Virginia Mega Thread: The Youngkin Administration

[It’s so Joever]

Safe D Lynchburg. But Likely R Loudoun.

[roxas11]

If Youngkin was winning right now there would be no need to ever bring up Ralph Northam because even if voters voter agreed with on him on the Dems hypocrisy over blackface, I still think most people do not care about this issue at all and others see it as old news that they have moved on from a long time ago

Ultimately it's simply not a good sign for Youngkin at all that he feels at this stage of the campaign that he needs to focus more on what Ralph Northam may have done 30 years ago than on actually convincing voters to support him and his policies

First of all, the point wasn’t "bring[ing] up Ralph Northam" so much as it was reinforcing the perception of McAuliffe as a hypocrite who loves to brand himself like the reasonable adult in the room while behaving just like Trump when it comes to protecting his own party and those in his circles (the ad highlighted McAuliffe's defense of Northam, not Northam's actions). McAuliffe has consistently been tying Youngkin to the racist appeals of Trump, a supposedly 'un-scientific' approach to COVID, stolen election rhetoric, cultural extremism, etc., and what those ads do is turn the tables on him, exposing his rhetoric as hypocritical and performative. McAuliffe has been staking everything on tying Youngkin to Trump, so it’s not surprising to see Youngkin trying undermine this line of attack.

Second, you paint the impression that this "blackface" thing is somehow the dominant theme of his campaign, which it clearly isn’t. It’s not accurate to say that he isn’t "convincing voters to support him and his policies," but given how incredibly negative the McAuliffe campaign has been from day one (you could just as well spin that as a sign that McAuliffe feels like he needs the race to be nationalized to really feel good about his chances), he obviously has to counter unless you expect him to unilaterally surrender in what is a full-fledged war (especially against a professional electoral hitman like McAuliffe).

The one impression (and maybe some others will agree) I’ve gotten is that if you just observed their demeanor and didn’t know their actual party labels/positions, you’d be tempted (especially after the Trump era) to think that McAuliffe is the Republican and Youngkin the Democrat in this race. Youngkin comes across as much more level-headed, less erratic and negative, more optimistic/forward-looking, and more 'soothing' than McAuliffe. It’s quite different from the Gillespie 2017 campaign, which was arguably easier to paint as an inauthentic and transparent attempt at demagoguery designed to stir up Trumpian fears about illegals and caravans. Also, it was easier for Northam to pull off the reasonable moderate shtick when Donald Trump was actually in the White House. You can tell just how much McAuliffe/Democrats depend on Trump in this race — we’ll see how it pays off for them in states that are actually competitive in 2022.

1. McAuliffe has consistently been tying Youngkin to the racist appeals of Trump, a supposedly 'un-scientific' approach to COVID, stolen election rhetoric, cultural extremism, etc., and what those ads do is turn the tables on him, exposing his rhetoric as hypocritical and performative.

I definitely agree that McAuliffe is very much a Clinton era politician and like most politicians, he will always accuse the other side of doing the same thing that he himself does lol

Look, I can't speak for others on this, but I am under no illusion whatsoever about the type of person McAuliffe is. Frankly, I see both candidates as nothing more than politicians who will say anything in order to get elected. The only real difference as far as I'm concerned is that Youngkin seems more willing to go along with the January 6 crowd and he has already let it slip about what will happen when it comes to abortion rights if he win


2. McAuliffe has been staking everything on tying Youngkin to Trump, so it’s not surprising to see Youngkin trying undermine this line of attack.

I don't disagree with the strategy I just think he could have come up with a better way to call out McAuliffe for his many hypocrisies without randomly and suddenly putting out Ralph Northam attack ads a week before the election


3. Second, you paint the impression that this "blackface" thing is somehow the dominant theme of his campaign, which it clearly isn’t.

