The Ashland public library, a ballot drop-off station in Ashland. (Photo credit to Bob Palermini and Friends of Ashland Library)
The City of Ashland and the United States held a historic set of elections on Tuesday, November 5th, with enormous implications for the country and world over the next four years. The first Presidential election since the apex of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, a significant overhaul of the vote-counting process (on a state by state basis) made the 2024 election considerably faster to count than 2020. Donald Trump won the Presidency again with 312 electoral votes and slightly over 50% of the popular vote, with close to 98% of total votes counted. Vice President Kamala Harris won slightly more than 48% of the popular vote, and won 226 electoral votes.
This is the first time in Trump’s career that he has won the popular vote, and it is the first time since 2004 that the Republican nominee has. Six states– Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia– flipped from Biden to Trump. Exit polls suggest that despite reservations over Trump’s rhetoric and politics, voters overwhelmingly faulted Biden and Harris for the current state of the economy and their personal finances, and did not perceive Trump as a particularly strong threat to abortion rights and U.S. democracy. Trump made gains with young voters, Hispanic voters. To protest the results, Southern Oregon University students staged a walkout on noon of Wednesday, November 13th.
The Republican Party flipped four seats in the Senate, West Virginia, Montana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, bringing them from forty-nine seats to fifty-three. They have currently kept the House of Representatives with 219 out of 435 seats (218 are required for a majority), and the final result is unknown only in three seats. The Republicans will control the House only by the narrowest possible margins, and Trump’s plans to recruit its members for cabinet roles could further imperil it. The outstanding seats are in Alaska and California, and counting will continue over the next few days and weeks.
It will be the first time since 2017 that Republicans controlled the executive and legislative branches. However, the Senate’s legislative filibuster means that Republicans will need 60 votes to pass anything that isn’t a Presidential appointment or related to the budget.
Despite a drubbing nationally, Democrats did well in the Pacific Northwest. Washington was the only state in America to give Harris an equal or better total to Biden in 2020, while Oregon only marginally gave Trump a better total in 2024 than 2020. Democrat Janelle Bynum succeeded in defeating Republican Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who occupies Oregon’s 5th District (Salem and Bend). Bynum will make history as the first Black individual to represent Oregon in Congress. There is only one Republican member of the delegation, Representative Cliff Bentz, who represents Medford, Ashland, and the heavily rural, agrarian, and natural resources-dependent eastern part of the state.
However, Oregon’s Ballot Measure 117, which would have instituted ranked-choice voting, failed. Measure 118, which would have raised the corporate tax to give payouts to all Oregon citizens, failed with nearly 80% of the vote against. A measure to put state officials’ salaries in the hands of a commission failed, while measures to create a process for statewide impeachment and to set organized labor guidelines for marijuana businesses passed. Democrats held every statewide office.
In the City of Ashland, three city council seats and two parks commission seats were on the ballot. Douglas Knauer, Dylan Bloom, and Jeff Dahle all won their races for three city council seats up for election this year. On the Ashland Parks and Recreation Commission, the winners were Mike Gardiner and Daniel Weiner. Mayor of Ashland, Tonya Graham and City Councilor, Gina DuQuenne both won unopposed. The elections saw success for direct democracy on the local level. A measure to allow open-seat elections was approved with over 80% of the vote. An attempt to make the municipal judge an appointed position was rejected overwhelmingly.
With perhaps the most immediate consequences for Ashland residents, the City approved a measure to issue city bonds to fund a new water system, which will be financed with an increase in the property tax. The measure was backed by Mayor Graham, and under its provisions Ashland will also be seeking funding from the EPA to build the new water system.
This post was originally published on here
