The 2015 United States elections were held (for the most part) on Tuesday, November 3. The off-year election included a special election for Speaker of the House. There were also gubernatorial and state legislative elections in a few states; as well as numerous citizen initiatives, mayoral races, and a variety of other local offices on the ballot.
None of the three congressional seats that were up for special elections changed party hands. The Democrats picked up the governorship in Louisiana, while the Republicans picked up the one in Kentucky and held onto the governorship in Mississippi. The Republicans also picked up other various statewide offices. This led NPR to call the 2015 elections "a stinging rebuke to President Obama ... cap[ping] off yet another disappointing election cycle for Democrats", who have performed poorly against the Republicans in midterm and off-year elections during Obama's tenure. According to "The Washington Post", the election results were characterized by deepening political polarization, as the Democrats held their own or even gained ground in Democratic-leaning cities and states, while Republican gains were concentrated in Republican-leaning states.
Federal elections.
The following special elections were held to replace Senators or House Representatives who either died or resigned while in office:
Congressional leadership election.
After John Boehner of Ohio's 8th congressional district announced his resignation from the position of Speaker of the House on September 25, a special election to replace him was initially scheduled for October 8. However, after initial frontrunner Kevin McCarthy, the current House Majority leader of California's 23rd congressional district, suddenly withdrew from the race the day of the nomination vote, Republican leadership decided to move the election further back, to an unknown date later in October, if not beyond that. Both the second Republican frontrunner, Jason Chaffetz of Utah's 3rd congressional district, and Chairman of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee, and Bill Flores of Texas's 17th congressional district, withdrew on October 20 and 22, respectively, to express their support for Paul Ryan, the vice presidential candidate in 2012, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and representative of Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, who entered the race on October 22 after long being considered a potential frontrunner. The only other Republican candidate was Daniel Webster of Florida's 10th congressional district, a member of the highly-conservative Freedom Caucus that caused both Boehner to resign and McCarthy to withdraw. The Democratic candidate was current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California's 12th congressional district. On October 29, Ryan was elected Speaker with 236 of the 432 votes cast. Pelosi received 184, and Webster received 9. Jim Cooper, John Lewis, and Colin Powell all received 1 each.
State elections.
Gubernatorial.
Three states held gubernatorial elections in 2015.
Statewide executive offices.
Three states held elections for statewide executive offices in 2015:
State legislatures.
Seven legislative elections were held for four states in 2015: Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia. In New Jersey, only the lower house of the legislature held elections. Republicans maintained control of both chambers of the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia legislatures, while Democrats maintained control of the New Jersey General assembly.
Local elections.
Various elections were held for officeholders in numerous cities, counties, school boards, special districts and others around the country.
Mayoral elections.
Some of the large cities holding mayoral elections include:
Tables of partisan control results.
These tables show the partisan results of the Congressional special elections and gubernatorial races in 2015. Bold indicates a change in control.
References.
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