Off-Year Results

Several states and localities held off-year elections yesterday. Here's a brief summary of the major contests.
 

• Kentucky -- Kentuckians elected only the second Republican governor in more than 40 years. The winner, Matt Bevin, came out of the Tea Party movement. He challenged Sen. Mitch McConnell last year, and narrowly won the GOP primary for governor this year.

  Democrats attributed the results to "Trump-mania" -- claiming that Bevin was a businessman and an outsider like Donald Trump. But there is a lot of evidence that social issues put Bevin over the top. He aggressively courted evangelical voters and populist Catholics.

  The state has been at the center of the same-sex marriage controversy for some time now. Bevin promised voters that he would defend Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, and defund Planned Parenthood.

  In addition, Bevin also made history with the selection of his running mate, Jenean Hampton.
   

• Virginia -- Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) desperately wanted to flip control the Virginia state Senate. He needed to win only one seat to gain control (with the lieutenant governor breaking tie votes). But Republicans held on to their 21-to-19 majority.

  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wanted to show what a full-fledged attack on gun rights could do to Second Amendment conservatives. Bloomberg poured millions of dollars into key races, attempting to exploit the tragic shooting of two reporters earlier this year. He failed. Some commentators are calling yesterday's vote "a victory for the Second Amendment."
   

• Houston -- The radical left-wing social agenda took a major hit in Houston. The lesbian mayor of Houston rammed through a broadly written, so-called "equal rights" statute that also included transgendered individuals as a protected class.

  Pastors -- black, white and Hispanic -- quickly figured out that the left's agenda would force their daughters to undress in locker rooms in front of boys who claim they are girls and allow men who claim they are women to use public women's restrooms. They mobilized opposition to the law and collected signatures to put a repeal measure on the ballot.

  The whole Houston establishment defended this law. Virtually every media outlet said that those opposed to the law were bigots. The Houston business community demanded that the law be upheld and threatened to leave the city if it wasn't. (Do business leaders really think that companies want to come to Houston so their employees' daughters can be forced to undress in front of boys?)

  Polls showed the law would be narrowly supported by the voters. But it lost last night 61%-to-39%. A Washington Post reporter saw the writing on the wall when he visited Houston and saw long lines of African Americans waiting to vote early with t-shirts that read, "No men in women's bathrooms."
   

• Ohio -- Voters in the Buckeye State rejected recreational marijuana use by a 2-to-1.
   
• San Francisco -- Onerous new business regulations were voted down and the pro-sanctuary city sheriff lost reelection.

  Backlash, Not Benefits

  In pushing his nuclear deal with Iran, President Obama and his left-wing supporters put their faith in a fantasy. They thought that the mullahs of Iran might moderate their hatred if we demonstrated our goodwill toward the regime.

  In fact, when the nuclear deal was announced, President Obama declared, "This deal demonstrates that American diplomacy can bring about real and meaningful change."

  But has there been real and meaningful change? Yes, but it is change for the worse. Just consider today's news from Tehran:

  "American flags and effigies of President Barack Obama were set ablaze on Wednesday as thousands gathered to mark the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the Iranian capital's U.S. Embassy." -- NBC News.

  "Thousands of Iranians burned the American flag and chanted slogans Wednesday as they marked the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by militant students 36 years ago. . . An Iranian official also chose the occasion to announce the arrest of an unspecified number of allegedly pro-American writers." -- Associated Press.

  "Iran will not cooperate with the United States on the 'fight against terrorists in Syria,' a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying by state media on Wednesday." -- Reuters.

  "Anyone who hoped that Iran's nuclear agreement with the United States and other powers portended a new era of openness with the West has been jolted with a series of increasingly rude awakenings over the past few weeks. . . Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, said the 'Death to America' slogan is eternal." -- New York Times.