Why is it with Republicans and wanting to win Virginia so badly?
It’s more of a symbolic thing based on the (incredibly dumb) assumption that the state only flipped from R-leaning to Solid D because of "moderate" neoliberal hawkish suburban white Bush/Clinton #NeverTrump type voters in NOVA, Virginia Beach, Richmond suburbs, etc. who are still Republicans at heart.
Well, that, and some people unironically think Clinton would have lost VA without Kaine. It’s certainly interesting that you don’t see them obsessing over winning Colorado, though. I guess VA really is to Republicans what WV is to some Democrats.
You know, with WV I kinda get it. Yeah, it's silly, and granted- a lot of the sentiment has to do with Dems pretending like the party still has some tie to old school labor in more traditional industries (which hasn't been true in a
long time). But at least with WV, you have an electorate that hasn't changed. The last time WV had any serious growth was 40 years ago and the demographics voting now are pretty much the same as in the 90s. You could literally find people that voted for Clinton in '96 and are voting R now, so I guess in theory, the right Dem could win it.
Whereas in VA, people assume the reverse is true, even though the demographics now are completely different as those in the past and the state's shift has little to do with the parties themselves. For some reason, Republicans in particular have this image in their mind of what the state looks like, and then there is what the state actually
is, and those two things haven't been the same for at least 15 years now.
VA is not the future of the party. Places like ME, MI, PA, and MN are. Yes, I understand this will be to the chagrin of a faction of the GOP, but they need to accept that, get over it and move on.
