The GOP took a broom to Virginia Democrats. Now that Youngkin—briefly—has the ear of America, he should say something very important about stolen elections.
As for Adam Kinzinger, a large part of his decision to leave politics (for now) is that Illinois Democrats gerrymandered his district out of existence. There was an open question whether he would have retained the district had it been left alone, but IL Democrats took the decision out of his hands.
And McAuliffe just conceded. Credit and props to him for doing the right thing and offering a gracious concession to Gov. Elect Youngkin. The very thing that a certain Georgia Democrat and a former President refused to do when they lost their elections.
I'm pleased with the GOP wins in Virginia. I think one of the benefits of Youngkin's win(and he ran a positive, issues oriented campaign, and reached out to moderate independents and moderate Democrats) is it allows us to compare and breakdown the results of the GOP's success in 2021, with Trump's double digit loss in 2020, and Ed Gillespie's loss to Ralph Northam in 2017. Granted the dynamics of a presidential election isn't exactly the same as a off year gubernatorial election, but one can still draw some important contrasts and observations.
This election was a high turnout election in a reliably blue state. And for years, the conventional wisdom was that Republicans do better in midterm and off-year elections where turnout is low. And this election debunks that notion. There are other factors that contributed to the GOP wins, but turnout isn't one of them.
Secondly, Glenn Youngkin won a significant amount of Biden voters. In a blue state like Virginia, a Republican has to reach out and win a decent share of voters outside the GOP base. Terry McAuliffe made a huge mistake in making Donald Trump the centerpiece of his campaign strategy. Trump no doubt is very unpopular in Virginia. But many center to center-left voters were not interested in getting monologues from T-Mac about Donald Trump. Youngkin certainly played footsies with electoral trutherisms in the GOP primary, and every once in a while would throw a bone to the MAGA crowd. But he was wise to steer clear of the hard core MAGAbots, and carve his own path. And many Never Trump Republicans who voted for Biden were satisfied and pulled the lever for Youngkin. I was never convinced that he ever once believed in the Big Lie, but that he threw the necessary red meat just to secure their votes or keep them quiet. He did distance himself from Trump, and affirmed Biden's victory.
Virginia may be a blue state, but most Democrats there are much more moderate than hard progressive. And they are more willing to occasionally vote Republican than Democrats in many other states. I think when Biden won Virginia by 10.1 percent in 2020(Being the first Democrat to win the state by double digits since FDR in 1944), many Democrats misread the tea leaves and assumed that it was a leftist realignment. For most Biden voters in Virginia, their vote for Biden was a rejection of Trumpism, and not an embrace of Leftism. And the fact that the GOP swept the 3 top offices in the state reflects such. McAuliffe kept playing the "Donald Trump" card and took the center to center left voters for granted, thinking he'd automatically get their votes. It certainly worked in getting him a big L on his forehead in a blue state.
Youngkin's win clearly shows that constructive persuasion and a positive campaign message is clearly superior to "owning the libs"/"f__k your feelings" and peddling lies and conspiracy theories. If one compares the county and city breakdown of results of the GOP wins last night and compare it to the results in 2020, 2018, and 2017, you see a day and night difference. I hope the conservative movement and the GOP really take time to study and compare these outcomes. The clear answer is that they must move on from Donald Trump, and that they can and will do just fine without him. As you alluded to in your piece Steve, Youngkin must bring down a sledgehammer to the conspiracy theorists/election fibbers in the GOP.
Lastly, I have such a low regard for Terry McAuliffe. I still remember his brazen electoral trutherisms from 2000, 2004, 2016 and now 2018. To say that I find him to be vile and disgusting, is an understatement. In fact, I firmly believe his cocky and cavalier behavior over the years helped open up a permission structure for Stacey Abrams, and all the Congressional Democrats that voted to throw out electors in 2004 and 2016. Which eventually led to what Trump did post election(which is the worst of all the offenses). McAuliffe and VA Dems deserved defeat, and I'm relishing every bit of it. I voted for the entire GOP ticket of Youngkin/Sears/Miyares after carefully observing them for the past couple of months.
Why didn't you mention Pennsylvania? A whole bunch of Republicans were willing to disenfranchise me and millions of others in my state, just because it didn't vote for their preferred candidate.
Amen.
As for Adam Kinzinger, a large part of his decision to leave politics (for now) is that Illinois Democrats gerrymandered his district out of existence. There was an open question whether he would have retained the district had it been left alone, but IL Democrats took the decision out of his hands.
