NJ-GOV 2021 megathread

[Xing]

Murphy will probably win, but it will be embarrassing if Youngkin wins by a larger margin than him.

Heres the good news for the Dem establishment tho: They still have 13 months to make excuses, find scapegoats, and avoid responsibility for the inevitable 2022 shellacking. I wonder what/who it will be this time? Ralph Nader? Russia? Muh media?

Just about every single "progressive" candidate and policy up tonight got blown out of the water, even in blue cities like Seattle, Minneapolis, and Buffalo. Also as mentioned Murphy himself is pretty damn "progressive" and got an enthusiastic endorsement from Bernie Sanders.

But sure, it's all "the establishment" and I'm sure AOC would win in a landslide if we nominated her or someone like her for president.

Please don’t use “progressive as an umbrella label. There are light years between Sanders and NTK.

[Xing]

Murphy did all the supposedly super popular progressive stuff (legalized marijuana, raised taxes on the rich, $15 minimum wage, etc.) and it doesn't seem to have helped at all. Voters do not vote on policy; they vote on vibes. Seems bad for the long-term viability of democracy, IMO.

This has, of course, always been the case.

And it leaves Democrats with a problem which is at once simple and all too difficult to solve: their vibes are simply atrocious at the moment.

Those bickering over who’s progressive or moderate enough need to hear this. People vote based on feelings. The Democratic Party needs new blood, and to give a different impression to voters; policy and ideology are secondary to voters.

[Xing]

Murphy’s going to win this, but wow, absolutely pathetic margin. And I know that Republicans did even better in 2009, but considering that partisanship is much stronger now, this is serious trouble for Democrats, and if they don’t get their act together, we could see a lot of gubernatorial races flip, and not just in swing states.

[Xing]

Unless there's another glitch, the 400-vote lead isn't going to hold, since what's out is in Democratic-leaning counties.