What Went Down During The 2021 Elections

McAuliffe also left office when Trump was in office, which benefited the popularity of all kinds of Democrats. I think even de Blasio was popular in 2017.

I also sort of never understood why McAuliffe was terribly popular in the first place, since political operative/former Democratic National Committee chair typically isn’t a popular item to have on a résumé! But Virginia is a weird state … err … commonwealth.

You all make good points, but one thing that stood out to me from Geoffrey and Nathaniel’s election preview was that McAuliffe left office relatively popular. He’s a known commodity in Virginia and yet voters really seem to have soured on him in comparison to Youngkin, at least according to the exit polls so far.