Virginia governor race: Glenn Youngkin wins 2021 election over Terry McAuliffe, CNN projects

McAuliffe’s loss in a state, which President Joe Biden won in double digits last year, highlighted the tremendous challenges Democrats face the next year as they try to maintain control of the US House of Representatives and Senate. McAuliffe, who served as governor of a state that does not allow consecutive terms from 2014 to 2018, struggled to find a message that would shake Democrats at a time when Biden’s approval ratings were falling and the party was unable to to send a clear message in the midst of a bickering over the President’s agenda in Congress.

Virginia and New Jersey each have a historical pattern in the election of governors in off-year elections for the White House resident’s opposing party. McAuliffe defied this pattern when he won his first term in 2013, a year after then-President Barack Obama was re-elected. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy had hoped voters would reward him for handling the Covid-19 pandemic and make him the first Democratic governor to be re-elected in the state in more than 40 years. But when the ballots were tallied on Tuesday night, Republican Jack Ciattarelli fared much better than expected, another warning sign for Democrats in a state that Biden won by nearly 16 points. The race stays too close to call.

McAuliffe had hoped to win a second non-consecutive term by connecting Youngkin with former President Donald Trump. But that strategy failed – it failed to expose the Democrats McAuliffe needed to sustain Youngkin’s momentum and gains among independent voters. The momentum came as a warning to some Democrats who had hoped to use this strategy to beat their Republican opponents in the midterm races next year. The voter mood also seemed to be a factor in the much closer-than-expected race for New Jersey governor.

The Virginia Democrats clearly underestimated Youngkin, an agile candidate who delved into local issues like education and stood out as an advocate for parental rights. The Republican successfully kept Trump at bay but praised him at the start of the race – he managed not to alienate his supporters while successfully playing for critical voters in the Northern Virginia suburbs who rejected Trump last year.

Late Tuesday night, Youngkin surpassed the previous Republican gubernatorial candidate four years ago, and also significantly outperformed Trump’s margins in the suburbs of Virginia, which were increasingly Democratic. In contrast, McAuliffe’s margins in key areas across the state fell below previous competitions from current Democratic governor of Biden and Virginia, Ralph Northam.

McAuliffe appeared shortly before his followers late Tuesday night but did not give in. “We still have a lot of votes to count,” he said. “We’ll keep counting votes.”

McAuliffe had gambled by focusing his campaign on the idea that Youngkin was a Trump “wannabe”. In the last days of the campaign, he referred to Youngkin as “Glenn Trumpkin” and argued that a Youngkin victory in Virginia would encourage Trump ahead of a possible candidacy for the White House in 2024, but that argument does not seem to be on the way for Democratic voters McAuliffe had hoped to have brought. Youngkin used some of Trump’s rhetoric to appeal to the GOP grassroots – invoking certain culture war issues, for example, and talking about “electoral integrity” at the start of the race – but dodged the telerally Trump held on Monday night that republican ticket.

The preliminary results of CNN’s poll on CNN’s exit showed the difficult headwinds McAuliffe faced as he tried to overcome the divisions within his party. Only 43% of Virginians said they approved of Biden’s work, and a slim majority of voters said the Democratic Party as a whole was too liberal; while fewer voters considered the Republican Party to be too conservative.

About a third of Virginia voters named the economy the most important problem the state is facing, according to the Brexit poll. Just under a quarter said education was most important, around 15% opted for taxes, and around 14% said the Covid-19 pandemic was the most important. Almost a tenth decided to have an abortion.

Virginia voters had a negative view of both Biden and Trump. Only about a fifth of voters said they saw their vote as a way to support Biden, with nearly 3 in 10 saying this was a way to express their opposition and the remaining half of voters said Biden was not a factor.

Despite McAuliffe’s efforts to demonize Youngkin as a Trump warrior, who has said the former president “represents so much for why I’m running,” the Republican’s campaign presented him as a non-threatening, fleece-vest father and businessman from Northern Virginia who trained basketball in his spare time.

Youngkin wooed suburban voters by addressing the GOP’s culture wars – pledging to protect law enforcement funding amid concerns over rising crime at the national level, turned down Covid-19 vaccine mandates for teachers and government employees, and vowed schools in Virginia, “will not teach our children to look at everything through the lens of race.” At a time when voters are increasingly welcoming newcomers to politics, Youngkin portrayed his rival as the ultimate political insider, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and for decades as a leading fundraiser for Bill and Hillary Clinton.

In a message addressed to suburban women, Youngkin accused that McAuliffe was allowing the government to put parents and their children between what they were supposed to teach about education. ”

One of Youngkin’s closing ads showed Fairfax County mother and conservative activist Laura Murphy, who claimed that a book her then high school son was supposed to read gave him nightmares. The book not mentioned by name in the ad was Toni Morrison’s Beloved, which is about the horrors of slavery. Murphy had campaigned against the teachings of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that resulted in two bills – McAuliffe vetoed it – that would have allowed parents to turn down certain tasks they saw as explicit.

Democrats stepped in, calling McAuliffe a “racist dog whistle” and arguing that his Republican opponent was using education to divide Virginia by pitting parents against parents and parents against teachers.

A difficult climb for the Democrats despite Virginia’s recent Blue Streak

McAuliffe fought the exhaustion of Democratic voters, a strengthened Republican base, and Biden’s dwindling popularity. A chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, a Covid-19 surge fueled by the Delta variant and a sluggish economy have put a heavy strain on Biden, who has tried to unite his party according to his agenda.

Progressive and moderate Democrats in Congress have spent months arguing over the size and scope of the president’s climate and social protection package, but even if that $ 1.75 million economic plan and accompanying bipartisan infrastructure had been voted on by Tuesday this week would have been far too late to bolster McAuliffe in a state where early voting began weeks ago.

Without some tangible accomplishment to point to Democratic-controlled Washington, McAuliffe did not hide his frustration. In an interview with CNN, he urged Congressmen to “do your job and stop posing”.

National sentiment has deteriorated amid ongoing fears, restrictions and frustrations related to the Covid-19 pandemic and uncertain economic recovery. Voters are concerned about inflation, the higher prices they will pay as the holiday season approaches, and the bottlenecks in the supply chain that have disrupted the economy. The latest CNN poll found the president had 42% approval versus 51% disagreement among U.S. adults, and in a national poll published by NBC News on Sunday, 7 out of 10 said the country was going in the wrong direction.

The debates were marked by sharp political differences between the two candidates. Youngkin had argued that McAuliffe’s government spending plans were too expensive and said he would fuel an economic revival in Virginia by cutting taxes, including the “food tax,” which Youngkin says will be paid to Virginians in the first year of the Implementation would save $ 1,500.

McAuliffe had promised a $ 2 billion investment in education – double what he proposed in his first term – and touted 20 plans he had developed to lead the state out of the Covid pandemic. He also called for Covid-19 vaccine mandates for government teachers, healthcare workers and other key workers, arguing that Youngkin’s opposition to these measures would jeopardize the state’s recovery.

Youngkin said that while he asked everyone in Virginia to “please get the vaccine,” he believes firing workers who do not adhere to vaccine mandates could cripple the state economically.

“We need people at work. To make life difficult, this is not a way to serve Virginians,” said Youngkin in the candidate’s closing debate. “We can do that. We can actually protect lives and livelihoods.”

This story was updated with the projection from CNN.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/02/politics/virginia-election-results/index.html