I never made any claims about "blackface" being the dominant issue. If anything, a big reason why I thought it was so odd that Glenn youngkin was now running ads about Ralph Northam was because it is clearly not the main issue that most voters in Virginia are focused on right now

4. The one impression (and maybe some others will agree) I’ve gotten is that if you just observed their demeanor and didn’t know their actual party labels/positions, you’d be tempted (especially after the Trump era) to think that McAuliffe is the Republican and Youngkin the Democrat in this race.

I would defiantly agree that Glenn Youngkin could have easily passed himself off as being almost like a moderate dem had he not been caught making those now infamous comments about going on the offensive against planned parenthood

5. u can tell just how much McAuliffe/Democrats depend on Trump in this race — we’ll see how it pays off for them in states that are actually competitive in 2022.

Looking at the results from Californian Trump clearly is still a factor, especially if Republican starts nominating people like Larry elders. I have no doubt that among many voters there is a legitimate fear of Trumpism. Having said that Republican can easily avoid this issue simply by nominating candidates that are more like Glenn youngkin and less like Larry elders or Marjorie Taylor Greene

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1451896196923068424

It's beyond embarrassing Biden can't legally fire Trump's lobbyist Louis DeJoy as head of the Postal Service. The guy is just a rich donor doing the Republicans' bidding to undermine vote by mail. So much for a draining the swamp.

What's embarrassing is that Democrats are so intent on blaming the USPS's troubles on a Trump appointee that they have completely ignored doing anything about its longstanding financial difficulties.

And if they really do not trust the Post Office, they could have put up ballot drop boxes in every precinct across the state.  But most places, including major Democrat-dominant cities in Hampton Roads, just have one per city/county.

[Alben Barkley]

Youngkin is literally running attack ads against a a man who is not even eligible to run because he is utterly incapable of running against his actual opponent on anything of substance.

Time to join Larry Elder, buddy!

There's still room!

[Alben Barkley]

If Youngkin was winning right now there would be no need to ever bring up Ralph Northam because even if voters voter agreed with on him on the Dems hypocrisy over blackface, I still think most people do not care about this issue at all and others see it as old news that they have moved on from a long time ago

Ultimately it's simply not a good sign for Youngkin at all that he feels at this stage of the campaign that he needs to focus more on what Ralph Northam may have done 30 years ago than on actually convincing voters to support him and his policies

First of all, the point wasn’t "bring[ing] up Ralph Northam" so much as it was reinforcing the perception of McAuliffe as a hypocrite who loves to brand himself like the reasonable adult in the room while behaving just like Trump when it comes to protecting his own party and those in his circles (the ad highlighted McAuliffe's defense of Northam, not Northam's actions). McAuliffe has consistently been tying Youngkin to the racist appeals of Trump, a supposedly 'un-scientific' approach to COVID, stolen election rhetoric, cultural extremism, etc., and what those ads do is turn the tables on him, exposing his rhetoric as hypocritical and performative. McAuliffe has been staking everything on tying Youngkin to Trump, so it’s not surprising to see Youngkin trying undermine this line of attack.

Second, you paint the impression that this "blackface" thing is somehow the dominant theme of his campaign, which it clearly isn’t. It’s not accurate to say that he isn’t "convincing voters to support him and his policies," but given how incredibly negative the McAuliffe campaign has been from day one (you could just as well spin that as a sign that McAuliffe feels like he needs the race to be nationalized to really feel good about his chances), he obviously has to counter unless you expect him to unilaterally surrender in what is a full-fledged war (especially against a professional electoral hitman like McAuliffe).

The one impression (and maybe some others will agree) I’ve gotten is that if you just observed their demeanor and didn’t know their actual party labels/positions, you’d be tempted (especially after the Trump era) to think that McAuliffe is the Republican and Youngkin the Democrat in this race. Youngkin comes across as much more level-headed, less erratic and negative, more optimistic/forward-looking, and more 'soothing' than McAuliffe. It’s quite different from the Gillespie 2017 campaign, which was arguably easier to paint as an inauthentic and transparent attempt at demagoguery designed to stir up Trumpian fears about illegals and caravans. Also, it was easier for Northam to pull off the reasonable moderate shtick when Donald Trump was actually in the White House. You can tell just how much McAuliffe/Democrats depend on Trump in this race — we’ll see how it pays off for them in states that are actually competitive in 2022.

