Congratulations to Edith DesMarais for
winning the New Hampshire special election and being the first Democrat to flip a state or federal seat in 2017. She won 52-48, when the GOP carried the district 57-43 in the 2016 election. A shift of 9 points, not too shabby.
Democrat Christine Pellegrino has also
flipped the New York Assembly 9 District in Long Island. She won 58-42, when the district was 69-31 towards the GOP in 2016. A shift of 27 points towards the Democrats. Holy moly.
It should be noted that the NY race had 1/3 the turnout of the 2014 midterms, when the GOP won with about 75% of the vote.
With these two upsets, Democrats are a net +1 for change in state/federal seats in 2017. The Democrats have good odds of losing these again in 2018 given a more representative electorate going to the polls, but for now, it's definitely inspiring for those who have wanted to see slipping GOP margins finally translate into a victory.
The real tests will be the Georgia 6th district and the Montana At-Large district in the next few weeks, given their much larger constituencies. Georgia's reporting the Democrat several points
ahead of the Republican, while the Montana race has been
narrowing and comes just one day after the much-awaited CBO score of the American Health Care Act.
This thread speak at length about irrelevant local US offices
"Irrelevant" isn't the really the term I'd use to describe state legislatures that in most states control redistricting that is essential to Democrats being able to retake the House in 2018, never mind limit laws that serve to suppress the vote. I think control of the US Congress has a potentially global impact too. It's all connected.
The Democrats' failure to realize this (and compete the same way the GOP did in the runup to the 2010 midterms) is part of why the Party is in such an electoral pickle right now. It turned the midterm disadvantage up to eleven. The real fight in 2018 isn't the House and Senate (though these are looking increasingly to be more in play) so much as Governorships and state legislatures with their enormous redistricting power and ability to resist federal initiatives by Trump and the GOP Congress.