The Virginia election results should shock Democrats into confronting the powerful role that racially coded attacks play in American politics. No candidate would think of entering an election without a winning message on the economy or health care. Yet by failing to counter his opponent’s racial dog whistles, Terry McAuliffe […] Read more »
Exit polls from 2017 and 2021 show the key groups that helped Youngkin turn Virginia red
Virginia Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin notably improved the GOP’s standing with younger voters, moderates, independents and White women since the last gubernatorial election in 2017. Youngkin’s inroads among these swing voters, seen in an analysis of CNN’s exit polls from 2017 and 2021, made him the first Republican to win in […] Read more »
An abnormal Republican Party was treated normally by voters in New Jersey and Virginia
Tuesday’s election results in New Jersey and Virginia — a big swing away from the party that controls the White House — were fairly normal. And that’s the scary thing. The president’s party generally struggles in off-year elections for two reasons. First, there is often a turnout gap that favors […] Read more »
What Democrats Need to Realize Before 2022
For Democrats, the clearest message from Tuesday’s bruising election results is that bad things trickle down when a president from your own party confronts as much discontent as President Joe Biden faces now. The Republican victory in the Virginia gubernatorial race and the unexpectedly close result in New Jersey’s—both states […] Read more »
Progressive fantasies hit political reality in Virginia
Republican Glenn Youngkin’s come-from-behind victory in the governor’s race proved the maxim that Virginia is for moderates. Throughout the campaign, Democrat Terry McAuliffe squandered his reputation as a business-friendly, centrist former governor who worked constructively with a Republican legislature. Instead, he became a Trump-obsessed attack dog who nationalized the race […] Read more »
Kamala Harris is right: Virginia result will resonate in 2022, 2024 and beyond
Tuesday’s off-off-year election was the vote heard round the world. Democrats were left reeling from what is a national rejection of progressive policies, from Virginia to New Jersey and Long Island, to Texas and even Minneapolis and Seattle. It is a defining loss for Democrats, who have been so convinced […] Read more »