How should Republicans view VA statewide races going forward?

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Well?

[TheSaint250]

Can we stop making threads like this?

[Virginiá]

Can we stop making threads like this?

The post-election buzz will burn out eventually.

[Yank2133]

1. Stop running crazy people
2. Stop pandering for crazy people's votes with crazy policies.

[TheSaint250]

Can we stop making threads like this?

The post-election buzz will burn out eventually.

I mean, I understand being happy with a party’s result (I know you supported Gillespie, Wilfric), but this “death of the losing party stuff is weird

[TheSaint250]

Can we stop making threads like this?

The post-election buzz will burn out eventually.

I mean, I understand being happy with a party’s result (I know you supported Gillespie, Wilfric), but this “death of the losing party stuff is weird

oh I think it's mostly people trolling. I don't know if you followed these sites closely after Trump's win, but everyone was talking about a permanent Republican majority then too, which seemed odd given that he won four states by 1% or less and another two by less than 4%.

I wasn't on then, but yeah, any kind of talk like that is stupid, especially after a heavily contested presidential election

[Ye We Can]

The answer is very obviously some moderation on culture issues to stave off the bleeding in the wealthier areas. A decent R candidate could still win in a neutral or good R year. But the state is Lean D now.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

I don't think they should give up on the state completely but they should plan on spending less resources on it in the future. It's becoming fool's gold for them.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Start running candidates like Larry Hogan.

Virginia is becoming the new Maryland.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I don't think they should give up on the state completely but they should plan on spending less resources on it in the future. It's becoming fool's gold for them.

It wasn't that long ago that PA was fool's gold and VA was the only real path to 270. God I have love politics just for this reason.

Delicious Irony!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Start running candidates like Larry Hogan.

Virginia is becoming the new Maryland.

Probably not quite Maryland, but certainly that would not be a bad idea.

[MT Treasurer]

I don't think they should give up on the state completely but they should plan on spending less resources on it in the future. It's becoming fool's gold for them.

It wasn't that long ago that PA was fool's gold and VA was the only real path to 270. God I have love politics just for this reason.

Delicious Irony!

This was always nonsense, though. Not sure why people really believed that. Even long before Trump announced his run for president, it was obvious that PA was going to be a better target for Rs than VA. That said, most people expected CO to vote to the right of PA back then.

[Pericles]

Treat Virginia as a blue state and act accordingly, that's what it is now. They could still win occasionally, look at Baker and Rauner and Hogan, but trying to run as mini-Trumps or compete on the presidential level(absent a landslide) will be stupid and lead to more defeats.

[smoltchanov]

Treat Virginia as a blue state and act accordingly, that's what it is now. They could still win occasionally, look at Baker and Rauner and Hogan, but trying to run as mini-Trumps or compete on the presidential level(absent a landslide) will be stupid and lead to more defeats.

Fully agree. Well, almost fully - Virginia isn't a completely blue state yet, but, undoubtely, has strong blueish hue...

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I don't think they should give up on the state completely but they should plan on spending less resources on it in the future. It's becoming fool's gold for them.

It wasn't that long ago that PA was fool's gold and VA was the only real path to 270. God I have love politics just for this reason.

Delicious Irony!

This was always nonsense, though. Not sure why people really believed that. Even long before Trump announced his run for president, it was obvious that PA was going to be a better target for Rs than VA. That said, most people expected CO to vote to the right of PA back then.