That's a hell of a lot of words about a race you and I both know is safe D.

Dare I say it, but are you... giving in to the hype? Are you actually believing that Youngkin can win this thing because you personally like him? Despite VA's... PARTISAN LEAN???

Good GOD!!!

Anyway, all I know is that I saw a clip of Youngkin accusing T-Mac of being "like if Bill and Hillary Clinton had a son." Literally no better reason I can think of to vote for anybody. Thanks, Glenn!

[Non Swing Voter]

Youngkin is literally running attack ads against a a man who is not even eligible to run because he is utterly incapable of running against his actual opponent on anything of substance.

Time to join Larry Elder, buddy!

There's still room!

But someone who isn't sure if Arlington is in Fairfax said Youngkin's running a great campaign.

[Non Swing Voter]

Youngkin bringing up blackface over a relatively popular governor says all you need to know about his pathetic campaign's chances with one week out.  LOL

Nothing wrong with pointing out hypocrisy. Someone truly into racial justice wouldn't be happy with terrance literally poo-pooing and shrugging away a kkk picture and blackface.

While I agree with you that Youngkin has every right to bring up the issue if he wants to. I do think that it's odd that he is doing this at this stage of the race and frankly if he was winning there is no chance that he would even have to resort to these kinds of desperate attacks in the first place


If Youngkin was winning right now there would be no need to ever bring up Ralph Northam because even if voters voter agreed with on him on the Dems hypocrisy over blackface, I still think most people do not care about this issue at all and others see it as old news that they have moved on from a long time ago

Ultimately it's simply not a good sign for Youngkin at all that he feels at this stage of the campaign that he needs to focus more on what Ralph Northam may have done 30 years ago than on actually convincing voters to support him and his policies

Your analysis based on couple (out of hundreds) of ads? Ok. Why do you think, these are "desperate attacks"? IMO, these kinds of ads might be effective into lowering enthusiasm among some D electorate.

You don't know what ads are playing regularly in Virginia.

[Non Swing Voter]

Noted GOP activist is now just a "regular mom" in new Youngkin ad. This is just desperate.

https://twitter.com/akarl_smith/status/1452677631758016513

GOPers can't even fake being "regular" anymore.  That ad looks crazy.

[Matty]

https://mobile.twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1452652366168268809

[roxas11]

https://mobile.twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1452652366168268809

She sounds like a very impressive women and it's too bad that she is not at the top of the Republican ticket.

I could easily see someone like her giving terry mcauliffe and Dems a much tougher challenge had the Republicans actually picked her as their nominee

fortunately for the Dems republican voters would still much rather choose candidates like Larry elders or Marjorie Taylor Greene over someone like Winsome Sears

[Devils30]

https://mobile.twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1452652366168268809

She sounds like a very impressive women and it's too bad that she is not at the top of the Republican ticket.

I could easily see someone like her giving terry mcauliffe and Dems a much tougher challenge had the Republicans actually picked her as their nominee

fortunately for the Dems republican voters would still much rather choose candidates like Larry elders or Marjorie Taylor Greene over someone like Winsome Sears

Sears might be the top vote getter on the GOP ticket. I would bet on Dems going Herring, TMac, Ayala in that order.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

https://mobile.twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1452652366168268809

A lot of fascinating people with compelling stories turn out to be terrible politicians. Just look at Sinema

[wbrocks67]

Youngkin the one running a messy campaign atm - if you want to run on Education, then sure, great - but I don't see how this type of stuff is going to get the suburban women on your side. I don't see how you think you're winning if you have to reduce to this stuff.

https://twitter.com/cnn94cnn/status/1452771915723157509

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

Youngkin bringing up blackface over a relatively popular governor says all you need to know about his pathetic campaign's chances with one week out.  LOL

Nothing wrong with pointing out hypocrisy. Someone truly into racial justice wouldn't be happy with terrance literally poo-pooing and shrugging away a kkk picture and blackface.

