Excitement in Virginia
Republicans Nominate a Terrific Ticket for November Elections. Help Is On The Way
Two states have elections this November, New Jersey and Virginia. Statewide offices are on the ballot in both states, along with their respective legislatures.
Not much change is expected in deep-blue New Jersey, with wealthy tax-and-spender Phil Murphy likely to be reelected. But watch the likely GOP nominee, Jack Ciatterelli, a former state representative who is a strong and articulate candidate running in a good climate for change. Stay tuned.
But the real news today is in Virginia, whose GOP just wrapped up a bizarre “unassembled convention” on May 8th to pick their nominees for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General. And it is a historic ticket. While incumbent Gov. Ralph Northam is term-limited, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax is running for Governor (and will lose the nomination to former Gov. and native New Yorker Terry McAuliffe. Yes, him), and Attorney General Mark Herring is seeking reelection. They have been individual and collective embarrassments. Just click the links.
First-time candidate and former Carlyle Group CEO, Virginia native Glenn Youngkin, won the gubernatorial nomination after six rounds of “ranked-choice” voting. He led through all the balloting and ultimately defeated the estimable entrepreneur, Pete Snyder, who was gracious in defeat and jointly appeared along with another runner-up, former House Speaker Kirk Cox, to endorse Youngkin today. Youngkin reportedly contributed $5.5 million of his own resources to help secure the nomination, along with an energetic, issues-based, highly visionary, and positive campaign. And there’s more where that came from.
Disclosure: I met Glenn Youngkin just before he jumped into the race at the church he helped found in McLean, Virginia, where he was stepping down as Warden. We had just moved back to northern Virginia, and great friends of ours introduced us. Despite being a grizzled veteran of some 35 campaigns in 25 states, I was immediately taken in by Youngkin. A man of faith with a wonderful family, he is one of the most gifted and talented “natural” candidates I’ve ever met. He overcame three other solid conservative candidates, all veterans of Virginia politics, one of them also a self-funder, which was impressive.
Republicans delegates chose former St. Delegate Winsome Sears (R-Norfolk/Virginia Beach) as their nominee for Lt. Gov. Born in Jamaica, she was the first black Republican and naturalized American elected as a Republican to the State House of Delegates nearly 20 years ago. A former US Marine, she has returned to politics for quite an encore.
Disclosure: I supported my friend and former St. Delegate, Tim Hugo, for Lieutenant Governor, but he finished second to the impressive Sears.
Republicans nominated Jayson Miyares, the first Cuban-American elected to the House of Delegates, as their Attorney General nominee. His mother fled communist Cuba for hope and opportunity in America.
Democrats have had a lock on Richmond’s top statewide offices for 8 long years, and the results are in - the commonwealth has stalled, at least outside the government spigots in the close-in-Washington-DC northern suburbs. And outside of those government-fueled suburbs, people aren’t moving here anymore. It’s expensive, and even Maryland’s tax situation is better than Virginia’s, so says economist Steven Moore. Virginia is one of the few (if any other) states to impose a hefty tax on car ownership (the hated “car tax”), despite the success of former Gov. Jim Gilmore (R) in phasing it out. His Democratic successor, Gov. (and now US Senator) Tim Kaine, largely reimposed it. There’s no tax Democrats won’t protect, it seems.
Youngkin, meanwhile, is working with economist Moore to find a way to reduce or eliminate Virginia’s income tax to compete with neighboring Tennessee and West Virginia Governor Jim Justice’s (R) proposals to do the same.
This is a geographically balanced GOP ticket. Youngkin’s nomination will prove to be Terry McAuliffe’s worst nightmare. Youngkin is new to politics with no record to attack. McAuliffe’s turgid progressive agenda, which included granting some 200,000 felons voting rights just before his successor’s election, largely slowed and stalled the state’s economy. McAuliffe won 8 years ago when northern Virginians (especially the business community) recoiled at GOP nominee and state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s ardently social conservative campaign. Youngkin is unabashedly conservative but with a very different persona and style than the abrasive Cuccinelli (who would serve in the Trump Administration as acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security).
The smarmy McAuliffe wasted no time attacking Youngkin, feebly attempting to tie him to Donald Trump, who played no role and offered no endorsements to any of the candidates. Youngkin defeated Trump’s 2016 state chairman (Snyder) and a state Senator who called herself “Trump in heels” (Amanda Chase, who finished third). I’ve never heard Youngkin discuss Trump. Why would he? He’s not on the ballot, and Virginians have bigger issues. This is about them, not Trump.
I can’t wait until his team (Democratic primaries are scheduled for June 8th), likely to be a lily-white assembly of woke progressive white guys, accused the GOP ticket of racism. Good luck with that.