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Election seen as test of voter sentiment toward U.S. President Joe Biden
The Associated Press · Posted: Nov 03, 2021 4:06 AM ET | Last Updated: 43 minutes ago
Glenn Youngkin gestures during a campaign event in Leesburg, Va., Monday. Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Tuesday's vote for governor. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia governor's race early Wednesday, tapping into culture war fights over schools and race to unite former president Donald Trump's most fervent supporters with enough suburban voters to become the first Republican to win statewide office there in 12 years.
The 54-year-old Youngkin's defeat of Democrat Terry McAuliffe marked a sharp turnabout in a state that has shifted to the left over the past decade and was captured by U.S. President Joe Biden last year by a 10-point margin. It is certain to add to the Democrats' anxiety about their grip on political power heading into next year's midterms, when the party's thin majority in Congress could be erased.
"Together we will change the trajectory of this commonwealth," Youngkin told cheering supporters in a hotel ballroom in Chantilly, about 40 kilometres west of Washington. AC/DC's Thunderstruck had blared from speakers as the race was called around 12:45 a.m. ET.
Youngkin promised to immediately improve schools, declaring, "There's no time to waste. Our kids can't wait. We work in real people time not government time."
- Competitive Virginia governor's race to test Biden's appeal
- Analysis
Biden seeks cure for a bad case of the presidential blahs
In addition to the stinging loss for the Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy was in a close fight as he sought to become the first Democratic governor to win re-election there in more than four decades.
Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee and former governor Terry McAuliffe takes the stage during a campaign event at Caboose Commons in Fairfax on Monday. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
The elections were the first major tests of voter sentiment since Biden took office, and the results were a stern warning sign for the president's own support. His administration has been shaken repeatedly in recent months, beginning with the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, challenges in emerging from the pandemic and a legislative agenda at risk of stalling on Capitol Hill.
Attracted Trump's base
Youngkin, a political neophyte and former private equity executive, was able to take advantage of apparent apathy among core Democratic voters fatigued by years of elections that were seen as must-wins. He successfully portrayed McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor, Democratic National Committee chairman and close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, as part of an elite class of politicians.
He also seized on a late-stage stumble by McAuliffe, who during a debate performance suggested parents should have a minimal role in shaping school curriculums.
Youngkin talks to reporters outside a polling station in Chantilly, Va., Tuesday. During his campaign, the Republican alluded to some of former president Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 election being stolen. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
Perhaps most significantly, Youngkin prevailed in a task that has stumped scores of Republicans before him: attracting Trump's base while also appealing to suburban voters who were repelled by the former president's divisive behaviour.
During the campaign, Youngkin stated his support for "election integrity," a nod at Trump's lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, while also focusing on education and business-friendly policies. He never campaigned in person with Trump, successfully challenging McAuliffe's effort to cast him as a clone of the former president.
That approach could provide a model for Republicans competing in future races that feature significant numbers of Democratic or independent voters.
Meanwhile Tuesday, mayoral contests from New York and Boston to St. Louis, Detroit and Seattle promised to reshape leadership in many of the nation's largest cities. Democratic former police captain Eric Adams won in New York City, and Boston voters elected city Coun. Michelle Wu, the city's first female Asian American mayor. Cincinnati, too, is getting its first Asian American mayor, Aftab Pureval.
Eric Adams, who won the race for mayor in New York, speaks to supporters Tuesday night. (Frank Franklin II/The Associated Press)
Minneapolis police initiative rejected
Minneapolis voters rejected a ballot initiative that sought to overhaul policing in their city, where George Floyd was killed by a white police officer on Memorial Day 2020, sparking the largest wave of protests against racial injustice in generations.
The initiative would have replaced the police force with a Department of Public Safety charged with undertaking "a comprehensive public health" approach that would increase funding for violence prevention, dispatch mental health experts in response to some emergency calls and include police officers "if necessary."
But no other contest in this off-year election season received the level of national attention — and money — as the governor's race in Virginia, a state with broad swaths of college-educated suburban voters who are increasingly influential in swaying control of Congress and the White House.
A former co-CEO at the Carlyle Group with a lanky, six feet, six inches-tall build that once made him a reserve forward on Rice University's basketball team, Youngkin poured vast amounts of his personal fortune into a campaign that spent more than $59 million. Favouring fleece vests, Youngkin sought to cut the image of a genial suburban dad, often opening meetings with prayer.
Volunteers urge community members to vote yes on a police ballot question outside of a polling place on Tuesday in Minneapolis. Voters rejected the initiative. (Christian Monterrosa/The Associated Press)
Youngkin ran confidently on a conservative platform. He opposed a major clean energy mandate the state passed two years ago and objected to abortion in most circumstances.
He also backed a business-friendly approach to the state's economy, opposed mask and vaccine mandates, promised to expand Virginia's limited charter schools and ban critical race theory, an academic framework that centres on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation's institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people.
In recent months, it has become a catch-all political buzzword for any teaching in schools about race and American history.
McAuliffe tried to energize the Democratic base by highlighting abortion, denouncing a new Texas law that largely banned the procedure and warning that Youngkin would seek to implement similar restrictions.
Youngkin is 'Trump acolyte,' says Biden
Youngkin didn't discuss abortion much publicly, and a liberal activist caught him on tape saying the issue couldn't help him during the campaign. He said an election win would allow the party to "start going on offence" on the issue.
While McAuliffe pulled on the star power of a host of national Democrats, including former president Barack Obama and ex-Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams, Youngkin largely campaigned on his own, focusing on issues he said were important to Virginians.
Youngkin proved perhaps most successful in deflecting McAuliffe's efforts to tie him to Trump and the former president's divisive political style.
WATCH | Elections first major tests for Biden since his victory:
Virginia election seen as Biden litmus test ahead of midterm elections
9 hours ago
2:46
The governor race in Virginia is being watched as a litmus test for U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, especially as Democrats slump in national polls. 2:46
Even Biden, who made his second trip of the 2021 campaign to suburban Arlington just a week before election day on McAuliffe's behalf, hammered the point, calling Youngkin a "Trump acolyte."
"Extremism can come in many forms. It can come in the rage of a mob driven to assault the Capitol. It can come in a smile and a fleece vest," Biden said, likening protesters in January' s deadly insurrection to Youngkin's favourite campaign attire.
Former vice-president Mike Pence visited the state, and Trump staged a Virginia tele-rally on election day eve, but Youngkin shied away from campaigning with national Republican stars.
