RationalWiki:What is going on with the elections?/2019

December 2019
The Sanders campaign has dominated the fundraising based on small dollar donors, having raised $25 million in the third quarter of the year alone (and having raised approximately $61.5 million in 2019 so far) In not a surprising move, Corbynista acolyte Rebecca Long-Bailey has unofficially put her hat in the ring for the Labour leadership, with a promise to champion “progressive patriotism”. She has been given the support of former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow education secretary Angela Rayner. The Bloomberg campaign has acknowledged that one of the vendors it hired used prison labor to make campaign phone calls. The debate has just been held. Here are the winners and losers. After shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry’s announcement for running as Labour leader, shadow Treasury secretary has officially put his hat in the ring. ...a debate that might not happen, as all seven candidates have announced that they intend to boycott the debate in solidarity with striking food service employees at the venue until the labor dispute is resolved. UPDATE: [https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/17/21025026/democratic-debate-strike-loyola-marymount-tom-perez-unite-here ... nevermind.] Seven candidates have made the cut for the Democratic Party presidential debate on 19 December, 2019: Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer, Andrew Yang. Jeremy Corbyn has announced his intention to stand down as Labour leader before the next general election after 'a period of reflection'. As the blame game within Labour is now in full effect, and Labour leadership hopeful was ousted from her seat, it is still very unclear what effect this will have on the party and who will replace Corbyn as the next Leader of the Opposition. As the country and parties begin processing what will surely be a traumatic fallout from yesterday's election, Jo Swinson resigns as Liberal Democrat leader with immediate effect after losing her seat to the SNP. She was only leader for five months, and will probably never be close to the frontbench again. The LibDems seat count fell from 21 to 11 MPs. The Conservatives under Johnson seem to be poised to win a considerable majority in the UK general election. Polls close at 10pm. The BBC have denied their chief Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg committed electoral fraud by saying Labour was doing badly in postal votes, a statement that attracts a lot of comments answered by the statement. With one day left, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson hides in a fridge. A coalition of more than fifty progressive groups endorses Bernie Sanders Tulsi Gabbard announces she will not attend the Democratic Party presidential debate on December 19, 2019, even if she manages to qualify for it. Kamala Harris ends her 2020 Presidential campaign. Another one leaves:, Governor of Montana, announces he will drop out of the race to seek the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Not that anyone even remembered he was running, but, former Pennsylvania U.S. representative, is dropping out of the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination race. We didn't even have a brief, passing mention of him in our article.