I know it's easy to look back on the results and say it was so amazingly obvious, but look at it from a lens where you don't know the results of 2016. In this lens, the last successful republican campaign was Bush 2004. Bush 2004 won Virginia by keeping Fairfax tight and winning in Loudoun and Prince William. Bush 2004 went hard at Pennsylvania and won Chester County by 5, only lost Bucks by 2, only lost Montgomery by 10, held Kerry under 60% in Scranton, etc., but still lost by 3%.  Since then, McCain spent so much time in PA that the governor was joking about charging him state income tax, and still lost by 11, and Romney managed to do great in the Pittsburgh Suburbs, but ended up bleeding votes in Philly vs. '04 in return, and lost by a Bush 2000 margin.  Simply put, from a pre-2016 viewpoint, the last winnable PA formula was in 1988 during a 400 electoral vote landslide (probably not realistic in the modern era for either political party), while the last winnable VA formula was far more recent - 2004. Furthermore, Trump's formula for winning PA was not predictable in advance for anyone who wanted to stay politically relevant - if you went around saying that Clinton was only going to win Scranton by 3% after Obama won it by 27%, you'd be laughed out of politics in 5 seconds. Also, there was the general line of thinking that a state that votes for a Democrat 6 times in a row (PA) isn't going to turn around and start voting the other way.

[IceSpear]

If you just remove Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Charlottesville, Henrico, Richmond, and Virginia Beach, Virginia is a solid R state.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Republicans get elected statewide in Illinois and Massachusetts all the time, so the hysteria here is slightly weird.

[IceSpear]

Republicans get elected statewide in Illinois and Massachusetts all the time, so the hysteria here is slightly weird.

If you just remove Barnstable, Berkshire, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Worcester counties, the Massachusetts presidential race was within single digits.

[Skye]

Cry while Trump is president.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

If you just remove Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Charlottesville, Henrico, Richmond, and Virginia Beach, Virginia is a solid R state.

Va Beach is not solid R, but it hasn't voted for a Democrat for President since 1964.

[IceSpear]

If you just remove Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Charlottesville, Henrico, Richmond, and Virginia Beach, Virginia is a solid R state.

Va Beach is not solid R, but it hasn't voted for a Democrat for President since 1964.

Yeah, but that wasn't really the point of that post. lol

[UncleSam]

They should act as if they are running in Illinois, Maryland, or Maine. Right-wingers (mostly) cannot win those states, and VA is at that point now.

[MT Treasurer]

They should act as if they are running in Illinois, Maryland, or Maine. Right-wingers (mostly) cannot win those states, and VA is at that point now.

I agree on IL (mostly) and MD, but you really cannot equate Maine with any of those states for obvious reasons.

[RINO Tom]

They should act as if they are running in Illinois, Maryland, or Maine. Right-wingers (mostly) cannot win those states, and VA is at that point now.

I agree on IL (mostly) and MD, but you really cannot equate Maine with any of those states for obvious reasons.

Yeah, split vote or not, Maine elected Paul LePage ... like, come on.  Anyway, I agree that Republicans will have a very hard time winning VA in the future statewide (and probably have next to no chance of winning it at the Presidential level), and a winning formula would be like in Illinois: win the rural areas and get the margins that GOP Presidential candidates used to get in the suburbs.  Honestly, at this point, I think it's much easier for a Republican to win statewide in Illinois, as Chicago's suburbs are more GOP-friendly than NOVA.

[MT Treasurer]

They should act as if they are running in Illinois, Maryland, or Maine. Right-wingers (mostly) cannot win those states, and VA is at that point now.

I agree on IL (mostly) and MD, but you really cannot equate Maine with any of those states for obvious reasons.

Yeah, split vote or not, Maine elected Paul LePage ... like, come on.  Anyway, I agree that Republicans will have a very hard time winning VA in the future statewide (and probably have next to no chance of winning it at the Presidential level), and a winning formula would be like in Illinois: win the rural areas and get the margins that GOP Presidential candidates used to get in the suburbs.  Honestly, at this point, I think it's much easier for a Republican to win statewide in Illinois, as Chicago's suburbs are more GOP-friendly than NOVA.

Totally agree with everything you said, plus the state was much closer than VA in 2016. Poliquin is fairly conservative as well (I know he only won in ME-02 and not statewide, but his margins were pretty big), and I doubt that Collins would ever be able to win by 37 points in a state like VA, lol.