OP didn't specify which elections are happening this November 4th of 2025, so to be as clear as possible:
The elections this November aren't for the U.S. House, or the Senate, or any other branch of the federal government.
The elections this November are actually more important than the elections for the federal government.
They are a mix of state and local elections.
To break it down further: we have statewide elections in the following states:
New Jersey: Governor, State House.
Virginia: Governor, Attorney General, State House.
Pennsylvania: a retention election for the State Supreme Court. Three incumbent Democratic justices are up for retention votes, where a "yes" vote means they stay on the court, and "no" means they must be replaced (potentially with a Republican). Republicans are attempting to take back control of the court by unseating two or more Democratic justices, which could compromise the fairness of elections in this state in 2026 and 2028. There are also retention votes for several lower courts.
California: Prop. 50 aims to counter Republican gerrymandering in Texas by gerrymandering an equal number of U.S. House seats in CA, contingent on the TX map staying standing in court. If passed, the new CA map would last from 2026 to 2030 (inclusive).
Colorado: Funding free meals for kids in schools, including mechanisms to help counteract the federal SNAP cuts! (Essentially, a recent change to the ballot measure made it so any leftover money from the meal program could go to SNAP.) This is via Proposition LL and Proposition MM.
Maine: Two propositions. The first is a dangerous voter disenfranchisement proposal, which would decimate access to absentee voting and require photo ID to be shown at polls. Proponents of the measure tried to sue to stop the summary on the ballot from actually saying what it would do to absentee voting (they lost their case, luckily), so you know it's bad.
The second Maine proposition asks whether to implement extreme risk protection orders (red flag laws). For context, Maine currently has a weaker "yellow flag law."
Washington State: Proposition to allow the state to fund its upcoming, public long-term care insurance program, WA Cares, with stock market investments reminiscent of how the state can already handle pensions. This would arguably/ideally keep premiums lower; I won't claim to be an expert on this one but it's definitely worth reading more about.
Texas: Too many propositions to list. (Literally, there's 17). Luckily, Ballotpedia has already listed them for us.
There are also too many municipal (a.k.a. town-wide, city-wide, or county-wide) elections to list! These elections affect your community the most directly!
Most people know NYC is voting for mayor (don't let Cuomo make a comeback!), but don't let him distract you from city council elections, either. Wikipedia has a long list of the largest cities with municipal elections in 2025 (Atlanta, Minneapolis, and New Orleans are some examples), but if you live in a smaller town, be sure to google "[your town name] elections" to see if you have anything this November.
Lastly, there is a special election in Tennessee's 7th Congressional district that's happening after election day, on December 2nd. This district is Republican leaning, but a large enough Democratic over-performance could flip it — and constitute one of the only chances to whittle down the Republican House majority before 2026.
No reblog-guilting here, I'm not gonna judge anyone for not wanting to reblog a long politics post, but I'm sure it would help a lot of people make their plans if enough folks shared this list of what elections are happening this November (and this December).
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