Wednesday, November 03, 2021
Big blow for Democrats
Republican wins election in Virginia
The gubernatorial election in Virginia is considered an important test of sentiment for the ailing Democrats under US President Biden. According to unanimous forecasts, the Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin is just ahead. He is supported by Donald Trump.
Bitter pill for US President Joe Biden: According to forecasts, Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin won the gubernatorial election in Virginia. He narrowly beat the Biden-backed Democrat Terry McAuliffe, as emerged on the night from consistent predictions from various broadcasters. The election was considered an important mood test a year before the congressional elections – the whole country looked at the state on the east coast. The gubernatorial election in the US state of New Jersey also saw a narrow defeat for Biden’s Democrats – a final result was not yet certain, however.
The 54-year-old Youngkin was supported in the election campaign by ex-President Donald Trump – even if he publicly distanced himself from him and focused on moderate voters. A neck-and-neck race had already emerged before the election, but in the summer the Democrat McAuliffe was still ahead. The Republicans in Virginia were also concerned with the question of whether they could score points with moderate swing voters in rural areas.
Testimony to Biden’s politics?
In the presidential election a year ago, Biden easily won in Virginia and New Jersey. The close result of the gubernatorial elections a year before the mid-term elections is a debacle for the Democrats. In the vote next year, your wafer-thin majority in Congress is at stake. Trump’s Republicans then want to regain control in the Senate and the House of Representatives. According to observers, the vote, especially in Virginia, is a testament to Biden’s policies, who have ruled the White House for almost a year. His approval ratings are worse than ever since he took office.
He has long tried unsuccessfully to get two investment packages through Congress. Biden has so far failed because of wing battles in his own democratic party. On the other hand, he did not want to know that his political performance could have an impact on the election result. “I haven’t seen any evidence that whether I’m doing well or badly, whether I’ve got my agenda or not, will have any real impact on winning or losing,” he said before the vote.
The past few months have been marked by numerous setbacks for Biden. In addition to the internal party dispute over Biden’s investment packages, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan also did not make the president look good. The corona pandemic continued to trouble the country – the delta variant drove the numbers up in the summer. The vaccination against the virus is making slow progress. Biden relies on compulsory vaccination in many areas – a topic that polarizes in the USA. The economic upturn is also sluggish – there are also delivery bottlenecks as a result of the pandemic.
Again and again Trump
Biden tried especially to connect the Republican candidate in Virginia with Trump. “Terry is up against a supporter of Donald Trump,” said Biden at a campaign rally in Arlington. McAuliffe also tried to move his political opponent close to Trump and called him, for example, “Trump in khaki pants”. Shortly before the polling stations closed, Biden was confident of victory. “We’ll win. I think we’ll win in Virginia,” he said at the climate summit in Glasgow. It landed back in Washington around the same time as Youngkin’s victory was announced.
Republican Youngkin even caught up with the Democratic candidate in polls. McAuliffe, aged 64, was governor from 2014 to 2018, and Youngkin is a successful businessman. He tried to keep his distance from Trump publicly. The Republican presented himself as an exemplary suburban father and made education, for example, an issue. He advocated greater parental influence on teaching content. In his victory speech, he promised to change Virginia from day one. He drew a picture of politicians who only wanted to enrich themselves. That changes now with him.
Democrat wins in New York City
In the current elections, the Democrats feared above all that many of their supporters would not vote because Trump is no longer in office as a specter of horror. That is also why they must have tried to make Trump an issue again and again. Unsurprisingly, Democrat Eric Adams won the mayoral election in the metropolis of New York on Tuesday evening. On the other hand, in Minneapolis an initiative mainly supported by Democrats to abolish the police agency in its current form was rejected. Since the brutal death of the African American George Floyd, the debate about how to deal with the police has been dividing the United States.
How great the meaningfulness of the election results in Virginia and New Jersey is, however, is open. After Trump was elected president in 2016, Democrats won the governorships in Virginia and New Jersey. In contrast, the Republicans won the gubernatorial elections in both states after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. In Virginia, governors are not allowed to run for two consecutive terms. But you can – like McAuliffe – compete a second time later. The current governor is Democrat Ralph Northam. The state borders on the US capital Washington.