November 2019
Channel 4 has held a Climate Debate with the leaders of every major party in the UK, the first of its kind worldwide. Notable is that [https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/28/tories-left-on-ice-in-tv-debate-as-leaders-vie-for-climate-credentials the leader of the Conservative Party, Boris Johnson, refused to attend, marring a significant achievement in the climate movement. He was replaced with an ice sculpture,] along with Nigel Farage, who also refused to attend. Despite Boris Johnson personally refusing the invitation, the Conservative Party are still threatening the broadcaster for not accepting - to the Leader's Debate - Michael Gove at the last minute, saying they could 'review' their broadcasting remit. Pro-democracy candidates win big in Hong Kong's local elections It's official: Michael Bloomberg, after years of will-he-or-won't-he, is running for President. The Conservative Party has suspended a candidate for their Aberdeen North constituency over historic internet comments about David Irving's Holocaust denial. As this was at the eleventh hour, there can no longer be a Tory candidate for the constituency. Ever wondered what happens when a former UKIP MEP runs as a Conservative? If you guessed "allegations of racism", you'd be correct. Pete Buttigieg's campaign dragged into controversy over his Douglass Plan due to lying about Black politicians supporting the plan (and 42% of claimed supporters are actually white) and using a Kenyan stock image to promote his image Louisiana Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards narrowly defeats Republican challenger Eddie Rispone. Police assessing claims that Tories offered peerages to Brexit party Lord Falconer urges Met to look at allegations candidates were offered peerages to stand down 10 Democrats have made the cut for presidential debate number 5 on 20 November, for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang. Following resignation leaving CA-25 open, Cenk Uygur announces he will seek CA-25's vacant seat. He joins several others also seeking the seat: Christy Smith, who Hill is backing; Steve Knight who held the seat before Hill; and, who likely had insider knowledge about the conspiracy to take down Hill is just a coffee boy convicted criminal. Mike Cernovich is considering also running for the seat. Labour has pledged to bring free "full-fibre" broadband to all homes and businesses if they win the election, in a scheme that would part-nationalise BT. The scheme would cost £20bn, which Labour says would be funded by a new tax on tech companies. Broadband in the UK is currently priced at an average of £30/month. Another person is joining the 2020 Democratic primary: Former Massachusetts governor. Major nurses' union endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders and his Medicare For All bill. Mark Sanford ends his primary challenge to Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican Party presidential nomination. He blames the impeachment inquiry for sinking his efforts... (He lasted 66 days, just over two months.) The Brexit Party will not contest 317 Tory seats, says leader Nigel Farage. How the party or Farage will benefit from this backtracking is unknown, since he already refused a peerage he said was offered by Boris Johnson's government last week. Spain’s election set to perpetuate political deadlock- Socialists win again but fall far short of a majority, while far-right Vox party make big gains soaring to the third position and Ciudadanos crashes and burns. More announcements for candidates nobody wants, coming from the state of Alabama: Jeff Sessions announces he will be running for his former US Senate seat in Alabama, in 2020. Michael Bloomberg files paperwork to get his name on the Alabama primary ballot for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. He is still considering if he wants to run, however Alabama has a extremely early deadline for the primary ballot, prompting his filing. The Virginia General Assembly is now under full control of the Democrats for the first time in over 20 years, and state legislators are promising swift action in coming years. In Kentucky, Democrat Andy Beshear squeaks past Republican Matt Bevin in the Kentucky governor's race. Beto O'Rourke announces the end of his bid to become the nominee to represent the Democratic Party in the 2020 presidential election.

October 2019
After multiple attempts, Parliament has voted in favour of a December election. The UK will go to the polls on 12 December Boris Johnson to ask parliament for early general election in December. Parliament declines the request, which surprises no one except Boris. Tim Ryan suspends his campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination so that he can run for re-election to Congress. Populist anti-immigrant politician and People's Party founder Maxime Bernier lost his seat in the Canadian House of Commons while his new party failed to win a single seat. Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party remains the largest party but has lost its overall majority. Results for the elections of the Federal Assembly in Switzerland point to gains for the two main green parties the Greens and the Green-Liberals, against losses for the main establishment parties. With the Greens overtaking the Christian-Democrats to become the fourth largest party, there is speculation that the make-up for next year’s [Swiss government] will change to include a green councillor for the first time ever. Hillary Clinton suggests that Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian asset; theorizing that she's being 'groomed' to launch herself into a third party candidacy if when she loses the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Gabbard's response was... Interesting. This was the end of a three tweet thread: "It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me. Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies. Join the race directly." In a surprise result from Hungary, the opposition green politician Gergely Karácsony, has won the Budapest's mayoral election against the current Orbán henchman István Tarlós. He won the election by a narrow 50.1% to 44.8%. Exit polls in the general elections in Poland, point to a continuation of ruling the Catholic-nationalist Law & Justice (PiS), with 43.6% and 239 of 460 seats in the Sejm. The opposition liberal centre Civic Coalition (KO) is in second place at 27.4% and 130 seats. This is despite good results in last year's mayoral elections, where KO took nearly all the main cities. Results of the elections in Portugal point to a continuation of current pink-red « geringonça » coalition government of António Costa. Update: With nearly all the votes counted, it is bad luck for the opposition conservative PSD and CDS-PP parties, with both parties losing badly to PS and various minor parties. Bernie Sanders, recovering in hospital after a heart procedure to address a blocked artery. He has cancelled campaign events and appearances until further notice. He is reported to be "conversing and in good spirits". The deadline has closed for the Tuesday, October 15 Democratic debate. Despite having 12 candidates meet the debate qualifications, the debate will be one night, with all 12 candidates on one stage. The following candidates will appear: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang.

