In the same minutes as the verdict in Virginia, the battle for the governor of New Jersey is also underway. Much more balanced, but also here tending to the right, with a head to head between the Democrat Phil Murphy and the Republican Jack Ciattarelli who, with 75 votes scrutinized, was ahead by more than a point.
Virginia slaps Biden, the new governor is Trumpian Youngkin
When it is half past midnight on the east coast, CNN gives the news that Joe Biden did not want to hear: in Virginia he won the Republican candidate for governor, defeating what, until three months ago, was the great favorite. In one year, the Biden effect in Virginia evaporated: after winning the state ten points ahead of Donald Trump, the Democrats lost the race for the new governor, twelve years after the last time. Republican Glenn Youngkin, 54, a masters at Harvard, the politically incorrect millionaire manager, the one capable of breaking every democratic taboo, won in the night with about three points ahead of Democrat Terry McAuliffe and with 95 percent of the votes counted. . Youngkin has led since the first counting of the votes, when he immediately went ahead. Many analysts were quick to remember that in Virginia things had gone like this even a year ago: Trump had started strong, only to give in to Biden overnight. And therefore many were convinced that McAuliffe would recover, above all by trusting in the vote of Fairfax County, one of the largest, with a democratic soul, the last to be counted. But it didn’t happen that way.
Conservative voters were more motivated, they went en masse to vote. There was an extraordinary turnout, which exceeded three million voters, more than half a million compared to 2017. If Biden had thought of frightening the electorate, warning that “every vote in Youngkin” would be “one given to Trump “, had the opposite effect: the referendum between him and Trump was won by the former president. Even the most lukewarm conservatives got dressed and went to the polling stations to vote. McAuliffe had also hammered on the Youngkin Equation Equal Trump. More fuel on the fire of the Trumpians’ anger, who were waiting for more to take revenge. But to think only of a revenge vote would be a mistake. From the exit polls there was a fact that had frightened the Democrats: many independents, neither from the right nor from the left, voted for the republican. Not only in rural areas of Virginia but in those with a high school density. Youngkin, who dismissed transgender issues and promised to put aside educational programs critical of race theory, intercepted the anger of the students’ parents, perplexed about the obligation to vaccinate. The Republican candidate took sides in favor of the vaccine, but against the obligation for public employees. He used less violent language than Trump’s, but he never distanced himself from the former president.
In fact, Youngkin has shown the conservatives a third way: Trumpian but not too much. Angry, but not with swollen neck veins. The rest was done by the Democrats, who appeared unexciting as to motivate voters to pour into the seats as they did a year ago for the presidential elections. At half past ten in the evening McAuliffe two hours before the defeat, he had gone out to thank the voters and family, giving jokes and smiles, and a hint of festive dance, in a surreal context, as the data in the television girths showed the advantage. Youngkin’s by over four points, and 130,000 votes, with 87 percent of the ballot count. To go out with a smile, but convinced that President Biden will not be very happy. The word Virginia does not evoke good feelings in the White House: if the centrist Senator Joe Manchin arrives from West Virginia, who has jeopardized the Biden agenda on Welfare and climate, the negative signal that everyone feared has arrived from Virginia. And that will push Trump towards his great goal: to reapply for the 2024 presidential elections, aware that he has not lost contact with his base. In the same minutes of the verdict in Virginia, the battle for the governor of New Jersey was much more balanced, but even here tending to the right, with a head to head between the Democrat Phil Murphy and the Republican Jack Ciattarelli who, with 75 of the votes scrutinized, he was more than a point ahead. No surprise, however, in New York: anything can happen in the country, but New Yorkers remain progressive. Former police lieutenant Eric Adams has clearly won the challenge with the founder of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa. Adams’ success was declared just ten minutes after the polls closed. He is the second African-American mayor in the history of New York, more than thirty years after the victory of David Dinkins. In Boston, on the other hand, a woman was elected for the first time, Michelle Wu, 36, the first American mayor of Asian origin, the daughter of immigrants from Taiwan.
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