Democrats thought they had chosen the right approach to the coronavirus pandemic, encouraging and even mandating prolonged caution. The voters disagreed, and Tuesday’s electoral losses are just the beginning of the price they will pay.
In addition to their loss of power in Virginia, Democrats nearly lost the governorship in New Jersey as well. Gov. Phil Murphy barely held on against a mostly unknown opponent, but other Jersey Democrats were defeated, including state Senate President Steve Sweeney, whose opponent spent little on his race.
Of the many factors contributing to Democrats’ losses, the main one seems to be voters’ frustration with how they handled the pandemic and their refusal to let life return to normal.
In Virginia, for example, parents turned out in droves for Republican Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin because of his emphasis on education. Yes, that included the high-profile issue of leftist extremism in the classroom. But before parents were mad about critical race theory, they were already extremely mad about the year of remote learning that the Democrats and their teachers union puppetmasters had forced down their children’s throats.
“I told the Youngkin campaign at the beginning of June that this … was going to come down to education and it was going to come down to education in Northern Virginia,” former Fairfax County school board member Elizabeth Schultz told Zaid Jilani. “I understood how angry how parents were about what happened over the course of the pandemic and the schools not being opened, the collusion that was exposed between the teachers’ unions and the CDC in keeping schools closed and them architecting the messaging to keep schools closed.”
The devastation of school closures cannot be understated. Yet instead of recognizing the damage to children and parents alike, Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe decided to campaign with the very person responsible for it: Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers. McAuliffe also advocated for continued mask mandates in schools, a divisive and controversial policy with no scientific basis.
All Youngkin had to do to beat McAuliffe was provide an alternative to families tired of moving pandemic goalposts and of being told that normalcy is always a couple of steps away. That’s how he won over a large majority of parents with K-12 children and, specifically, suburban women.
Republicans’ success in New Jersey tells a similar story. Murphy was supposed to be a shoo-in for reelection. But he barely survived, and Democratic candidates down-ballot were crushed just 10 months after President Joe Biden won the state by 16 points. New Jersey is, by all means, a pretty blue state. But voters were fed up with Murphy’s coronavirus restrictions.
“I voted because of what the governor had done to us, closing everything, not giving us the rights to do anything,” Raul Rebustillos, a 68-year-old New Jersey resident, told a local news publication. Thousands of other voters agreed — so much so that a 58-year-old truck driver with no campaign budget to speak of was able to dethrone the state Senate president by running on one simple campaign message: Democrats’ coronavirus restrictions hurt New Jersey.
For some reason, Democrats have convinced themselves that a majority wanted the government to tell them how to approach COVID-19. They didn’t, and they definitely don’t want their leaders doing that now.
The political signs of discontent have been obvious for a while now. Even in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom had to fight off a recall election because so many state residents were upset with his pandemic restrictions.
But this week’s elections in Virginia and New Jersey should make it clear that if Democrats keep fearmongering about COVID-19 and running on policies that restrict normal life, they will keep losing elections.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story stated that Durr only spent $153 on his campaign when, in fact, he spent several thousand. The article has been updated accordingly.
