After Republicans dominated Virginia’s elections and nearly brought down the Democratic governor of New Jersey, it’s worth revisiting the rather silly takeaways many liberals had after the California recall election.
You may recall that after California Gov. Gavin Newsom resoundingly defeated the recall attempt against him, several liberals decided Newsom provided Democrats with a strategy they could export nationally. Newsom claimed the recall was pushed by those who supported the Jan. 6 riot, painting chief challenger Larry Elder as being closely tied to former President Donald Trump. Newsom also ran on his “successes” against the pandemic and painted the recall as moving backward into more COVID deaths.
It was a great strategy in California, a state that President Joe Biden won by 29 points. Only a handful of states are more reliably Democratic. But, to try and set the narrative going into the midterm elections, several liberals claimed Newsom provided Democrats the blueprint to win nationally.
“Newsom’s Anti-Trump Recall Strategy Offers Republicans a Warning for 2022,” Jonathan Martin declared in a piece for the New York Times. “The party’s pre-existing blue- and purple-state strategy of portraying Republicans as Trump-loving extremists can still prove effective with the former president out of office. At least when the strategy is executed with unrelenting discipline, an avalanche of money and an opponent who plays to type.”
Perry Bacon Jr. echoed that sentiment in the Washington Post, touting that “Newsom and his campaign relentlessly focused on Elder, casting him as extremist. And they emphasized that Newsom supported vaccination and mask-wearing requirements and other common-sense policies to reduce the spread of covid-19, much of which Elder opposed.”
Then reality came crashing down on Tuesday. In theory, the strategy should have still worked in New Jersey (where Biden won by 16 points) and Virginia (where Biden won by 10). That was certainly what former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe thought, as he tied his GOP opponent to Trump and lied about coronavirus numbers to scare voters into his camp. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy was one of the biggest proponents of lockdowns. If Newsom had indeed provided a national strategy, it would have worked in these two states.
As we know, it failed miserably. McAuliffe lost in Virginia, and Republicans won the races for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. Republicans also took back the House of Delegates. In New Jersey, Murphy appears to have limped to reelection, and the Democratic leader of the New Jersey state Senate was ousted by a truck driver.
Newsom surviving the recall was not worth a victory lap. Most of the country is not like California. Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey discovered that the hard way this week, and Democrats in other states are next in 2022.
