The general election in Virginia is over, and the Democrats think they won. What exactly they won remains to be seen, but that is the way it usually is with elections. It has been a year now since President Donald Trump won the presidency, and most Republicans are still trying to figure out what that means. Most, I think, have been pleasantly surprised. The rest, except for some RINOs, are just happy Hillary Clinton lost. Nevertheless, the news media has air time and blank space to fill. So the airwaves and news print are filled with the brilliance of 20/20 hindsight.
I won’t bore anyone by repeating what everyone else saying. Instead, here in part 1 I will just link to a few reports, and I will make a few personal observations.
- Election Night Reporting and Statistics (elections.virginia.gov): Here is the scoop from The Department of Elections in Virginia.
- ‘This is a tidal wave’: Democrats blow Republicans out of the water in the key bellwether state of Election Day 2017 (businessinsider.com): It is interesting that Democrats went into this election uncertain of victory. So now they are calling an election in a state that H. Clinton by 5% a great victory. Yet they framed they election around Trump.
- Danica Roem of Virginia to be first openly transgender person elected, seated in a U.S. statehouse (washingtonpost.com): This is the election result I find most shameful. Even in Northern Virginia, I am astounded that people voted for this guy.
- Trump distances himself from Ed Gillespie after Virginia election loss (usatoday.com): This is a funny story. Given the alternative, Trump tried to help Ed Gillespie, but imagine if Gillespie had been Jeb Bush. That is the Republican mold that Gillespie was poured from.
- Why the Virginia election is a harbinger of an ugly 2018 (theweek.com): Curiously, this only talks about Gillespie’s ads. Northam sponsored ads calling Gillespie a racist, lied about it, and that is no big deal (see here and here)?
- 5 Takeaways On Virginia’s Election Sweep For Democrats (thefederalist.com): The message here is that it is time for Republicans in Congress to start keeping their promises. Who knows? Maybe they will try harder.
What will part 2 be about? That will be my takeaway from the election results. I doubt anything I say will be especially profound, but hopefully some will find my thoughts encouraging.
Citizen Tom 
I’m really disappointed Gillespie lost but I don’t really see it as a this big referendum on Trump, as the Dems and media are making it out. I mean hasn’t Virginia been solidly purple for awhile, yes? I think more than anything else it proves that Democratic votes still fall victim to racial scare tactics. And in a NJ a Democrat won the governorship is supposed to be a surprise? Republicans did not have a good day but I don’t think it was catastrophic.
Virginia has been blue for awhile. What happened that actually was a bit surprising is that the Democrats managed to unseat Republican incumbents in the House of Delegates.
Democrats used their hatred of Trump to turn out the base. Even though Gillespie is a neverTrumper, they painted Trump’s face on him and pretended he was Trump. Since the news media played this delusion for all it was worth, Democrats managed to turn out those who could be deluded, the Democrat base.
Republicans, unfortunately, did not pay enough attention. Usually, on those years when the presidential candidates are not on the ballot, Republicans in the House of Delegates would be safe. That was not the case this year because the Democrat turnout was so unusually high.
In a state where Trump is popular (where he won), and the candidate firmly backed Trump’s agenda, this would not have happened.
I didn’t know the Rs lost so many seats in the House there, that’s unfortunate. They should by now expect to be campaigning. Just as hard against the press as they do their Democrat opponents but many Republicans for some reason seem to forget this. Aren’t felons allowed to vote there now? I wonder if that played a role too.
The governor is supposed to give felons their voting rights back on a case by case basis. Governor Terry McAuliffe just signed a blanket waiver. Republicans took that to court. So the governor used and auto-pen. That is the kind of respect Democrats pay to our state constitution.
Warning Notice for Citizen Tom
If you lived in California and called your new transvestite legislator a ‘guy,” you would be arrested and by law be subject to a penalty of a one-year jail term to anyone who uses the wrong sex gender for a person who chose to become transgender.
If interested,
https://rudymartinka.com/2017/10/25/king-solomon-ca-ga-wisdom-madness-folly-grade-score/
You better shape up and get used to liberal government leadership in Va. like I .am in Illinois.
The madness and folly in government has just begun in Va., in my opinion.
Like the song verses for Santa Clause begins
, “You better watch out, better not cry…….
Regards and goodwill blogging.
I am afraid you are right. Wait until you see Part 2.
Chicago Cardinal Cupich made the best comment about “crisis of leadership. ”
.
“We get the leaders we deserve.”
While he is no fan of President Trump, when asked about a statement made about himself, he replied.
: Fake news.?
Sometimes the best thing to do is as you said in one of your comments.
“The Lord has a reason…….”.
In the meantime, sad.
Regards and goodwill blogging.
Sure it is always a ‘mandate’ whenever a democrat wins, but an anomaly whenever a GOP wins. Consequently they say ‘Trump lost this one. Yeah, right.
Granting that has been a few years since I took civics, I think the Virginia results prove why the electoral college exists, and why we need to keep it.
Unless I am mistaken, Vir Governor race is by populace vote, so Northam won. But when I looked at the map on the news, I saw that where Northam won was mainly in the metro areas: NoVa, Richmond, Tidewater. The rest of Virginia, the predominantly rural areas, went mainly with Gillespie.
Our Founding Fathers were pretty smart when they set up a system that balanced population against district size – that way the big cities don’t lord over the rural areas. Maybe Virginia needs to do something similar.
(grossly simplified. I’m sure others can say it better and/or will happily correct me)
The urban areas in Virginia probably would not put up with a change to the Virginia Constitution that would permit that.
The people in Virginia created the state government. The States created the Federal Government. We sometimes forget the significance of that, and the Civil War, because it taught poorly, gives Liberal Democrats an excuse to tear down states rights.