September 2019
Dave Rubin may have violated Canadian election laws by financing wingnut Maxime Bernier's fringe. Former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has won a clear victory in the country's general election. His former coalition party, the Freedom Party, saw a sharp decline in votes. Kurz didn't win an overall majority and will likely have weeks of coalition talks with other parties. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio drops out of the 2020 Presidential race. In the middle of an election campaign, photos have surfaced of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in racist costume and makeup on more than one occasion. Trudeau has apologized for the incidents, but the overall impact on his campaign will likely prove to be a challenge. Spain will go to the polls for a snap election on 10 November, its fourth election in four years. This comes as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez fails to secure enough support in parliament to form a government. [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/israel-election-exit-polls-show-netanyahu-trail-rival-gantz-190917190950163.html Exit polls are showing that neither the current governing or opposition coalition group of parties have control of the Knesset. One surprise that is coming out, is strong support for the Palestinian-Israeli party] caused by an increase turnout of Arab-Israelis. County and municipality elections across Norway reveal declining support for Labour, Conservative, and [[Fremskrittspartiet], with increasing popularity of Centre Party, Green Party, and the bizarre anti-tollbooth protest Bompengpartiet] And the long saga of the North Carolina’s (See Nov/Dec 2018 & Jan/Feb 2019), comes to an end. (R) squeezes out a victory against (D). Tories beat New Democratic Party in Canadian provincial election in Manitoba, in an another demonstration of why [[First past the post] is borked] Is Andrew Yang being unfairly ignored by the mainstream media? And now there are three... Mark Sanford, yes, that Mark Sanford, announces his bid for 2020, aiming to primary Donald Trump for the 2020 GOP nomination. Parliament has voted to reject Boris Johnson's push for early elections. Human rights atrocities on the rise in Burundi as the nation's "divine" president cracks down ahead of 2020 elections. Boris Johnson calls for Oct. 15 snap elections after 21 members of his party voted with the opposition to defeat him in a key 'no deal' Brexit vote.UPDATE: He fails to get a snap election called Members of the Italian populist party 5 Star Movement has voted by over three-quaters to accept a proposal to form a coalition government with the centre-left Democratic Party.

August 2019
New York Senator has dropped out of the 2020 Democratic primary after failing to meet either qualification for Debate #3 in the primary. And the gates have closed on Democratic Debate #3 qualifications. The following people have qualified for this debate on September 12: Joe Biden, Corry Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang. Why doesn't he just retire? Joe Arpaio annouces that he is seeking to re-election as Maricopa County sheriff. Joe Walsh is considering trying to primary Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican Party presidential nomination. Update: Walsh 2020 is a thing... He is the 2nd Republican to announce intent to primary Trump in 2020. Washington Governor Jay Inslee Withdraws from the 2020 presidential race. considering ending his Presidential run in 2020 to instead run against in 2020 Senate race. Update: Hickenlooper is out of the presidential race. Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel has now dropped out of the Presidential race. The Liberal Democrats have won the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, reducing the government’s majority to just one MP.

July 2019
Boris Johnson wins the Conservative leadership election and will become the 77th Prime Minister tomorrow. Jo Swinson is elected as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats Mark Sanford, yeah, that, is considering a primary challenge against Donald Trump for the Republican nominee 2020 election. He will decide if he will run in about a month. After doing a fairly amusing/ridiculous draft event thing, CNN has the line up for the July 30/31 Democratic presidential primary debate: Eric Swalwell ends presidential bid after failing to gain traction Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has conceded defeat in Greece's general election and looks set to be replaced by the centre-right Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Tsipras had called the snap election following his Party's losses in the 2019 European Parliament and Local elections. Golden Dawn lost all their seats.
 * Steve Bullock, Pete Buttigieg, John Delaney, John Hickenlooper, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke, Tim Ryan, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson in the 30 July debate.
 * Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Bill de Blasio, Cory Booker, Julián Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Jay Inslee, Andrew Yang in the 31 July debate.

