What Went Down During The 2021 Elections

If Democrats want to have a fighting chance at bucking history in the 2022 midterms, the biggest lesson they can take from Virginia might be that they need a positive, cohesive message of their own to run on next year. McAuliffe spent far more time trying to tie Youngkin to Trump than he did talking about his own record as governor or any of the accomplishments of the unified Democratic state government over the last two years (of which there were many!). That’s a strategic decision that will likely come under a lot of scrutiny in the coming weeks, especially given the contrast with Youngkin, who was relentlessly on-message in the closing weeks of the race. Right now, Democrats don’t look like they’re for anything, only against Trump. That may have been an effective message in 2018 and 2020 when Trump was a presence in everyone’s life, but he’s not now. What Democrats’ new message should be, I don’t know. But the mishegas on Capitol Hill, where the contents of the Build Back Better agenda seemingly change hourly, doesn’t seem to help.

Well, this could be interesting. We didn’t actually get to learn much about what Youngkin thought about most major political issues during the campaign. Rather than running as a “moderate,” he ran more as a blank slate. He’s certainly embracing conservative principles in education in this speech, but it’s a far cry from the Trumpian rhetoric of the campaign. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what he actually wants to see happen.

Both contenders for New Jersey governor made remarks to supporters early Wednesday morning after midnight, neither conceding and both asking supporters to be ready for a longer wait than expected.

“We’re all sorry that tonight could not yet be the celebration we wanted it to be. But as I said, when every vote is counted, and every vote will be counted, we hope to have a celebration,” Murphy said to his supporters.

Around the same time, Ciattarelli was telling his, “We want every legal vote counted. And you all know the way the VBMs [vote by mail ballots] work and the provisionals work; we’ve gotta have time to make sure that every legal vote is counted.”

He also promised his supporters at the campaign headquarters pizza from DeLucia’s in Raritan. Campaign reporters everywhere are eyeing the leftover election night pizza …