{"id":1052649,"date":"2025-05-01T15:08:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T19:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1052649"},"modified":"2025-05-02T17:05:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T21:05:53","slug":"icymi-the-down-ballot-democrats-just-turned-in-the-biggest-overperformance-in-a-special-election-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-down-ballot-democrats-just-turned-in-the-biggest-overperformance-in-a-special-election-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: The Downballot: Democrats Just Turned in the Biggest Overperformance in A Special Election This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Key Point: <\/strong>\u201cNonprofit founder Angel Ramirez turned in the biggest overperformance by a Democrat in a special election this year with her victory on Tuesday night, winning Iowa&#8217;s vacant 78th House District in a 79-21 landslide \u2026 Altogether, in 19 special elections, Democrats are running ahead of the presidential margins by an average of 11.6 points.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-downballot.com\/p\/democrats-just-turned-in-the-biggest\"><strong>The Downballot<\/strong><\/a><strong>: Democrats just turned in the biggest overperformance in a special election this year<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By David Nir&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Nonprofit founder Angel Ramirez turned in the biggest overperformance by a Democrat in a special election this year<\/strong> with her victory on Tuesday night, winning Iowa&#8217;s vacant 78th House District in a 79-21 landslide.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Last year, Kamala Harris carried the district, based in the Cedar Rapids area, by an already considerable 66-33 margin, according to calculations from The Downballot. That means Ramirez&#8217;s showing represents <strong>a 26-point improvement on last year&#8217;s presidential results.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The previous high-water mark was also set by an Iowa Democrat, educator Mike Zimmer,<strong> who beat the 2024 numbers by 25 points<\/strong> when he flipped a deep red seat in the state Senate in a massive upset in January. The year&#8217;s third-best overperformance also came in Hawkeye State, when Democrat Nannette Griffin <strong>exceeded Harris&#8217; margins by 24 points <\/strong>in another ruby-red seat in the House.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Elsewhere on Tuesday, in neighboring Minnesota, Republican Keri Heitzeman defeated Democrat Denise Slipy to hold the vacant 6th Senate District, winning by a 60-40 margin. <strong>That showing also represented a Democratic overperformance, however, since Donald Trump won the district by a 63-37 spread in 2024.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Altogether, in 19 special elections,<strong> <\/strong><strong>Democrats are running ahead of the presidential margins by an average of 11.6 points. <\/strong>Ahead of Trump&#8217;s first midterm, Democrats outperformed during the 2017-18 election cycle by 10.6 points in aggregate, according to historical data compiled by The Downballot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Point: \u201cNonprofit founder Angel Ramirez turned in the biggest overperformance by a Democrat in a special election this year with her victory on Tuesday night, winning Iowa&#8217;s vacant 78th House District in a 79-21 landslide \u2026 Altogether, in 19 special elections, Democrats are running ahead of the presidential margins by an average of 11.6 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":293,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1052649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - 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