While I agree with you that Youngkin has every right to bring up the issue if he wants to. I do think that it's odd that he is doing this at this stage of the race and frankly if he was winning there is no chance that he would even have to resort to these kinds of desperate attacks in the first place


If Youngkin was winning right now there would be no need to ever bring up Ralph Northam because even if voters voter agreed with on him on the Dems hypocrisy over blackface, I still think most people do not care about this issue at all and others see it as old news that they have moved on from a long time ago

Ultimately it's simply not a good sign for Youngkin at all that he feels at this stage of the campaign that he needs to focus more on what Ralph Northam may have done 30 years ago than on actually convincing voters to support him and his policies

Your analysis based on couple (out of hundreds) of ads? Ok. Why do you think, these are "desperate attacks"? IMO, these kinds of ads might be effective into lowering enthusiasm among some D electorate.

You don't know what ads are playing regularly in Virginia.

I do.

https://www.wtkr.com/news/campaigns-for-virginia-governor-go-negative-in-final-weeks
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/22/virginia-governors-race-abortion-schools-take-center-stage-in-election-ad-wars-.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/12/us/politics/virginia-governor-campaign-ads.html

[wbrocks67]

Youngkin bringing up blackface over a relatively popular governor says all you need to know about his pathetic campaign's chances with one week out.  LOL

Nothing wrong with pointing out hypocrisy. Someone truly into racial justice wouldn't be happy with terrance literally poo-pooing and shrugging away a kkk picture and blackface.

While I agree with you that Youngkin has every right to bring up the issue if he wants to. I do think that it's odd that he is doing this at this stage of the race and frankly if he was winning there is no chance that he would even have to resort to these kinds of desperate attacks in the first place


If Youngkin was winning right now there would be no need to ever bring up Ralph Northam because even if voters voter agreed with on him on the Dems hypocrisy over blackface, I still think most people do not care about this issue at all and others see it as old news that they have moved on from a long time ago

Ultimately it's simply not a good sign for Youngkin at all that he feels at this stage of the campaign that he needs to focus more on what Ralph Northam may have done 30 years ago than on actually convincing voters to support him and his policies

Your analysis based on couple (out of hundreds) of ads? Ok. Why do you think, these are "desperate attacks"? IMO, these kinds of ads might be effective into lowering enthusiasm among some D electorate.

You don't know what ads are playing regularly in Virginia.

I do.

https://www.wtkr.com/news/campaigns-for-virginia-governor-go-negative-in-final-weeks
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/22/virginia-governors-race-abortion-schools-take-center-stage-in-election-ad-wars-.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/12/us/politics/virginia-governor-campaign-ads.html

You do realize there are a plethora more of ads running that just the ones a few websites have noted? Unless you live in VA, you do not know all the ads that are running.

[ElectionsGuy]

Of course, the Atlas take on this election is that the man who's making Virginia competitive is actually running a really bad, desperate campaign that doesn't appeal to anyone. lol

[roxas11]

Noted GOP activist is now just a "regular mom" in new Youngkin ad. This is just desperate.

https://twitter.com/akarl_smith/status/1452677631758016513

I have personally never been a fan of either party using these type of ads because 90 percent of the time they always end up getting a political hack to pretend to be your Average American who just happens to have concerns about the other party's candidate lol

It's nothing but pure BS and I suspect a most Americans see right though these types of ads. However, Glenn Youngkin is counting on the fact that there may be some voters out there who will fall for it. Even if that does turn out to be the case Im not convinced that there is nearly enough of those kinds of voters to give Youngkin the win

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

Youngkin bringing up blackface over a relatively popular governor says all you need to know about his pathetic campaign's chances with one week out.  LOL

Nothing wrong with pointing out hypocrisy. Someone truly into racial justice wouldn't be happy with terrance literally poo-pooing and shrugging away a kkk picture and blackface.

