The Best and Worst Media Coverage of Virginia’s 2019 Elections

In addition to our own coverage here at Blue Virginia (see Virginia’s Swung Blue, But It Hasn’t Trickled Down To the Countryside, “Jesus, it must be bad if even the rednecks are voting for Democrats!”, Canvassing Makes a Difference. My Experience This Election Cycle.; Political Winners and Losers: Virginia Elections 2019; The Aftermath of Virginia’s 2019 Elections: Tracing Virginia’s Movement from a Red to Blue State; Loudoun, Virginia, and Kentucky Give Trump the Finger; etc.), there’s obviously been a slew of media coverage of Virginia’s elections Tuesday night. See below for a sampling of it – and I’ll add more as I come across articles – sorted into three categories (Excellent/Good, Mixed and Bad). If you see other stories you think should be included here, please note that in the comments section. Thanks.

Excellent/Good

• NY Times: She Doubted Her Place in America. Now She’s Virginia’s First Muslim State Senator. (So happy about this on so many levels – Ghazala’s going to be a great State Senator, for one thing!)
• WaPo: A bright blue Virginia leaves the Confederacy behind (Very well said by Bennett Minton: “the Indivisibles and We of Action and Network NOVA and Moms Demand Action and scores of other spontaneously formed and rigorously maintained grass-roots groups have accelerated the death of the Confederacy in the same State House that governed the Lost Cause.”)
• ShareBlue: Virginia Republicans bet big on anti-abortion smears — and lost big (Virginia’s own Josh Israel nails it.)
• ShareBlue: NRA tries to scare Virginians after massive election spending fails to keep GOP in power (Another good article by Josh Israel)
• Vox: The NRA’s big loss in Virginia, explained (Very good article about how “The NRA lost big in its home state”)
• WaPo: Changing suburbs: Blue victories in Northern Va. mean focus on housing, schools, transit (Well done by Robert McCartney and Patricia Sullivan, who correctly point out, “The Democratic takeover of county governments in Northern Virginia’s large outer suburbs will pour new money into housing, transit and schools, bring new efforts to fight climate change and offer a friendlier face to immigrants.”)
• WaPo: Republicans in Virginia are toast — because they toasted themselves (Great stuff from the WaPo editorial board: “Virginia Republicans are at a defining moment. If they reverse course and tack to the center, they may again become a force in a state that would benefit from a vibrant two-party competition. If not — if they double down by continuing down the Trumpian path blazed by Mr. Stewart and his like — they might become “toast” not for a decade but for a generation.”)
• Slate: Why Virginia’s Election Results Mean the Equal Rights Amendment Could Finally Pass (Exactly, and passing the ERA is just one of many good things that can now happen, with right-wing Republicans no longer in control.)
• NY Times: The Woman Who Flipped Off Trump Has Won an Election in Virginia (This is such a good story…go Juli Briskman!)
• People: Woman Who Lost Job for Flipping Off Trump’s Motorcade Wins an Election: ‘Sweet Justice’ (Briskman’s win truly was “Sweet Justice”)
• NY Magazine: How Giving Trump the Finger Helped One Woman Win Elected Office (Haha.)
• NY Times: The Woman Who Flipped Off Trump Has Won an Election in Virginia (Shweet.)
• Daily Press: Shad Plank: Virginia suburbs sending important election signals (Yep, they certainly did!)
• WVTF: Following a Big Night for Democrats, Governor Northam Looks Ahead
• RTD: ‘This is a blue state’: Northam outlines priorities in Cabinet meeting after Democrats win control (Good summary of what Gov. Northam is looking to accomplish with Democratic majorities.)
• Vox: Virginia’s election results are a big deal for the Equal Rights Amendment (“Democrats’ win in Virginia brings new momentum to the ERA.” – Exactly)
• Slate: Why Virginia’s Election Results Mean the Equal Rights Amendment Could Finally Pass (Nice.)
• InsideClimate News: Voters Flip Virginia’s Legislature, Clearing Way for Climate and Clean Energy Policies
• The Atlantic: The Suburban Backlash Against the GOP Is Growing (Yep, and we’re definitely seeing that in places like Prince William County, Loudoun County, Fairfax County, Henrico County, etc.)
• Bloomberg: Virginia’s New Democratic Majority to Make Environment a Priority (Very good to see solid coverage of this crucial issue.)
• WaPo: Karen Tumulty: Republicans can only blame themselves for losing in Virginia (Exactly – but will they?)
• Bearing Drift: Shellacked: How the Virginia GOP Starts to Recover (Refreshingly blunt and honest – “the Virginia GOP is broken close to beyond repair”; “The time to break from Trump is NOW”;) from”Virginia’s Conservative Voice.”
• Virginia Mercury: Virginia Democrats win control of General Assembly, sealing Trump-era power shift (Well-written, balanced without being “both sides” false equivalence, fair and accurate.)
• Virginia Mercury: In Virginia Beach and Suffolk, Trump loomed large in hard-fought battles for control of the legislature (Also well-written, etc.)
• WaPo: The Energy 202: Democratic surge puts climate change on agenda in Virginia (Well done; lays out the stakes and the potential obstacles.)
• Slate: Virginia Democrats’ Victory Proves That Gerrymandering Matters (Correctly points out that, “When they aren’t held back by racist redistricting tactics, Democrats can actually win.”)
• USA Today: ‘Virginia is officially blue.’ Democrats regain control of legislature, clearing way for liberal policies
• NY Times (by Tram Nguyen): Democrats Could Learn a Lot From What Happened In Virginia (Great point: “Virginia’s Democrats got where they are today as a result of year-round community organizing and voter engagement.”)
• Bacon’s Rebellion (by Don Rippert): Virginia Republicans Reap What They Have Sown (There’s a lot of good stuff in here, from a conservative writer, such as that blame lies “on the leadership and policies of the Republican Party in Virginia,” that “Rabid Tea Party people took the more centrist Republican Party of Ronald Reagan, Jim Gilmore and Bob McDonnell far to the right,” and that “Virginia Republicans need a new outlook, a new approach and new candidates.”)
• Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star: Tuesday’s election paints picture of changing demographics (Nicely done article about an important underlying factor in Virginia’s move in a “blue” direction)

