Virginia Mega Thread: The Youngkin Administration

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I support Carter in the primary strictly as a middle finger to TMac.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

What the hell was Fairfax thinking?

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Sucks that T-Mac is going to run away with this nomination because JCF seems like one of the best gubernatorial candidates anywhere. She could've been a real model for black women to win statewide in 2022 (Abrams, Beasley, etc.) but old white men just can't give up their power.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Sucks that T-Mac is going to run away with this nomination because JCF seems like one of the best gubernatorial candidates anywhere. She could've been a real model for black women to win statewide in 2022 (Abrams, Beasley, etc.) but old white men just can't give up their power.

The election is free and fair one.  Turnout will be very ordinary.  It's up to the candidate to win, not have something "given" to them.

Yes, surely Terry McAuliffe, a former Governor and chair of the DNC, has no inherent advantage over a former state delegate at all for any reason.

Sucks that T-Mac is going to run away with this nomination because JCF seems like one of the best gubernatorial candidates anywhere. She could've been a real model for black women to win statewide in 2022 (Abrams, Beasley, etc.) but old white men just can't give up their power.

This is silly and infuriating logic. I received a flier from the McClellan folks which basically focused on “vote for me because I’d be the first black woman governor”. That would be a wonderful personal accomplishment for her and would undoubtedly be historic, but why on earth should that motivate me to vote for a person who should be emphasizing how they are going to RUN my state competently. Government shouldn’t be about giving someone a position because they meet a fun ideological or racial quota (and it is particularly insulting to say “oh, just give it to the black folks” when minority candidates have much to offer voters beyond their race). So, no, a white man who demonstrated competent governance during his tenure and (as far as I know) never asked any of the other candidates to “give” him the nomination since he’s done the job before shouldn’t stand aside anymore than JCF or McClellan or even Fairfax should have stood aside for him.

Yes, it is entirely a coincidence that no black woman has ever served as Governor of any state. There simply has just never been a competent enough black woman to run and they lost simply on merit and no other factors. And the shortage of black women in politics in general is the same situation. And there is no unique perspective that a black woman could offer beyond a white man whose previous jobs include, as I mentioned, serving as Governor of a state, chairing the DNC, and making millions in banking, real estate, and venture capital. Oh, and being super good friends with a former President and First Lady/Secretary of State.

JCF will lose because she didn't prove to people that she's competent. That's it.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Sucks that T-Mac is going to run away with this nomination because JCF seems like one of the best gubernatorial candidates anywhere. She could've been a real model for black women to win statewide in 2022 (Abrams, Beasley, etc.) but old white men just can't give up their power.

The election is free and fair one.  Turnout will be very ordinary.  It's up to the candidate to win, not have something "given" to them.

Yes, surely Terry McAuliffe, a former Governor and chair of the DNC, has no inherent advantage over a former state delegate at all for any reason.

Sucks that T-Mac is going to run away with this nomination because JCF seems like one of the best gubernatorial candidates anywhere. She could've been a real model for black women to win statewide in 2022 (Abrams, Beasley, etc.) but old white men just can't give up their power.

This is silly and infuriating logic. I received a flier from the McClellan folks which basically focused on “vote for me because I’d be the first black woman governor”. That would be a wonderful personal accomplishment for her and would undoubtedly be historic, but why on earth should that motivate me to vote for a person who should be emphasizing how they are going to RUN my state competently. Government shouldn’t be about giving someone a position because they meet a fun ideological or racial quota (and it is particularly insulting to say “oh, just give it to the black folks” when minority candidates have much to offer voters beyond their race). So, no, a white man who demonstrated competent governance during his tenure and (as far as I know) never asked any of the other candidates to “give” him the nomination since he’s done the job before shouldn’t stand aside anymore than JCF or McClellan or even Fairfax should have stood aside for him.

Yes, it is entirely a coincidence that no black woman has ever served as Governor of any state. There simply has just never been a competent enough black woman to run and they lost simply on merit and no other factors. And the shortage of black women in politics in general is the same situation. And there is no unique perspective that a black woman could offer beyond a white man whose previous jobs include, as I mentioned, serving as Governor of a state, chairing the DNC, and making millions in banking, real estate, and venture capital. Oh, and being super good friends with a former President and First Lady/Secretary of State.

JCF will lose because she didn't prove to people that she's competent. That's it.

No one said she wasn’t competent or that minority candidates don’t face obstacles that white candidates don’t have to overcome - they absolutely do. The discussion is whether or not one candidate should just step aside for another. You list the things McAuliffe has done over the years (which your tone seems to indicate that you don’t seem to think too highly of) and maybe you should reflect on the fact that this may be the reason he’s an attractive candidate to many people (including, if I had to guess, black woman) and likely to run away with the nomination as opposed to any “unique” perspective or experience JCF may or may not offer.