June 2019
Plans for any televised debate between the two remaining challengers for the office of Prime Minister have been scuttled as one (guess who) refuses to take part. It's going to be a long 501 days. Roy Moore, yeah that Roy Moore, is running for US Senate against Doug Jones in the 2020 election. Smashes head against wall repeatedly. The New York Times asks 21 Presidential candidates 18 questions each, with topics ranging from stopping climate change, to breaking up tech conglomerates, to how many hours they sleep per night. Conservative leadership election - is knocked out while Boris Johnson leaped ahead with 143 votes. (Next highest, Jermemy Hunt, has 54). And so it begins (Officially). Trump kicks off his 2020 reelection campaign. There's 502 days to go...  The first round of the Conservative leadership election.Boris Johnson tops the poll, 3 other candidates eliminated. The 2018 Brazil presidential election that lifted fascist hardliner Jair Bolsonaro to the Brazilian presidency, was partially enabled by a secret conspiracy between a judge, prosecutors, and the country's conservative party to jail and prevent from running the extremely popular left leaning ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula. Hard Line and Danish People's Party pick up few votes, leading to a possible Social Democrat–led coalition. Labour wins the Peterborough by-election, denying Brexit Party its first chance of getting Parliamentary representation.

May 2019
Tory PM candidates are now resorting to tax reform to maintain support of the voters. Raab now wants a 25% tax cut to low-income earners, while Johnson wants a 50% tax-cut for those earning £50-79,000. The latter is projected to blow a £9.6 billion hole in the budget. Israel to hold fresh election in September as Netanyahu fails to form coalition European Election Results Show Growing Split Over Union’s Future Euroskeptic parties have raised, but not to the extremes some expected. Liberal and Green ones are also on the rise UKIP gets destroyed in MEP election. 0 MEPs elected. (They won 24 seats in the 2014 election). In the South West Region (where Carl Benjamin a.k.a. Sargon of Akkad was on the ballot), UKIP only got 3.2% of the vote, down 29.1% from the 2014 election. Ruling right-wing BJP wins Indian election with increased majority. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has lost the election for Amethi, a seat members of his family have held for generations, to Smriti Irani, the BJP candidate. Australia's general election was fought with climate change as a major issue... and the climate lost. In the past week, street fights have taken place between UKIP supporters and antifascists over the throwing of milkshakes at controversial election candidates. Carl Benjamin had a milkshake lobbed at him, and earlier got hit with fish (The photo is amazing). A UKIP EU election candidate has resigned from the party over Carl Benjamin's rape comments. As he is already on the ballot as their candidate for Wales, he promises to resign immediately if elected. Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad) is now being investigated by West Midlands Police after video surfaced of him in Gibraltar, saying "There's been an awful lot of talk about whether I would or would not even rape Jess Phillips... I suppose with enough pressure I might cave, but let's be honest, nobody's got that much beer." (Note: is a sexual assault survivor, just to make this comment especially disgusting.) UKIP gets destroyed in the local elections, losing about 80% of the seats they were defending. They went in with 111 seats, and ended the election with 24. Mind you, The Brexit Party, their main competitor for being the 'party of Brexit', wasn't running any candidates in the local elections. Based on current polling, UKIP would struggle to keep a single seat in the EU Parliament in the. Update:They ended the election losing 145 seats and ended with only 31 elected. The Conservatives and the Labour Party both lose seats in the 2019 Local Elections in what has been described as a Brexit backlash.

