Leesburg, Va.—Virginia Republicans’ hopes for unified control of Richmond were dashed Tuesday evening, as popular governor Glenn Youngkin’s coattails failed to pull Republicans across the finish line in a number of swing-seat state legislative districts.
As of late Tuesday night, Democrats had retained their majority in the state senate, according to the Associated Press, while the formerly Republican-controlled house of delegates remained too close to call. Having been denied unified control of Virginia government, Youngkin’s sweeping agenda will likely be stymied in the upcoming legislative session, leaving his highly anticipated rise to the national stage in doubt.
Republicans leaned heavily this off-year cycle into Youngkin’s 2021 strategy by focusing on job growth, combating crime, tax relief, and parental involvement in their children’s education. Democrats, meanwhile, spent millions campaigning on a woman’s right to choose and hitting Republicans for wanting to “ban” abortion, a reference to Youngkin’s 15-week proposal with exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. Bashing that 15-week standard proved successful for Democrats, who continue to bet that pro-choice messaging as a winning issue for their party at the ballot box.
Democrats performed well even though pre-Election Day polls showed President Joe Biden — who won the state by ten points in 2020 — trailing Youngkin in the popularity department. It’s no wonder then that the president stayed off the campaign trail and some swing-seat Democrats like Henrico-area delegate Rodney Willett went so far as to name-check Youngkin in their own pre-Election Day advertising. Neither could Virginia Democrats call on former Governor Terry McAuliffe, who is now considered persona non grata in Virginia Democratic circles after his negative and nationalized 2021 gubernatorial campaign helped propel Republicans to their first statewide victories in more than a decade.
So to juice turnout, Virginia Democrats called on a slate of out-of-state, high-profile Democratic surrogates to fill in. Former President Barack Obama recorded robocalls. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi helped fundraise. And a handful of Democratic governors with national ambitions — Wes Moore of Maryland, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, and Gavin Newsom of California — campaigned, cut checks, or sent fundraising emails on behalf of Virginia Democrats in the lead up to Election Day, no doubt using the opportunity to raise their own profiles and prematurely attach themselves to victory in the event of a clean sweep from Democrats.
Two West Coast surrogates in particular made their way into Republicans’ Election Eve Republican rally in Leesburg, the blue-trending Northern Virginia suburb that Democrats ended up winning on Tuesday. “Do you want to California our Virginia?” Attorney General Jason Miyares asked voters from the stump Monday evening, eliciting a resounding “No!” from the crowd. “We’re gonna say it a little bit louder so Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi can hear.”
“Why don’t you fix it in Frisco before you come cut commercials in Virginia?” Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears told the crowd Monday evening, to be followed by a similar snub from Youngkin minutes later: “As long as I am governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Virginia will never be California.”
As it turns out, that California money — and the boatloads of abortion-related advertising that came along with it — may have helped push Democrats across the finish line in several purple districts. Republicans hinted at this dynamic even before the polls opened Tuesday. “What the other side has been doing is getting billionaires from places that you don’t even know to come in and dump money in for their opponents who do nothing but tell lies,” Youngkin said Monday evening.
Republicans relied mostly on Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC for cash, as well as the Republican State Leadership Committee. The Republican National Committee notably declined Virginia GOP Chairman Rich Anderson’s early October request for direct cash transfers ahead of Election Day, as National Review reported several weeks ago, citing a meeting earlier this summer when one of Youngkin’s top aides reportedly told RNC officials their help wasn’t needed.
Democrats will likely pin Virginia Republicans’ inability to win a trifecta in Richmond solely on Youngkin, even though he remains more popular than Biden in the state, his PAC spent millions on behalf of his own candidates, and lost by a narrower margin that Republican candidates elsewhere.
Earlier Tuesday, Democratic Governor Andy Beshear easily fended off a challenge from the Blue Grass State’s Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and Ohio voters overwhelmingly supported a ballot initiative to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution.
This is a developing story