While Donald Trump had the political world’s attention last night, election results were coming in about 400 miles away that the president probably didn’t like. The Connecticut Mirror reported on the results of three legislative special elections in the Nutmeg State, which at first glance may appear anodyne, but there’s a context to this that matters.

In three special elections Tuesday night, Connecticut voters did nothing to shift the balance of power in the evenly split Senate or closely divided House, despite furious efforts to make one race a referendum on President Trump and another on Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. […]



With the ability of Democratic Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman to break tie votes in the 18-18 Senate, Connecticut remains one of just a half-dozen states with a Democratic governor and state legislature.





That didn’t happen: Dems won where they were supposed to win, and the Republican won where he was supposed to win. But taking a closer look at the results, note that the GOP state senator, in Connecticut’s most Republican-friendly district, won a modest, 10-point victory. The Connecticut Mirror



This came in response to Democratic efforts to nationalize the local race. Michael Mandell, the executive director of the Connecticut Democratic Party, was quoted saying, “Coming from a 35-point defeat in November, this is a clear signal that the people of that district came out with energy to work hard and organize and show they would not be in support of President Trump’s agenda.”



There’s a lot of this going around. Connecticut was home to three special elections yesterday: a state Senate race in a “blue” district; a state Senate race in a “red” district; and a state House race in a different “blue” district. In the upper chamber, control of the state Senate was on the line – and if Republicans had taken control in a Democratic state a month into the Trump era, it would’ve been an embarrassing setback for the party.That didn’t happen: Dems won where they were supposed to win, and the Republican won where he was supposed to win. But taking a closer look at the results, note that the GOP state senator, in Connecticut’s most Republican-friendly district, won a modest, 10-point victory. The Connecticut Mirror report added that Democrats yesterday saw their strongest performance in this district “in decades.”This came in response to Democratic efforts to nationalize the local race. Michael Mandell, the executive director of the Connecticut Democratic Party, was quoted saying, “Coming from a 35-point defeat in November, this is a clear signal that the people of that district came out with energy to work hard and organize and show they would not be in support of President Trump’s agenda.”There’s a lot of this going around.