April 2019
Nationalist sentiments are rising across Europe ahead of the European elections in May. Problems arise for the Brexit Party after their North West candidate for the EU elections is revealed to have previously defended an IRA bombing in the area. As it happened | Socialist Party wins general election, but falls short of majority. Two Change UK MEP candidates have resigned from the party owing to controversial historic tweets in spite of vetting procedures. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48007487 Ukraine election: Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky has won the Ukrainian presidential election with over 70% of the vote, defeating the incumbent Petro Poroshenko. Zelensky was a candidate from the political party Servant of the the People, named after the television series in which he played a fictional Ukrainian president.] The UKIP launch featured Mark Meechan (Count Dankula) and Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad), who when asked about his rape tweet at Labour MP, responding, "I think we should treat women the same as men. That means if a woman is being a giant bitch and laughing at male suicide [Note: she didn't], I’m going to be a giant dick back to her." The Sun: in a stopped clock moment ran this headline "UKIP unveils thug who taught dog Nazi salute and sicko who joked about raping MPs as MEP candidates". Carl Benjamin, a.k.a. Sargon of Akkad, faces renewed criticism for inviting supporters to a Discord channel that condones calls for assassinations; support for far-right terrorists and virulent antisemitism. Then, as if to undercut Gerard Batten's defense of him (mentioned below), Carl tweets the same thing at Kristi Winters about two hours later. Forced to acknowledge MEP candidate Carl Benjamin's controversial past, Gerard Batten insists he is a satirist and any comments to do with rape were tongue-in-cheek. UKIP has announced that Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad) is second on the list for their candidates in the South West region, in the (possible*). (*If the UK leaves the European Union prior to 23 May, 2019, then this election will not be held, as the UK would no longer be a part of the EU.) With 97% of the vote counted, it looks like the right-wing block has won a majority, giving Benjamin Netanyahu a fifth term in office.

March 2019
In Turkey's local elections, results have indicated a loss for President Erdoğan's AKP. It has lost the mayoralty of the capital Ankara, to cross-party opposition candidate Mansur Yavaş. Plus, it is in a tight race for the mayoralty of the county’s largest city and economic capital Istanbul, between AKP’s Binali Yıldırım, and the opposition CHP's Ekrem İmamoğlu. If the CHP wins Istanbul, it would be the first time in over fifteen years and a massive blow to the president. Independent liberal anti-corruption candidate Zuzana Čaputová has won 58.4% against 41.5% in the Slovakian presidential election, in what deemed a growth in a tide of anti-corruption protest that is growing in Central and Eastern Europe. She is also Slovakia's first women president. In crucial state elections in Australia’s most popular state New South Wales, the current right-wing coalition of the Liberals and Nationals have won the election with a reduced majority. The biggest gainers have been right-wing populist, which has one of its main policies relaxation of Australia's strict gun laws. The current centre-right Dutch government has lost its majority in the Senate. The surprise winner of the country's provincial elections, which indirectly chooses the upper chamber of the Dutch parliament, is the populist far-right which is led by Rees-Mogg-esque. Hillary Clinton said she will not be running for President in 2020. In a special election after the murder of former Gdańsk mayor Paweł Adamowicz, In preliminary results, his deputy Aleksandra Dulkiewicz has overwhelmingly won the mayorship with 84%. The liberal won against her far-right challengers Grzegorz Braun who got 12 per cent and Marek Skiba who has got 4%.

February 2019
NC 9th Congressional District: The man at the center of this entire mess, Leslie McCrae Dowless, has been arrested and charged with three counts of felony obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballots by the Wake County district attorney. NC 9th Congressional District: Mark Harris will not run in the new special election, citing health reasons and a surgery in March. Democrat Dan McCready has already announced his intention to run again in the new special election. The North Carolina State Board of Elections has voted unanimously for new election in the 9th congressional district after even Mark Harris, who had won and been demanding the election be certified so he could be seated, admitted that public faith in the election is damaged and asked for a new election. On the third day of hearings, Mark Harris' son, John Harris, stated that he told his father and campaign manger Andy Yates that he believed there was something "shady" about Dowless after John had poked around in a 2016 election for the 9th district that Dowless had been involved in. This appears to contradict statements by both Mark Harris and Yates that they had observed no red flags regarding Dowless, as do a 2016 email written by Mark Harris that references/jokes about Dowless' suspected misconduct that prior election. The first day of hearings into the alleged election fraud in North Carolina's 9th Congressional district (Which is still unfilled due to this mess) lays out a well-orchestrated plan to deceive election personnel with attention to even small details like mailing ballots in small batches from the local post office and the matching pen ink used on forms to avoid arousing the attention of state election officials.

January 2019
Outsider wins El Salvador presidency on anti-corruption platform, breaking two-party system Ukraine says it sees surge in cyber attacks targeting election Opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi declared winner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's presidential election in contentious result.