The Ten Elections to Watch This September
Ten elections across ten states: Bolts guides you through the races you should be tracking this month, from two congressional seats to acrimonious local recalls.
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August 28, 2025
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Welcome to the month of recall elections.
On the chopping block: a San Francisco supervisor who once championed recalls against progressive local officials, but now risks being hoisted by his own petard; an Ohio mayor whose wife was just indicted for trespassing on a recall supporter’s mansion; and the chief executive of one of Missouri’s most populous counties.
These, and more, are in Bolts’ guide to the 10 elections to watch in September.
Also on the menu, voters will fill the congressional seats left vacant by the deaths this year of Democratic U.S. Representatives Raul Grijalva in Arizona and Gerry Connolly in Virginia; and choose who’ll replace Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota lawmaker who was murdered in a political assassination in June.
Plus, the cities of Boston and Mobile are voting for mayor.
The guide starts on Sept. 9 in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Virginia. Then, California, Florida and Minnesota are up on Sept. 16. On Sept. 23, we’re watching Arizona, Alabama, and Georgia. Finally, the Missouri recall is on Sept. 30.
Return on and after each Election Day as we update this page as the results are known. Until then, you can revisit our past selections of elections in April, May, June, July, and August.
As always, this guide is just our selection of key races to monitor. It’s not an exhaustive list of all elections in September as there are dozens more around the nation; this month, honorable mentions go to the mayoral primaries in Annapolis, Maryland, and Charlotte, North Carolina, where Vi Lyles is favored in her bid for a fifth term, and to an $280 million school bonds measure in Helena, Montana.
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Special elections for the U.S. House
Sept. 9: Virginia’s 11th Congressional district
General election
| As he runs for Congress in northern Virginia, a region with a high concentration of federal employees, Democrat James Walkinshaw is focusing on the devastation that the Trump administration has wreaked on that workforce. Walkinshaw, a Fairfax County supervisor, faces Republican Stewart Whitson, a former FBI agent who now works for a conservative think tank and says DOGE’s work “must continue.” The winner of this special election will replace Democrat Gerry Connolly, a longtime member of Congress who passed away in May. At the time Connelly first won this seat in 2008, replacing a Republican, the area was just growing into its current identity as a Democratic stronghold. Today, though, it is staunchly blue; Harris prevailed over Trump by 34 percentage points in November. |
| Result: Stay tuned after the Sept. 9 election. |
Sept. 23: Arizona’s 7th Congressional District
General election
| Adelita Grijalva is running to replace her father, the late Raúl Grijalva, a longtime chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. This southern Arizona seat is staunchly blue, having backed Kamala Harris over Donald Trump last fall by 22 percentage points, so the competitive Democratic primary Grijalva won in July was likely her hardest hurdle. Still Grijalva must face Republican Daniel Butierez, a painting contractor who was her father’s losing opponent last fall. In this district on the U.S. southern border, the candidates have taken starkly different stances on immigration enforcement, with Butierez largely supporting Trump’s agenda of aggressive deportations while Grijalva has said she “would abolish [ICE] in its current form.” |
| Result: Stay tuned after the Sept. 23 election. |
City leaders
Sept. 9: Mayor of Boston
Nonpartisan primary
| There is little doubt that Michelle Wu, the incumbent mayor, and Josh Kraft, the son of the New England Patriots’ owner who is spending millions of his own money to challenge her from the right, will grab the first two spots in this primary and then meet again in November. Still, they are first facing two lesser-known candidates in this September primary. Robert Cappucci, a former police officer, is a perennial conservative candidate who vows to work with Trump. Domingos DaRosa, a local businessman and community advocate, has long focused on drug and substance use in the Roxbury area; he also thinks Wu has been too antagonistic toward ICE. Also keep an eye on Boston’s city council primaries, though incumbents appear largely favored and there’s just one district that’s sure to elect a new council member. |
| Result: Stay tuned after the Sept. 9 election. |
Sept. 16: Tampa Bay City Council
Nonpartisan primary
| Democrats hold every seat on Tampa Bay’s city council. If that changes this year, it’ll likely be due to the city’s election system. This special election is being fought in two rounds: All candidates are sharing one primary ballot and the top two vote-getters will move to the runoff. While the district is reliably blue, there are eight Democrats running and just four Republicans; that has some Democrats fretting that they may be locked out of the runoff if they split their vote so much that it allows two Republicans to slip through. This possibility, that a “Top 2” system may lead to an unrepresentative runoff, is one reason some election reformers say they prefer a ranked-choice voting. But Florida state Republicans last year banned municipalities from using a ranked-choice system in their local elections. |
| Result: Stay tuned after the Sept. 16 election. |
Sept. 23: Mayor of Mobile
Runoff election
| Barbara Drummond, a Democratic state lawmaker in Alabama, and Spiro Cheriogotis, a former county judge running with the support of outgoing GOP mayor Sandy Stimpson, grabbed the top two spots in the fiercely contested August primary and advanced to this runoff. They finished ahead of Paul Prine, who ran for mayor a year after a damning report documented his “autocratic tendencies” as police chief and his department’s violent practices toward Black residents; the city later fired with Prine, with whom Stimpson had already been clashing. |
