By Todd Lassa

Political observers have seen for weeks Republican Glenn Youngkin’s victory in last Tuesday’s Virginia gubernatorial race, and yet Democrats are scrambling to figure out what, exactly, happened to their candidate, Terry McAuliffe, and who is to blame for his defeat. The race had been seen as a harbinger of the GOP’s future, a canary in the Trumpian coal mine, or at least a good indication of where the party is 10 months after insurrectionists stormed the Capitol to support the ex-president’s Big Lie about November 2020 election fraud. 

The answer is not so obvious. While Donald Trump endorsed Youngkin, a former executive of The Carlyle Group who spent much of his own money from a career in hedge fund management on his first-ever campaign, few consider Youngkin a Trump acolyte. The Wednesday morning pundit reassessment has shifted from considering Virginia a blue state – commonwealth, rather -- for the past 12 years to one that has long been a purple, swing state. 

McAuliffe is an old-guard moderate who did little to explain his platform other than accuse his opponent of Trumpism, and some of his fellow Democrats now lament they did not choose a more progressive candidate in the primary. However, the Viriginia election had high turnout, NPR reports, in which independents gave Youngkin a nine-point margin over McAuliffe. (Biden won independents over Trump in Virginia by a 19-point margin.) A more progressive Democratic candidate probably would not have turned that around.

In the past few weeks, Youngkin’s campaign emphasized education and hit hard against McAuliffe’s debate misstep in which he said that parents shouldn’t be allowed to tell schools what to teach their children. Youngkin hit McAuliffe for acceding to left-wing Democrats, suggesting his opponent supports critical race theory taught in Virginia public schools (it’s not – CRT is college-level study. See our debate on Page 7, with Nic Woods’ center column, “Critical Race Theory: Facts Don’t Matter”).

CRT is a rather Trumpian issue made of nothing. Youngkin’s campaign managed to brush shoulders with the issue without going all-in on Trump and earned the vote of a majority of suburban women as a result.  

Youngkin also campaigned on his fiscal conservatism and plans for tax cuts, including eliminating Virginia’s grocery tax. McAuliffe’s campaign did not respond, instead continuing to try and connect Youngkin closely to Trump.

What does Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the Virginia gubernatorial race tell us about the direction of the GOP? We asked Stephen Macaulay (left column) and Bryan Williams (right column) for their comments.

Please tell us what you think: email editors@thehustings.news