Republicans see the model after Virginia wins

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Ever since the day he rode a golden escalator and announced his candidacy for president, Republicans have struggled with how to deal with Donald Trump.

But after Glenn Youngkin’s stunning success in Virginia’s gubernatorial career – a state President Joe Biden won last year by 10 percentage points – and a strong GOP showing up in deep blue New Jersey, the party leaders believe they have a model that can give them big wins in next year’s midterm elections.

By tapping into culture war fights on issues like school curricula, the GOP can inspire Trump’s loyal base. But party leaders believe this week’s results show they can also overcome the suburbanites who abandoned the GOP during the Trump era by talking about local issues such as taxes and keeping the former president strict.

“Obviously Youngkin’s win is a boost to Republicans and gives us momentum next year,” said Asa Hutchinson, the Republican governor of Arkansas, who did not rule out running for president in 2024. That, that accompanied by a surprising career for governor in New Jersey, ”showed that a Republican in this environment, talking about state issues, talking about education, talking about the future, could even win votes in suburban and can win in the middle. “

While the full scope of the vote on Tuesday became clear, the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is focused on regaining control of the House, named 13 more Democratic seats it hopes to flip. Meanwhile, the National Republican Senatorial Committee noted that next year’s map is heavy on swing states like Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia, which Biden won by a thinner margin than he won in Virginia and New Jersey.

Other states where Democrats are looking for Senate seats, such as North Carolina and Florida, were brought in by Trump in 2020.

“It completely changes the dynamics of the map,” NRSC spokesman Chris Hartline said.

The results have encouraged some Trump critics such as Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who swept his own blue state and has long stressed the party’s need to regain the swing voters and moderates that Trump has alienated.

“That’s the way we’re going to win,” Hogan said. “It’s a great road map. You can’t double the frustration, “he said, arguing that voters” want to hear what you do for them, not for Trump. “

Of course, heading into the midterms, it remains unclear whether Republicans will nominate the type of candidates with the same appeal as Youngkin.

Many major GOP contests, from Ohio to North Carolina, have been dominated by opponents who have tried to out-Trump each other, including joking his lies about a stolen election. And the former president jumped into races, aiming to crown candidates facing heavy allegations as he tried to avenge those who crossed over him by voting in favor of his impeachment or opposing his efforts to overthrow the 2020 election. .

One example is Sean Parnell, who is running for the Senate in Pennsylvania in support of Trump. Parnell’s estranged wife this week testified under oath that she endured years of anger and abuse from him, including being strangled until he bit her, a newspaper reported. Parnell vehemently denied his statements.

And while Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican candidate for governor in New Jersey who lost a close vote, made a clear break to Trump, Youngkin did not. Instead, the Virginia Republican deftly manipulated the former president, urging him to evade the state, while maintaining his support.

Trump endorsed Youngkin and praised him in the final stages of the race, but his participation in the campaign was limited, including holding a “tele-rally” on election eve where he spoke in less than 10 minutes. However, Trump’s allies clarified to his supporters that there is little daylight between the two men when it comes to issues.

John Fredericks, who served as chairman of Trump’s state campaign in 2016 and 2020, hosted Trump on his radio show, and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon appeared at a rally to signal the MAGA bona fides by Youngkin. A GOP strategist noticed how Trump developed a system of code words – such as “America first” – that candidates like Youngkin could take as a way of signaling to Trump’s base that he was speak their language.

Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe, meanwhile, flooded the airwaves with ads describing Youngkin as a Trump acolyte, reminding Republicans that he was one of them.

“Thank you, Terry McAuliffe, for spending the money to help me get our vote in massive numbers,” Fredericks said. “He got our vote. We didn’t have to. ”

Beyond Trump, Youngkin tapped into a set of issues that appealed to rural voters in the deep Republican swaths of southwest Virginia as well as those in the suburbs who agreed with Trump on the economy and others. more issues on the kitchen table but killed by his tone. He presented himself in chipper’s campaign ads as a kind, suburban father in a sweater vest that might appeal to parents.

In particular, he captured the frustrations of parents, many of whom were outraged at their children’s schools ’refusal to continue personal classes during the pandemic, and the subsequent mask orders and policies. in attendance.

But while he promised to raise teacher salaries and school budgets, Youngkin also did not deny the culture war issues Trump announced in an effort to portray Democrats as not in the mainstream.

Youngkin sounded the alarm with transgender rights and critical race theory, an academic framework centered on the idea that racism is systematic in the nation’s institutions and that they work to maintain the dominance of white people. In recent months, it has become a catch-all political buzzword for any teaching in schools about American race and history. In fact, she ran an ad featuring a mother expressing anger that her son was assigned to read “Beloved,” Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize -winning novel.

Fredericks acknowledged Trump for Youngkin’s victory, insisting that the Republican would not win without Trump’s base.

“Glenn Youngkin did nothing but embrace our core policies and voters from Day One. So he did nothing to alienate us, ”he said. “He brought together a very simple coalition: Trump voters and angry parents.”

It is predictable that Trump will agree.

“Without that move, that race wouldn’t be close,” he said on Fredericks ’radio show on Wednesday.

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Reprinted with permission from The Associated Press.

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