| Prine’s loss removes the most conservative contender. Cheriogotis and Drummond have instead both stressed that they don’t intend to rock the boat, with Drummond recently saying “everybody has done a good job” about the city’s recent line-up of mayors. The runoff’s partisan stakes are also blunted by the fact that there will be no party identification on the ballot. Cheriogotis has a very large advantage in fundraising and TV ads, while Drummond has called for debates that have not materialized. She would be the first Black woman elected mayor in this city whose electorate is plurality Black; this is the first mayoral election since a small annexation in 2023 brought more white voters into the city, as AL.com points out, in a state where voting patterns can split very starkly along racial lines. |
| Result: Stay tuned after the Sept. 23 election. |
Recalls
Sept. 9: Mayor of Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Recall election
| The first-term mayor of Cleveland Heights, Kahlil Seren, has faced allegations that he and his wife created a hostile work environment in city hall; a report commissioned by the city found merit to some, though not all, of the complaints. With Seren decrying the opposition he’s faced as a “witch hunt,” some residents this summer succeeded at qualifying a recall to oust him from office, just months before his term was due to end anyway. The compressed campaign that has followed has put Seren even more on the defensive. First, in July, he attempted to veto the council’s ordinance that called for the recall; the council was legally bound to pass the ordinance since organizers had collected sufficient signatures, and the city’s law director said the mayor had no authority to veto the measure. Then, in early August, Seren’s wife was indicted on charges of trespassing onto a mansion that had a pro-recall yard sign. And in late August, a court-appointed special master said the city was unlawfully refusing to disclose a video showing her in an angry outburst inside City Hall. |
| Result: Stay tuned after the Sept. 9 election. |
Sept. 16: San Francisco Supervisor
Recall election
| When left-leaning San Francisco officials faced recalls in 2022, Joel Engardio was on board; he helped the campaigns that ousted DA Chesa Boudin and several school board members, and then actively touted that role in his own run for a seat on the board of supervisors. Now, he’s the one who faces a recall. Some voters in the Sunset District are trying to oust him because he championed the idea of closing the Great Highway and transforming it into a coastal park. The conversion was approved in a citywide vote in 2024 but fiercely opposed by residents in Engardio’s district, and the anger has persisted. |
| Result: Stay tuned after the Sept. 16 election. |
Sept. 30: Executive of Jackson County, Missouri
Recall election
| Frank White, the Democratic executive of Jackson County, home to Kansas City, has faced heavy pushback over property taxes in the last few years. The county saw a huge increase in property value assessments in 2023, which led homeowners to face heavier bills and retaliate with lawsuits. When a Missouri state commission limited the increases, White tried and failed to get the limits overturned in court—while other local officials supported the state. |
| White’s critics have responded by organizing a recall, which is now scheduled for Sept. 30 after a legal battle over its timing. White also unsuccessfully tried to veto the ordinance calling for the recall, which he has blasted as a “political sideshow.” If the recall succeeds, the county legislature (the local equivalent of a county board) will pick his interim successor, and the law requires his replacement be of the same political party. |
| Result: Stay tuned after the Sept. 30 election. |
Legislative elections
Sept. 16: Minnesota’s 34th House district
General election
| This special election is taking place under the shadow of shocking political violence: Voters in Hennepin County are deciding who will replace Melissa Hortman, the lawmaker who was assassinated in June after building an outsized legacy by shepherding a bevy of major legislation as state Speaker in 2023 and 2024. Xp Lee, a former Brooklyn Park city councilor who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, won a competitive Democratic primary in August. He now faces Republican nominee Ruth Bittner, a local business owner. This is a reliably blue district in the Twin City area, so Lee is heavily favored. The only other legislative seats Democrats are defending in September are two legislative districts in special elections (Florida’s 15th and 40th Senate districts); Democrats easily held both on Sept. 2. |
| Result: Stay tuned after the Sept. 16 election. |
Sept. 23: Georgia’s 21st Senate District
General Election
| Republicans, meanwhile, are defending just one legislative district in September, per Ballotpedia: a state Senate seat in Georgia. This region is deeply conservative; in 2024, it voted for Trump by more than 30 percentage points and overwhelmingly reelected Brandon Beach, a Republican Senator who tried to help Trump overturn his loss in 2020. But Beach resigned earlier this year to join the Trump administration, and Democrats have made some noise about actually contesting the race. It’ll be an uphill climb: Democrat Debra Shigley received 40 percent of the vote in the all-party primary in August, whereas six Republicans added up to 60 percent. Still, that’s a significant shift towards her party compared to 2024, and Bolts will be watching whether she can get any closer given the massive swings that some other Democratic candidates have pulled this year. She’ll face Republican Steve West, a former Cherokee County commissioner, in this runoff. |
| Result: Stay tuned after the Sept. 23 election. |