Mixed:

• WaPo: On the day after, Republicans face a blue Virginia (OK for the most part, except… how do they get “2 million votes for Republican candidates on Tuesday?” Earlier in the article itself, they state that “More than 1.1 million voters supported Democratic House of Delegates candidates, while 985,000 chose Republicans.” And no, it is NOT correct to add the votes for House of Delegates and State Senate candidates together, because the vast majority of those overlap, so that would be double counting. Very sloppy.)
• Vox: Virginia Democrats campaigned on their Green New Deal and fighting climate change. And won.  (I mean…to an extent that’s true, but the vast majority of what we got from Dems this campaign was about guns, health care, etc. Also, to the extent Dems talked about the climate crisis and clean energy, they didn’t particularly talk about the “Green New Deal,” as far as I heard.)
• Virginia Mercury: Five things Northam says he will (and maybe won’t) do with a Democratic majority (Good overall, but glaring omission of climate/energy/enviro)
• RTD: Editorial: A blue tsunami sweeps the General Assembly races (OK for the most part, but not really accurate about the “blue tsunami”; in reality, Dems did very well in the House of Delegates Tuesday night, but kinda fizzled in the State Senate, only picking up two seats and a bare, 21-19 majority. That’s not really a “tsunami,” which would have seen Dem gains in the State Senate into the 25-26 range. Also, it’s a bit hyperbolic to say that Dems have “almost absolute power over Virginia government,” unless one assumes that Dems are united on everything.)
• Daily Progress: Opinion/Editorial: State, localities move more strongly left (The headline is silly and wrong – in fact, Virginia Democrats are in the majority, ergo the “center,” on issue after issue – but the editorial itself is basically fine.)

Bad:

• WaPo: In Virginia, newly empowered Democrats test the blue depths (“Blue depths?” WTF? Also, what is this crap about “dangers” and “veins of deep red,” etc? And please stop with the “moderate” vs. “progressives” faux narrative. All in all, is this an editorial or an objective news article?)
• RTD: Editorial: Welcome to the Blue Dominion  (Concern trolling, pretty much, by a Republican-slanted editorial board, which predictably warns Dems to be “careful of overreach.”)
• Roanoke Times: Editorial: Virginia delivers a message — but Democrats should be careful how they read it (Haha, this is *exactly* the type of editorial you’d expect from the corporate media. Right, Democrats should be “careful” passing smart, popular measures that voters asked for.)
• Winchester Star: Star Editorial I — Virginia (Mostly what you’d expect from a right-wing Republican editorial page…lamenting the fact that “Democrats lamentably have the numbers to assure a return on that investment. For at least two years, that is.” Sad!)
• The Bull Elephant: Lamentations on our Blue Virginia (Including this simply as an example of the Tea Party Republicans’ reaction…in this case comparing Virginia Democrats’ win Tuesday night to “the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians” and imploring, “HASHEM, save us now.   Virginia has forsaken you!” And no, it’s apparently not parody. LOL)