Tuesday open thread—It's Election Day! And a new poll.

Off year elections are weird. No one pays much attention to them, but they're just as important as The Big Ones (presidential and midterms).

Today we have two big election cycles, in Virginia and Kentucky.

In Virginia, Democrats are trying to solidify control. And in Kentucky, we're trying to wrest power away from a corrupt GOP.

Of course, local elections are not necessarily indicative of national trends. But the Blue Wave of 2018 was presaged by special and off-year elections in 2017, so there is correlation, if not causation.

Anywho, if you have a local election, go vote! It's your ultimate power as a citizen.

Meanwhile, ABC and the Washington Post have a new poll out, and it won't probably get the blood pumping because it's nothing but bad news for Donald Trump.

One year out from the 2020 election, President Trump trails some potential Democratic rivals in head-to-head matchups, with his national support level currently fixed at about 40 percent, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The new poll highlights the degree to which most of the country already has made a judgment about the president’s performance and their voting preferences next year. Among the 39 percent of registered voters who approve of Trump’s job performance, Trump is winning at least 95 percent support against each of five possible Democratic opponents. But among the 58 percent of voters who disapprove of Trump, he receives no more than 7 percent support.

Former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) run strongest against the president nationally, with Biden leading by 17 points (56 percent to 39 percent), Warren by 15 points (55 percent to 40 percent) and Sanders by 14 points (55 percent to 41 percent).

Now, as one of my interlocutors on Twitter said, a presidential poll a year out is like a fart in the wind. That may be the case, but it doesn't make it any less noticeable. What's interesting is that Elizabeth Warren's Medicare For All plan doesn't seem to be doing her any harm among voters. It may not be the albatross many of us fear it being.

What the poll indicates is that we shouldn't go into 2020 in a cautious, fearful manner, but full of determined confidence. Americans like people who have the aura of a winner about them, not people who hem and haw.

Carry on, patriots.