Aug 11, 2018

Democrats surf a wave of enthusiasm

In special elections since President Trump took office, Democrats have consistently outperformed Republicans compared to the parties' usual vote totals in regular elections, AP's Bill Barrow reports.

Source: The Associated Press

Beyond percentages, AP compared special-election raw vote totals to what Republicans and Democrats received from the same electorates in 2016.

  • "Democrats got a higher proportion than Republicans of the party’s usual presidential vote in eight out of 11 elections. They exceeded Republicans in 10 [of] 11 races when comparing the special election totals to the most recent House or Senate race involving the same electorate."

In this week's U.S. House race in Ohio, Republican Troy Balderson's 101,500-plus votes amount to less than half of Trump's total in the district, and just 40% of what former Rep. Pat Tiberi received in his last re-election.

  • But Democrat Danny O'Connor pulled in almost 62% of Hillary Clinton's 2016 total.

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Jacob Knutson
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Roger Stone arriving at his sentencing hearing on Feb. 20. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

President Trump on Friday evening commuted the sentence of his longtime associate Roger Stone, according to two senior administration officials. Stone in February was sentenced to 40 months in prison for crimes including obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress.

Why it matters: The controversial move brings an abrupt end to the possibility of Stone spending time behind bars. He had been scheduled to report to prison on July 14.

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Data: COVID Tracking Project and state health department data compiled by Axios; Map: Danielle Alberti and Naema Ahmed/Axios

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Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

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