And McAuliffe just conceded. Credit and props to him for doing the right thing and offering a gracious concession to Gov. Elect Youngkin. The very thing that a certain Georgia Democrat and a former President refused to do when they lost their elections.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/579796-mcauliffe-concedes-virginia-governors-race-to-youngkin
And here are some wise words of advice from Gabriel Sterling.
https://twitter.com/GabrielSterling/status/1455896523334688776?s=20
And congrats to the Braves on their World Series win!
I agree Steve.
I'm pleased with the GOP wins in Virginia. I think one of the benefits of Youngkin's win(and he ran a positive, issues oriented campaign, and reached out to moderate independents and moderate Democrats) is it allows us to compare and breakdown the results of the GOP's success in 2021, with Trump's double digit loss in 2020, and Ed Gillespie's loss to Ralph Northam in 2017. Granted the dynamics of a presidential election isn't exactly the same as a off year gubernatorial election, but one can still draw some important contrasts and observations.
This election was a high turnout election in a reliably blue state. And for years, the conventional wisdom was that Republicans do better in midterm and off-year elections where turnout is low. And this election debunks that notion. There are other factors that contributed to the GOP wins, but turnout isn't one of them.
Secondly, Glenn Youngkin won a significant amount of Biden voters. In a blue state like Virginia, a Republican has to reach out and win a decent share of voters outside the GOP base. Terry McAuliffe made a huge mistake in making Donald Trump the centerpiece of his campaign strategy. Trump no doubt is very unpopular in Virginia. But many center to center-left voters were not interested in getting monologues from T-Mac about Donald Trump. Youngkin certainly played footsies with electoral trutherisms in the GOP primary, and every once in a while would throw a bone to the MAGA crowd. But he was wise to steer clear of the hard core MAGAbots, and carve his own path. And many Never Trump Republicans who voted for Biden were satisfied and pulled the lever for Youngkin. I was never convinced that he ever once believed in the Big Lie, but that he threw the necessary red meat just to secure their votes or keep them quiet. He did distance himself from Trump, and affirmed Biden's victory.
Virginia may be a blue state, but most Democrats there are much more moderate than hard progressive. And they are more willing to occasionally vote Republican than Democrats in many other states. I think when Biden won Virginia by 10.1 percent in 2020(Being the first Democrat to win the state by double digits since FDR in 1944), many Democrats misread the tea leaves and assumed that it was a leftist realignment. For most Biden voters in Virginia, their vote for Biden was a rejection of Trumpism, and not an embrace of Leftism. And the fact that the GOP swept the 3 top offices in the state reflects such. McAuliffe kept playing the "Donald Trump" card and took the center to center left voters for granted, thinking he'd automatically get their votes. It certainly worked in getting him a big L on his forehead in a blue state.
Youngkin's win clearly shows that constructive persuasion and a positive campaign message is clearly superior to "owning the libs"/"f__k your feelings" and peddling lies and conspiracy theories. If one compares the county and city breakdown of results of the GOP wins last night and compare it to the results in 2020, 2018, and 2017, you see a day and night difference. I hope the conservative movement and the GOP really take time to study and compare these outcomes. The clear answer is that they must move on from Donald Trump, and that they can and will do just fine without him. As you alluded to in your piece Steve, Youngkin must bring down a sledgehammer to the conspiracy theorists/election fibbers in the GOP.
Lastly, I have such a low regard for Terry McAuliffe. I still remember his brazen electoral trutherisms from 2000, 2004, 2016 and now 2018. To say that I find him to be vile and disgusting, is an understatement. In fact, I firmly believe his cocky and cavalier behavior over the years helped open up a permission structure for Stacey Abrams, and all the Congressional Democrats that voted to throw out electors in 2004 and 2016. Which eventually led to what Trump did post election(which is the worst of all the offenses). McAuliffe and VA Dems deserved defeat, and I'm relishing every bit of it. I voted for the entire GOP ticket of Youngkin/Sears/Miyares after carefully observing them for the past couple of months.
"horde", not "hoard"
Why didn't you mention Pennsylvania? A whole bunch of Republicans were willing to disenfranchise me and millions of others in my state, just because it didn't vote for their preferred candidate.
Can this out to rest the lie that more turnout and mail voting is a problem for the GOP?