What Went Down During The 2021 Elections

I think some of you are underestimating how much voters care about electability. If Youngkin can argue that he’s able to win in places where Trump lost, that could be pretty persuasive to some voters — even in a primary where Trump is contesting the nomination.

Turnout in the Virginia gubernatorial election will likely exceed 3 million votes, higher than 2.6 million votes in 2017 and 2.2 million votes in 2013. Tonight is a great example of how “high turnout” does not necessarily foreshadow Democratic wins. There’s a lot of opportunity for Republicans to turn out low-propensity voters and also flip swing voters.

In addition to Youngkin looking like a good bet to be the next governor of Virginia, it also looks like Republicans are favored to flip the lieutenant governor’s and attorney general’s offices (the Republican nominees lead both races 55 percent to 45 percent right now) as well as the House of Delegates. That would leave Republicans just the state Senate shy of a governing trifecta (the state Senate wasn’t on the ballot this year).