Special Halloween Issue: Coroner Elections!
A campaign to die for
It is October 1st, and that means it is officially Halloween season! Yes I am one of those people who goes into full Halloween mode the second October begins.
Though…. frankly…. shouldn’t Halloween really begin on September 1st? The answer is yes. Halloween should be all of September and October. Then November 1st we begin plans for Christmas.
But SOME PEOPLE are not ready to embrace four months revolving around two holidays. So I waited until October 1st to send this out.
This issue is really just a quick item to share all the “spooky” elections I have covered over the years. Of course, anyone who has followed me for more than a year will know that the spooky elections I cover the most are the elections for County Coroner.
That’s right, if you didn’t know, there are over 1,000 counties in America that elect their coroner. Almost all of them on a partisan ballot. This was the party makeup as of October 2021.
I began covering Coroner elections in 2017; writing what has to the first deep-dive into the partisan makeup of the officers across the country. My original 2017 article can be viewed here. Then in 2021, I updated my database to reflect the map seen above. That article can be viewed here.
Different states hold their elections at different times. Most elect the coroners all at once; like with most county offices. Some states, like Pennsylvania and New York, see some counties hold election in different years. In addition, some states are easy to update thanks to central databases. Others have required punishing research work; especially in small rural counties. It can get… a little maddening.
“In the year 2024 of the second age. Here follows the account of Isbell. High Mapper of Florida and researcher of coroner races.
They have come to me, the election results. They shall be staple of my website. All those who follow in my path are bound not to map coroner races - for I will risk no interference upon my niche.
It is, precious to me, thou I buy it with great pain.”
Coroner elections are often unopposed, with longtime incumbents sitting in the post for years. That is why you see so much blue in the ancestral Democratic counties. However, with each cycle, more offices fall into the partisan alignment of the broader county. For example, Chester County, a formerly steadfast Republican suburb of Philadelphia, saw its Coroner office flip after Trump led to massive collapses in GOP support in the suburbs.
The 2017 Pennsylvania Coroner elections (which only took place in a handful of counties) was the subject of a side article I wrote in October of 2018. You can read that here.
Then in 2022, I dedicated an issue of my substack to the 2021 Coroner election in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The increasingly-Republican county ousted its Democratic incumbent purely on partisan reasoning.
In 2019, I covered the coroner Elections that had taken place in Alabama one year prior. That year saw Republicans gain a majority of the state’s coroner posts - a finalization of the realignment that had begun in the state in the 2000s. One race I devoted some time to was the race in GOP-leaning Butler County. There, the Democratic incumbent lost his primary, but then won the general as a write-in!
You can read my Alabama article here.
I have covered Coroner races several additional times. Just in 2023 I wrote several coroner newsletters.
Covering the Lousiana Coroner races from October 2023 - these races took place the same day as the state’s jungle primary for Governor
Covering the 2022 Kentucky Coroner Elections - which saw Democrats lose control of the coroner posts.
In 2022, Kentucky Republicans netted TWENTY SIX coroner posts. But believe it or not, only four of those were Democratic incumbents losing. I delve into this in detail in the article, but most switches were due to retirements or party switching incumbents.
My final 2023 Coroner article was looking at the election in Pike County, County from 2022. Despite the GOP gains across the state that year, and despite Pike being a coal-loving 80%+ Trump County, the Democratic candidate WON the office.
That race was a testament to the power of local campaigns and personalities. No incumbent was running, and the Democratic victory was one of only two D v R local contest that went for the blue team; the other being the re-election of the Democratic Sheriff. I was eager to cover this race after I came across a Coroner sign while driving through Kentucky in 2022.
The big Coroner races I will write about this year are Mississippi; which holds its Coroner elections the same time as its off-cycle Gubernatorial contests. In October of 2020, I covered what happened with the 2019 Mississippi Coroner elections. This saw Democrats retain control but lose 8 offices.
That article can be read here.
So keeping with tradition, later this month I will have an article on the 2023 Coroner races, which came as Republican Incumbent Tate Reeves only managed to defeat Democrat Brandon Presley by 3% - the weakest Republican showing of the 21st century. Does that close result mean Democrats retained a majority of Coroner posts? You will have to wait and see.
I may also look at any notable 2022 or 2023 Pennsylvania Coroner races - sense the state is of course a major Presidential battleground. See if anything really stands out.
With that, enjoy your coroner reading!