lavender on blue. almost illegible. this is put out by the democratic party of virginia. the democratic party of virginia put out honestly, you could put this in rural virginia, this would be great for glen youngkin but they re hoping for the opposite effect in northern virginia. the same way republicans are trying to make this more of a national referendum around certain cultural issues. democrats are putting this in a national context by tying youngkin to president trump because they believe that a rejection of the former president and trumpism is going to help drive turnout among democratic voters. and you see terry mcauliffe trying to drive home that message. you saw former president obama do it. youngkin hasn t outwardly fashioned himself in president trump s likeness but he s still trying to court trump supporters. and the big question for democrats is, this was a strategy effective for them in 2018 when former president trump was in office. in 2020 when former president
republicans who either voted to impeach him or were critical of him. so it s very much still donald trump s party. and after kinzinger announced this because one of there are ten republicans that voted to impeach donald trump. congressman gonzalez who was at one point thought to be the shining light and a star in the republican party, maybe some day the first cuban american president, he has announced he s retiring after trump said he was going to challenge him with a congressman would-be congressman max miller. now kinzinger dropping out. that s two of the ten dropping out. and donald trump put out a statement, two down, eight to go. they called them traitors which tells you about the mood of a certain segment of the republican party. donald trump s endorsement. absolutely. but the one of the interesting things about this, i do think there s a certain shortsidedness on the part of the democrats in illinois.
you know, and people have been saying this race has tightened up. polls don t elect governors. voters do. voters do. so at every campaign stop, we are just seeing a large amount of people. also a large amount of people expected here this evening. this event kicking off around 6:30 p.m. dan merica and eva. ashley, i know that terry mcauliffe wanted that infrastructure bill at the very least, if not the build back better act to become law before tuesday. that will not happen. how much does that hurt him? i think it hurts him some, but i also think that the issue of education is really important here. and so while democrats don t really have something to run on, republicans are rallying their base up. not necessarily on trump, but on cultural war issues like crt,
a competitive lieutenant governor race and attorney general race. and the house of delegates can go back to the republicans after being for the democrats. and jackie, punchbowl notes echoes of 2010, democrats were engaged in a months-long battle over obamacare, the affordable care act. the tea party was gaining power and then, quote, losing the virginia gubernatorial races were the first signs of the gop wave when they ended pelosi s reign as speaker. the new jersey governors race not particularly competitive as we can tell but is that what s brewing here? that sounds like a scary story to tell in the dark at a halloween party right now, to use the time of year. but i think it really depends if mcauliffe can pull this out because across the country, you are seeing democrats particularly in those swing districts get really nervous. you heard the backlash after they failed to pass these bills
like abortion and critical race theory. yes. and really making it education used to be a strong democratic issue and republicans have been able to pivot it and make it their issue and really get parents and teachers feuding with one another. and i think that is the issue that will rile the republican base up and ultimately hurt terry mcauliffe. it seems obvious that parents would care about education. especially in a place like virginia. and yet somehow the democrats just let glen youngkin take the issue away from them. you can really see that in the washington post poll. the one that had it as a dead heat. a month ago, mcauliffe had the traditional democratic advantage on the issue. but now the number of voters who are citing it as their top issue has grown and they ve swung heavily behind youngkin. you have to wonder whether this changing issue makes the mood of the electorate is not just going to help youngkin but republicans down ticket as well. absolutely.