80% of voters in Portland, Oregon, approved a measure to create a new police oversight system that gives a citizen board the ability not only to investigate abuses, but to discipline police offenders. Seattle created a similar Citizens Oversight Board.

• Virginia voters overwhelmingly approved the creation of a bipartisan redistricting commission.

• Thousands of 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families in Portland, Oregon, will benefit from universal preschool, funded by a new tax on higher income earners. 

• Columbus, Ohio will bulk-buy clean energy, enabling residents to use 100% sustainable energy by 2023 without an increase in rates.

• Colorado voters approved the creation of a paid family and medical leave program. All workers in the state, including state employees and self-employed and gig workers, will be eligible for paid leave beginning in 2024.