A year after Donald Trump lost Virginia by 10 percentage points, Republican Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia governor's race on Tuesday, tapping into culture war fights over schools and race to unite former President's most fervent supporters with enough suburban voters to become the first Republican to win statewide office here in 12 years. The 54-year-old Youngkin's defeat of Democrat Terry McAuliffe marked a sharp turnabout in a state that has shifted to the left over the past decade. It is certain to add to the Democrats' anxiety about their grip on political power heading into next year's midterms.
Youngkin made slight gains with suburbanites, voters 45 and older and voters in households earning $50,000 or less when compared with Trump in his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. That's according to AP VoteCast, a survey of voters.
Both Democrats and Republicans pulled together familiar coalitions. McAuliffe was the clear choice of voters under 45, women, Black voters, moderates and college graduates, while men, rural and small-town voters and white evangelicals are squarely in Youngkin's corner.
During his campaign, Youngkin stated his support for "election integrity," a nod at Trump's lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, while also focusing on education and business-friendly policies. He never campaigned in person with Trump, successfully challenging McAuliffe's effort to cast him as a clone of the former president.
That approach could provide a model for Republicans competing in future races that feature significant numbers of Democratic or independent voters. In addition to the stinging loss for the Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy was in a close fight as he sought to become the first Democratic governor to win reelection there in more than four decades.
