What Went Down During The 2021 Elections

In Austin, Texas, a controversial proposition that would’ve forced local officials to drastically increase the city’s police force appears doomed. According to early vote totals in Travis County, where the bulk of Austin’s voters live, 67 percent of residents voted against Prop A, while just 33 percent of voters voted for it. The fight over this proposition was somewhat viewed as a referendum on Austin’s scaled-down approach to policing — which was implemented after months of racial justice protests throughout the city. But the proposal was even opposed by the city’s firefighters, who argued the measure would force Austin to lay off hundreds of employees including firefighters, medics and librarians.

If Trump doesn’t run, it’s not totally impossible. The GOP has changed over the past decade, but it’s not like a wholly different party. Historically, more moderate candidates have done well in GOP presidential primaries — Bush, McCain, Romney, to name a few. And even in 2016, Trump was seen as more moderate by primary voters than the alternative, Ted Cruz. So, who exactly knows up from down post-2016, but that’s some historical context to think about.

To Micah’s earlier post — this is some serious putting the cart before the horse by Douthat. Besides, you know, besting Trump in a primary, it’s never been easy to run as a sitting governor of Virginia because usually governors run after they’ve been in office for at least a term. But governors can’t run for reelection in Virginia, so generally you either run after you’ve only been in office for a couple years, like Doug Wilder for a minute in the 1992 Democratic presidential primary (which was a huge failure) or you try to run afterward like Jim Gilmore in the GOP presidential primary in 2016 (Gilmore’s was not a serious campaign, to be fair).