Youngkin Turns Virginia Red

What lessons will Republicans and Democrats draw from Republican Glenn Youngkin's victory?

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Happy Wednesday! Last night, an underdog from the South that analysts all but wrote off over the summer rallied to defeat the winner from a few years ago—all while keeping the fan favorite on the sidelines. Congratulations to the Atlanta Braves on winning the World Series!

P.S. It should be illegal for Game 6 of the World Series to fall on Election Night. 

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Tuesday formally endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’s recommendation that children ages 5 to 11 receive Pfizer-BioNTech’s pediatric COVID-19 vaccine. The move paves the way for children to begin receiving shots as soon as today.

  • News outlets officially projected Tuesday night that Republican Glenn Youngkin will defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the race to become Virginia’s next governor. Youngkin declared victory last night, but McAuliffe has yet to concede. Republicans Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares are also projected to win the state’s lieutenant governor and attorney general races, respectively.

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  1. Kurt Von Fuchs

    Well I certainly agree with many of the comments that the center won, I am dismayed that both candidates lied openly about things they knew weren't true and no one called them on it. Critical race theory is not being taught in high schools in Virginia and Youngkin is not Trump.

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    Scarlette Tarte

    What Republicans will take from it is that to win elections, they need to scare parents into thinking "omg, my kids will have to learn about black people and their history!!"

    Guaranteed this next in their racist playbook will be taken nationally, further dividing and inflaming us.

    At what point do they say "uh, maybe we are damaging the country with this nonsense"?

    Oh right, never. ALL they care about is power, unchecked and uncontrolled. Civil war, here we come.

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  3. Vermin8

    Long time (15 years) Virginia resident/voter here.

    I don't think we can say that Virginia is solidly red. I also think it was premature to call Virginia blue because of the Governor & Presidential votes between 2013 and 2020. We only had two governor elections in a row that went blue - if one were flipping a coin, head-tails-tails-head would not be an unusual series. Let's not forget that Bob McConnell's scandals and the Previous Guy's failings certainly helped add a little bit more blue to Virginia's purple.

    The most significant defeat for the Democrats was the Attorney General. The Democrat incumbent was defeated and he had no major scandals. It could be just a pendulum swing. The Democrats were needed to balance the madness of the GOP and their Dear Leader - now that's in the background and the specter of politically correct socialism has emerged front and center. Or it could be start of a long trend.

    Here is a topic for Dispatch writers - this loss will energize the progressive base - they'll point to the loss of a moderate who has held the office before as evidence that the nation is ready for the Bernie vision of America. The moderates will say that the progressives' insistence on driving the federal budget helped turn Virginia swing voters red. There is probably truth in both - but which really had more impact on the VA election?

    As a Virginia resident - my disappointment with Youngkin is his association with the previous guy. Before the madness, I would have been fine with Youngkin. But I'm aware that endorsements from the previous guy are based on willingess to Kiss the Ring and not on politics. The previous guy was apolitical; he just believed in dirty fighting for the pleasure of declaring a win - political consistency was not an issue.

    Add in the fact that Younkin never repudiated Trump. He said he thought Biden won - at the same time as saying election integrity was an issue. He condemned January 6 violence - but sidestepped the issue of who the true victims were - Congress and the Capitol Police or Ashli Babbitt and the rest of the insurrectionists - or patriots? And while he avoided appearing with the previous guy, he never said "I don't want your endorsement. I don't stand with him"

    So another topic for Dispatch writers - what was going on in the background with those two?

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    cheerio

    My Hot Take: Youngkin is a former CEO of Carlyle Group. His net worth is million$ more than McAuliffe's (despite his heavy fundraising). You have to be super rich to win a governor's seat and have very rich friends. Those with money get power. This is the US of A: Money Talks. I'm pretty sure this is the same reason McConnell and Manchin and the 46-50 poor R states reps who all seem to have personal fortunes win all the time despite pretty much delivering buckets of nothing to their poverty stricken constituents. They make it about cultural BS that they personally and politically can't even really do anything about. Eg: Trump claiming he will stop the liberals from cancelling Christmas; or DeSantis banning mask bans (despite there being a pandemic and thousands of his citizens dying of Covid. People do want things back to normal but banning masks is not the same as banning Covid-- but it is political red meat--doesn't do anything that actually helps his constituents though.

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    Steve

    I hope it will enable mart Republican Party candidates to winn a majority in both the House and Senate in 2022 and that most of the new members will not be beholden to Trump so better (non-Trump) candidates can come forward in the 2024 Presidential primaries.

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    Dennis

    Well, we’ve gone from avoiding Trump’s obloquy at any price to walking on eggshells around him, so I suppose that’s progress.

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  7. William Johnson

    Watch Winsome Sears. She could be a catalyst for socially conservative POC coming to the Republican party, particularly women. She is not strident and has a more general appeal than Larry Elder, Candice Owens, et al. She can better address bread and butter issues than ideological ones.

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      SandyG

      I hate seeing you put Larry Elder and Candace Owens on the same plane with Winsome Sears. They are not politicians, although Elder tried to be and Owens threatens to be.

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    Man-Eating Cow

    “This is going to inform candidates and campaigns how to sort of walk the line of not having to embrace the style, the tactics of Donald Trump,"

    Not to mention criminality and narcissism.

    " while at the same time, not trying to intentionally distance yourself from Trump’s voters"

    The latter part I actually agree with. Much as I dislike Trump, his voters are my fellow citizens. Beating up on them is not a good long-term strategy for either party.

    No, I don't like populism. A real leader persuades rather than always lets himself be persuaded.

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      SandyG

      Dems are you fellow citizens too, yes, even though we vote differently from Trump voters? We're ALL each other's fellow citizens.

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        Man-Eating Cow

        Of course.

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  9. Linda

    It means both Democrats AND Republicans need to stop talking about Donald Trump.

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    John M.

    Here's hoping Youngkin's election strategy becomes the norm once again.

    Making Elections Boring Again - ME(H)BA

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