What Went Down During The 2021 Elections

To build on Leah’s point about Trump and the political spotlight: in a similar vein, Trump held two short rallies by phone for Republican candidates yesterday.

At 7 p.m. Eastern, Trump held a phone rally for Mike Carey, the Republican candidate for Ohio’s 15th district. The rally was open to anyone to call in, but was announced only within an hour or so of its start. “He’s been really successful at everything he’s done,” Trump said of Carey on the call. Carey was on the call and thanked Trump.

At 8 p.m. Eastern, Trump held a phone rally for Youngkin, the Republican candidate in the Virginia gubernatorial election. The rally was technically closed to press, but Youngkin did not attend either.

I agree, Micah, and would also add that as long as Trump continues to baselessly blame his 2020 loss on election fraud, he’s going to continue to pressure Republicans to conduct audits and implement voting restrictions.

Another thought about the high turnout in Virginia: I’ve seen some people wondering if Republicans will rethink their efforts to make it harder to vote, seeing that higher turnout isn’t always bad for them. But I think the answer there is no.

For one, many of the GOP’s policies making it harder to vote disproportionally affect Democratic-leaning groups (young voters, voters of color). So it’s not like the GOP is blindly making it harder to vote for everyone. And second, remember that turnout is high in Virginia relatively speaking. McAuliffe was doing better among registered voters than among likely voters in pre-election polls (which are looking like they’ll end up being pretty accurate). If somehow everyone in Virginia had voted, the result likely would have been different.

Put another way: It’s possible for turnout to be high and for Republicans to make it harder to vote (especially for certain groups), and it’s possible for both of those things to help the GOP.