Simply put, this Tuesday’s results were devastating. Yeah, I do agree with that at least. While some will want to play the blame game, we as a Party do not have the time to engage in that useless dialogue. Perhaps not, but you’d better figure out what’s wrong or it’s going to happen again next year…and the next and the next. Our defeated candidates are not to blame Seriously? It had nothing to do with nominating wackos like Dave Brat and white supremacist lovers like Corey Stewart? OK, you guys keep doing that and see how it works out for ya!, every single one worked their hearts out and left everything they had out on the field. President Trump is not to blame In fact, midterm elections are almost ALWAYS a referendum on the president, and exit polls show that this election was no exception…in fact that Trump was an overwhelming factor in people’s choices to vote, and who to vote for., the sad fact is that we have been losing statewide elections in Virginia long before Trump was elected President. Yep, keep telling yourselves your problems have nothing to do with being the Party of Trump and Trumpism. Our issue is a simple math problem: the Democrat Try “Democratic,” dumbass voting base is larger than the Republican base in Virginia. Brilliant conclusion, Sherlock, you just figured this out??? It has been since the Obama campaign registered hundreds of thousands of new voters in 2008 OMG, not that dastardly Obama and his registration of voters! LOL, and their base has turned out at a higher rate than our base. That’s actually false, as Virginia Republicans turned out at MUCH higher rates in 2009, 2010 and 2014.Some may think this is making an excuse Yeah, one of those “Some” would be me! LOL, but the proof is in the numbers The proof of WHAT??? That Virginians aren’t buying the snake oil, anger, fear, bigotry, etc. you guys are selling???. Tim Kaine, as of this writing, has over 1.9 million votes. Why is that number important? It is over 150,000 more votes than President Trump recieved Nope, Jack can’t spell…”i before e, except after c”. in Virginia in 2016. Put another way this year Tim Kaine received 90,000 more votes than ANY Republican candidate in Virginia history! Right, and your point is…?
For all of the scorn heaped upon Corey Stewart by the mainstream media You mean what your fearless leader calls “the enemy of the people?” But seriously, what are you saying here? That someone running a white supremacist campaign of lies, anger, fear mongering, etc. should NOT have “scorn heaped upon” him? That you are cool with neo-Confederate Corey?, his vote total of 1.375 million would beat any other previous midterm US Senate nominee in Virginia. Corey’s vote total was 300,000 more than Mark Warner’s winning total just 4 years ago in 2014! Yeah, 2014 was a VERY low-turnout year for Dems and a high-turnout year for Republicans, contradicting whatever point you were making above about how since the dastardly Obama registered voters in 2008, the Dem “base” has turned out at a much higher rate than the Republican “base.” #FAIL
A similar trend of truly unprecedented Democrat That would be Democratic when used as an adjective. turnout was observed in the Congressional races. In Virginia’s 10th, Barbara Comstock received 30,000 more votes Tuesday than in 2014 when she won with 57%, and ended up losing by over 10 points. Both the Democrat That would be Democratic when used as an adjective. candidates in the 10th and 2nd districts got within 6,000 votes of Hillary Clinton’s raw vote totals in a midterm. In the 7th district, Abigail Spanberger, in a midterm, actually received more votes than Hillary Clinton did in 2016! Again, what’s the point here? That the candidate getting more votes is…what, bad or something? That Republicans didn’t do so badly because they got more votes, but those dastardly Dems got more votes than they did? Can we say “in denial,” Jack?
While the results were grim, my message is not. We can win in the future, but we as a Party must change if we are to survive in Virginia Finally, I agree with Jack – the Virginia GOP needs to change!. Here are the 3 areas of focus I will be pushing our leadership to explore in the coming months:
1.) Unity– We must stop the infighting. After our nomination methods for office are over, we all must get behind our nominees. So Jack is arguing that Republicans should have gotten more excited for their godawful, extreme, Trump-loving/enabling candidates. Gotcha. For the last 4 straight statewide elections, we have had losing candidates for the same office, or significant portions of their support base, refuse to get behind the eventual nominee. Yeah, well maybe you guys should stop nominating extremists and crackpots like Ken Kookinelli or bigot-appealing nuts like Corey Stewart, so sane Republicans like Bill Bolling and big corporate/other donors might feel comfortable supporting them? This practice needs to end. It has only helped the Democrats. As the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” He was right and we must do that to succeed statewide. In the 2 months I have had the privilege of as serving as Chairman I have been vocal about this and will continue to do so. Yeah, you keep doing that…jawboning without changing anything substantive, we’ll see how it works out.
2.) Voter Registration– Prior to 2008, Democrats used to regularly lose statewide elections in Virginia. Uh, Dems won the governorship in 2001, the governorship in 2005, the US Senate race in 2006, etc. When they did win, they did so by campaigning as “conservative” or “moderate” Democrats. This changed in 2008 mainly because the Obama campaign registered over half a million new voters and turned them out. Wait, what? Creigh Deeds didn’t run as a moderate/conservative Dem in 2009…and get trounced? Terry McAuliffe didn’t run as a pro-business “moderate” in 2013 and beat Ken Cuccinelli? Ralph Northam didn’t run as a “moderate” Dem in 2017 and win in a landslide? What on earth is Jack blabbering about now? Since 2008, Democrat That would be Democratic when used as an adjective. Presidential nominees have ended up with around 1.9 million votes and our Party’s nominees have finished with around 1.7 million votes. Our vote total is nearly the same number as Bush’s total in 2004. We as a Party must do more than pay lip service to voter registration. We must develop a strategy to register our voters in a systematic and continuous fashion. Our periodic, haphazard approach has failed us and our candidates. This must happen quickly to close this statewide structural gap we have with the Democrats. Sure, but if the product you’re offering is completely unappealing, not sure that’s going to do the trick.
3.) Growing the Party– In 2016, 2017, and this year, approximately a third of the electorate was non-white. In those same years, roughly those 40 years and under made up nearly 40% of the vote. Uh oh, not non-whites and young people! And women too, right Jack??? With both groups, non-whites and those under 40, our Party lost by massive margins. Yes, and do you understand WHY that is the case??? Like when you nominate a neo-Confederate who hangs out with and employs white supemacists, demonizes Latinos, etc? Oh wait, you said earlier that your candidates were not at fault, so I guess it couldn’t have been that! LOL Such showings are not sustainable if we are to win again statewide. Duh. We must devote significant time and resources to outreach “to outreach” is not a verb to these voters and communities. Yeah, hey, we’re the party that demonizes you and cozies up to white supremacists, but we’re hear to “outreach to” you! LOL We must work with our candidates to develop positive messages Like neo-Confederate Corey? Ed Gillespie’s nasty, xenophobic, demagogic campaign in 2014? The “extreme team” ticket of 2013? that show how we can address in a conservative manner the issues these voters see as important. The same is true of the suburban voters we clearly lost this year.
While we are down we are NOT out. Virginia Republicans still hold the majority in the state legislature NOT FOR LONG JACK!!! and we WILL fight to hold and grow it in 2019! We will also build towards 2020 starting NOW! Some pundits say that we are on an inexorable path towards becoming Maryland or Massachusetts. Actually, both Maryland and Massachusetts have Republican governors – hahahaha. I can’t predict what the future holds I can’t either, but I CAN say that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again yet expecting different results!, but I do know that I will fight with my every fiber to prevent that from happening. I hope you will join me in this fight. We we can only rebuild our Party with your help!
Sincerely,
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