Daily Brew: Ballotpedia & Twitter Team Up to Identify 2018 Candidates

May 24, 2018

Ballotpedia partners with Twitter to bring candidate labels to the social media site + 53 incumbents have been defeated in state legislative primaries in 2018   Ballotpedia partners with Twitter to bring candidate labels to the social media site Ballotpedia is excited to announce a partnership with Twitter to help users accurately identify the candidates in their upcoming elections. Yesterday, Twitter announced a new feature rolling out to candidate profiles next week: U.S. election labels. Ballotpedia’s election team will be providing Twitter with the data to identify general election candidates who will appear on the ballot in gubernatorial and Congressional races this November. After receiving consent from each candidate, Twitter will apply labels denoting them as verified candidates to each profile. “We’re thrilled to be able to partner with Twitter and expand the reach of Ballotpedia’s enormous dataset,” said Geoff Pallay, Ballotpedia’s Editor-in-Chief. “We believe high-quality data and information is essential to a thriving and healthy political process. To feel confident, readers need to trust the content they consume.” Read our press release→ And the Twitter announcement →         53 incumbents have been defeated in state legislative primaries in 2018 There have been 53 incumbents defeated in state legislative primary elections in 2018. 20 Democratic incumbents have been defeated 85.0 percent of all Democratic incumbents who participated in a primary have won 33 Republican incumbents were defeated 83.8 percent of all GOP incumbents who participated in a primary have won This includes incumbents defeated in Tuesday's primaries in Arkansas, Georgia, and Kentucky. Two Republican incumbents were defeated in the Arkansas primaries. Four Democrats and four Republicans were defeated in Georgia. In Kentucky, one Democrat and three Republicans were defeated, including the state house majority leader, Jonathan Shell (R). In states that have held filing deadlines, 25.0 percent of Democratic incumbents and 19.8 percent of Republican incumbents are facing primary opposition. Learn more→ Nashville to elect new mayor today A short campaign period and potential voter fatigue appears to be impacting turnout in Nashville’s special mayoral election, which takes place today. The election is needed to fill the vacancy created when former Mayor Megan Barry resigned in March 2018. Barry pleaded guilty to felony theft charges relating to her affair with the Nashville police officer in charge of her security detail. Barry agreed to resign as part of her plea agreement on those charges. Fewer than 35,000 votes were cast during this election’s early voting period, which concluded on Saturday. By comparison, almost 54,000 early votes were tallied in the previous mayoral election in the city in August 2015. Thirteen candidates are running to succeed Barry, including Vice Mayor David Briley, who became acting mayor upon Barry’s resignation. Briley was elected vice mayor in 2015, defeating former councilman Tim Garrett, 53 percent to 47 percent. The campaign period is abbreviated because of court proceedings regarding the scheduling of the election. The Davidson County Election Commission originally planned to hold the special election in conjunction with the state’s August 2nd primaries. However, a lawsuit resulted in a ruling by the Tennessee Supreme Court that ordered the city to hold this election in late May. The special election is the second time voters in Nashville are participating in a city-wide election in less than a month. City residents defeated a $5.4 billion transit referendum on May 1, 2018. That measure would have raised the city’s business and excise, sales, hotel, and rental car taxes to fund increased bus service, new transit lines, expanded light rail or bus service along the city’s major transportation corridors, and other improvements. The referendum was defeated by a nearly two-to-one margin. Also on the ballot is the District 1 seat on Nashville's Metro Council. Five candidates are running in that contest to fill the vacancy created when former council member Nick Leonardo was appointed to a county judgeship. If no candidate receives a majority in either special election, runoff elections will be held on June 28. Learn more→