Virginia gubernatorial election: will the Democrats lose? It’s your own fault!

Julia Kastein
ARD-Studio Washington

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First Terry McAuliffe, Democratic veteran who was elected governor of Virginia in 2013. In his election campaign, he now acted as if his opponent’s name was not Glenn Youngkin, but Donald Trump. But even if Trump continues to pull the strings in the Republican Party and Youngkins sold the narrow victory as his own before all the votes were even counted: the ex-president has long since been voted out.

And Virginia voters, who had elected only Democrats to the top jobs since 2009, wanted an offer. They got that from the political newcomer Youngkin, who successfully presented himself as a bible, honest and friendly family man with economic expertise: Youngkin promised tax cuts. And a say, for example on the highly controversial question of what is taught in classrooms on the subject of racism. Democrat McAuliffe did not want to grant concerned parents this say. own fault.

Internal party dispute about planned investments

Equally unhelpful was the spectacle that Congressional Democrats have been affording for months now. It’s about trillions for the ailing infrastructure and for a social and climate package. The Democrats even have the support of many Republicans for the planned investments in roads, bridges, trains and Internet expansion – and that of the pothole-stricken Americans anyway.

But instead of finally passing the law, it is being used as leverage in internal party disputes over the scope of the social and climate package. That may make sense by Washington logic. For most Americans, these are political games that are not rewarded in elections. own fault.

Many Biden voters stayed at home

And then US President Joe Biden: When asked in Glasgow about his contribution to the foreseeable outcome of the election in Virginia, the President simply said: “We will win this.” Just as he had not wanted to see the chaos in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal that his own advisors had predicted. And just as he, because of his enormous experience, still considers himself the majority procurer and compromise maker in the history of US politics.

The reality is different: Although Biden has been negotiating intensively with his recalcitrant party friends for months now, his reform agenda has dramatically slimmed down and an agreement has been announced several times – this deal still does not exist. The Americans give him correspondingly bad grades in surveys. As a result, many of those who voted for Biden in Virginia and New Jersey last year stayed at home yesterday. own fault.

And what’s next? Perhaps Biden and his fellow party members saw yesterday’s defeat in the election as a wake-up call. And now start delivering. Time is running out: midterm elections are only twelve months away. And since the Democrats threaten to lose their already narrow majorities in Congress. What hasn’t been done by then won’t work anymore. own fault.