I think T-Mac is fine, but we can do better. I want new faces, people offering new perspectives, and a chance to grow the Democratic Party's brand beyond just "guy who has already been well known for a long time."

Don't get me wrong, I will support T-Mac in the general (which doesn't mean much since I don't live in VA) but I tend to end up on the side of candidates who make their careers doing things other than making money for banks, then pushing the standard DNC narrative for a while, then cashing in and becoming Governor or something. Democrats are always better than Republicans, but not all Democrats are created equal if that makes sense.

My theory is that name recognition is king above all in these kinds of races. Sure, T-Mac is confident, but he's safe. People are not incentivized (nor do they have the time with working 40 hour weeks, then worrying about their finances, then trying to survive a deadly pandemic) to learn new names and faces--through no fault of their own. It's an issue with our entire system of democracy. If a name is familiar and the narrative is pushed enough that they can win, that's who people vote for (see: Biden, Joe) instead of a candidate they may be more excited by or agree with more.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Woof Carter went down in flames. Embarrassing to say the least.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I expressed support for Carter early on in this primary before I did my research on JCF and I think there's a lesson to be learned here about name recognition. McAuliffe and Carter are on the polar opposite ends of how having a familiar name in certain communities can be either really good or really bad. Carter is one of the most well-known delegates in VA and he absolutely tanked in the primary because he spends all of his time complaining and insulting and fostering rage instead of putting in the work to change minds and policy. McAuliffe, on the other hand, is well known amongst real human beings in the real world and no matter what you think about his policy positions, he at least demonstrates a willingness to get things done. Let this be a lesson for future DSA and progressive candidates. AOC and Ayanna Pressley have done a pretty good job striking a balance between coalition building and criticizing Democrats when they're obviously wrong. There's room for growth there, but we now have a poster boy for how not to do it.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I expressed support for Carter early on in this primary before I did my research on JCF and I think there's a lesson to be learned here about name recognition. McAuliffe and Carter are on the polar opposite ends of how having a familiar name in certain communities can be either really good or really bad. Carter is one of the most well-known delegates in VA and he absolutely tanked in the primary because he spends all of his time complaining and insulting and fostering rage instead of putting in the work to change minds and policy. McAuliffe, on the other hand, is well known amongst real human beings in the real world and no matter what you think about his policy positions, he at least demonstrates a willingness to get things done. Let this be a lesson for future DSA and progressive candidates. AOC and Ayanna Pressley have done a pretty good job striking a balance between coalition building and criticizing Democrats when they're obviously wrong. There's room for growth there, but we now have a poster boy for how not to do it.

McAuliffe had so much more name recognition than Lee Carter though. This isn't really a fair comparison.

Politically engaged people/Left wing people know who Carter is, but that's not all that many compared to the whole group of voting Virginia Democrats. McAuliffe was Governor of the whole state.

I'm not disagreeing that the publicity Carter had proved to people he was bad (it did) but this is just not a fair comparison here

Oh absolutely, I was comparing T-Mac's name recognition to IRL people to Carter's very online name recognition, which is what prompted me to support Carter in the first place. It goes to show that there are so many more people in real life who know who T-Mac is as opposed to Carter. The margins last night bore that out.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Well, Mr. Ojeda said the same in 2018/19.

Oh god Carter is gonna try and primary Biden

Oh Christ you're probably right

[Grumpier Than Thou]

It really is not healthy to be reading this thread (or any e-day thread) before polls close. We should have learned our lesson last year.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

alright i just read the last couples pages and apparently Youngkin is going to win by at least 30 points. no way that is incorrect in anyway. this is Atlas, after all.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I predict that if Mcauliffe loses, Democrats will learn exactly 0 lessons about the types of candidates they run in these elections. No one—and I mean no one—should be losing a gubernatorial race in a state where the Presidential candidate from their party won by 10% less than a year ago.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Pretty weird decision to turn the VA Gov thread into a megathread for all other elections. Couldn’t we have had a VA Gov thread, an NJ Gov thread, and a “all other elections” thread?

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Does anyone have any actual useful information about what is going on?

Not on this website, no

[Grumpier Than Thou]

yeahhhhh this one’s over.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Electability strikes again! Great job, VA Dems.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

People seem to be focusing more on McAuliffe's bad campaign than Youngkin's good one. If Republicans can run similar campaigns next year they could get their red wave. I'm not entirely confident they will, though.

The takeaway is that the thing people dislike about Trump is not his rhetoric, but his tone. Youngkin ran close to Trump on the issues—making CRT the key issue was definitely a Trumpy thing to do—but was much nicer about it. Democrats are in big trouble if they don’t figure out how to counter the rhetoric.