The results in VA may not be the road for other R's

[question everything]

I, and other pundits concluded that R's can win if they tiptoe around Whinny Donny, keep him at an arm length.

But Amy Walter had an interesting observation. That Youngkin did not go through a primary. Not sure why not. And primaries would make it harder to distance from TFG.

[ColinC]

1. Very good point

And encouraging for the midterms.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. My sense is VA was winnable

but these areas for potential advantages keep popping up after the election. Really, we should have an 'election opportunity czar' whose sold purpose is to take a handful of underlings and constantly scan for openings and question every move from the exact opposite perspective. We get into trouble when we think we know what we're talking about. Sometimes we miss things. It's human.

[Haggard Celine]

3. I think it was winnable with a different candidate.

McAuliffe was a poor choice. There had to be another Democrat in Virginia who had some appeal. The Democrats chose McAuliffe because he had name recognition and had already held the governorship before. They thought he was the safe choice. Well, the safe choice to the Democratic insiders looked like warmed-up leftovers to the public.

The GOP took a chance by bringing out someone new and building an image for him and it paid off. Democrats are going to have to be willing to take chances. Democrats also need to go on the offensive more. The Republicans are always attacking, and that works. We need to do what works, too.

[RFCalifornia]

5. Agree. VA should have had new blood, and a more progressive candidate

Someone who offered something to the voters that they wanted

Funding for education, health, and infrastructure

[RFCalifornia]

4. VA is as purple as a state can get

And Terry McAuliffe offered nothing in the campaign other than "he's Trump"

[doc03]

6. That airheads on the TV are talking like the Democratic party is doomed because of

Virginia. Virginia has elected a governor of the opposite party every time for decades. The same was said
of New Jersey but we won that one. I don't know how many times in my life the talking heads have
declared the Democratic and the Republican party dead. They have to sell ED and Peronies disease meds
24/7.