Who won the Secretary of State elections? A quick look at who prevailed
WASHINGTON − Races for secretary of state ended Wednesday with Democrats victorious in North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont and Washington and Republicans winning seats in West Virginia, Missouri and Montana.
Democratic incumbents Elaine Marshall in North Carolina, Sarah Copeland Hazas in Vermont and Steve Hobbs in Washington were elected to another term. Christi Jacobsen, a Republican incumbent in Montana, will also keep her statewide role.
In open-seat races, candidates including Democrat Tobias Read of Oregon and Republicans Kris Warner of West Virginia and Denny Hoskins of Missouri were elected.
The term limits and number of years secretaries of state serve varies. Oregon and Montana are unique in that, unlike the other five states, secretaries of state cannot serve more than eight years.
The last time the seats in these seven states were up for election was in 2020. That year, Democrats flipped one seat, in Oregon.
Most of the Republican candidates in this year’s races were prominent supporters of President-elect Donald Trump who questioned the validity of the 2020 election.
Though the secretary of state role varies from state to state, most officces oversee the administration of elections, including setting up guidelines and rules for local election officials to follow, Peverill Squire, a political science professor at the University of Missouri, previously told Paste BN.
They also often have a role in how ballot initiatives, referendums and recall elections are administered.
But in recent years, the role has become more politicized as false allegations of election and voter have spread. turning the races into a new battleground.
One example of this is the infamous phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, days before the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, in which Trump was recorded pressured Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes" and reverse Joe Biden's victory in the state.