While I agree with you that Youngkin has every right to bring up the issue if he wants to. I do think that it's odd that he is doing this at this stage of the race and frankly if he was winning there is no chance that he would even have to resort to these kinds of desperate attacks in the first place


If Youngkin was winning right now there would be no need to ever bring up Ralph Northam because even if voters voter agreed with on him on the Dems hypocrisy over blackface, I still think most people do not care about this issue at all and others see it as old news that they have moved on from a long time ago

Ultimately it's simply not a good sign for Youngkin at all that he feels at this stage of the campaign that he needs to focus more on what Ralph Northam may have done 30 years ago than on actually convincing voters to support him and his policies

Your analysis based on couple (out of hundreds) of ads? Ok. Why do you think, these are "desperate attacks"? IMO, these kinds of ads might be effective into lowering enthusiasm among some D electorate.

You don't know what ads are playing regularly in Virginia.

I do.

https://www.wtkr.com/news/campaigns-for-virginia-governor-go-negative-in-final-weeks
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/22/virginia-governors-race-abortion-schools-take-center-stage-in-election-ad-wars-.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/12/us/politics/virginia-governor-campaign-ads.html

You do realize there are a plethora more of ads running that just the ones a few websites have noted? Unless you live in VA, you do not know all the ads that are running.

I see, you haven't bother to read the articles.

Unless you live in VA, you do not know all the ads that are running.

What a smart take!

Unless you live in VA and watch all the TV-channels simultaneously, while listening to all radio stations and watching all the ads in social media, you do not know all the ads that are running!!!!111

Well, that's why there are people who analysis the large share of ads for you. Like these in the articles, I linked to.

[wbrocks67]

Harris is headed back to VA for an event with T-Mac on Friday with Pharrell.

https://twitter.com/WAVY_News/status/1452662462436855810

[wbrocks67]

Looks like there won't be (as much) of a red mirage in VA this year:

https://twitter.com/JulieCareyNBC/status/1452815233706340354

[NerdyBohemian]

Noted GOP activist is now just a "regular mom" in new Youngkin ad. This is just desperate.

https://twitter.com/akarl_smith/status/1452677631758016513

I thought Republicans were against safe spaces and trigger warnings.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

Noted GOP activist is now just a "regular mom" in new Youngkin ad. This is just desperate.

https://twitter.com/akarl_smith/status/1452677631758016513

The main theme of the ad is probably very well-chosen.

From the latest Suffolk

24. Should parents or school boards have more of an influence on a school’s curriculum?

• Parents 49.80%
• School Boards 38.80%

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Democrats are definitly panicking, you don't get that kind of VP engagment unless polls are showing something scary.

[wbrocks67]

Noted GOP activist is now just a "regular mom" in new Youngkin ad. This is just desperate.

https://twitter.com/akarl_smith/status/1452677631758016513

The main theme of the ad is probably very well-chosen.

From the latest Suffolk

24. Should parents or school boards have more of an influence on a school’s curriculum?

• Parents 49.80%
• School Boards 38.80%

That poll question is ill-conceived, school boards do not set the curriculum. The state does, and teachers obviously have more influence in what is taught in the classroom versus the school board, so not sure why that was the choice.

Not to mention, school board members are generally... community members and parents, so it's a pretty bad job of Suffolk to not create a question that lives in reality.

Not to mention that parents should not have a say in the curriculum, because if they did, it would be a total mess - as seen in the GOP ad, where parents would be able to ban whatever they want for whatever reason they want. There's a reason why parents should not have a say in what's being taught in the classroom, and that's one of them.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/LarrySabato/status/1452991340787249158