Republicans are feeling the momentum in Virginia’s governor’s race Tuesday, with Senator Ted Cruz saying he sees similarities with 2009 and GOP pollster Frank Luntz predicting Glenn Yongkin will beat Democrat Terry McAuliffe in a Commonwealth race that is closely followed by governors.
Cruz (R-Texas), who called Virginia “a very important canary in a coal mine,” said he sees the same outcome for Republicans as in the first election after Barack Obama became president in 2008.
“If you look back in 2009, the last time you had a new Democratic president Barack Obama who embraced extremist policies Obamacare … Virginia was the first canary in the coal mine who predicted what happened in 2010, which was the Republican Revolution, where we got Congress back. Cruz said Tuesday On Fox News.
The senator said the same dynamic is at work now.
“Joe Biden campaigned last year as a centrist. He basically promised no more flirty tweets, but other than that, he would have calmed down…and that’s not what we’ve seen this year. Instead, Biden has handed control of the agenda to the extremists. “To Bernie Sanders, and the AOC, Elizabeth Warren, and I think people are terrified,” he said, referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In Virginia’s November 2009 election, Republican voters chose Bob McDonnell over Democrat Craig Deeds by a 17 percentage point margin, part of a sweeping campaign that placed GOP candidates in the top positions in state government, including the deputy governor and attorney general. .
Luntz said Yongkin, who has gained momentum and a run-up in opinion polls in the days leading up to Tuesday’s election, will be the winner.
“There is about an 80% chance that the Republican candidate will outpace Terry McAuliffe,” Luntz said. Squawk Box on CNBC. “The Democrat is the incumbent and it looks like the incumbent will lose.”
Democrat Ralph Northam is the governor of Virginia, but he cannot run for re-election because the governor cannot serve more than one term in a row.
McAuliffe, 64, served as governor from 2014 to 1018.
The Virginia race, along with the rivalry in New Jersey between Governor Phil Murphy and Republican Jack Ciatarelli, is attracting significant interest in out-of-year races because of the fallout from the 2022 midterm elections when Democrats will try to maintain control. A slim majority in the House and Senate.
Biden won Virginia last year by 10 percentage points, but several polls show McAuliffe and Youngkin are deadlocked, with many leading Youngkin slightly.
“There have been four times the party that has been abroad won the House of Representatives from incumbents, four times in the last 50 years,” Luntz said. “Each of those four times, Virginia predicted the result 100 percent, which is why everyone is watching it closely.”
Early polls gave McAuliffe an advantage in the race, but Youngkin began to turn as Biden’s favorability began to decline as he struggled with the Build Back Better agenda in Congress and the backup of the global supply chain was a drag on the economy and causing prices to soar. go up.
Youngkin led MacOlive 47 percent to 45 percent in a Fox 5/Insider Advantage poll on the eve of Tuesday’s election, and a Fox News poll last Thursday showed he rose by eight percentage points — 53 percent to 45 percent. cent.
Biden’s legislative agenda has been bogged down by opposition from moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kirsten Simema of Arizona.
They oppose many of the policies in the president’s $1.75 trillion social spending plan and how they will be paid for.
On Monday, Manchin accused progressive House Democrats of holding a bipartisan infrastructure bill “hostage” by asking the Senate to pass Biden’s spending package before they vote on the bipartisan infrastructure plan already passed by the Senate.
Cruz said Manchin and Cinema were showing “real courage” and wondered when the other 48 Democratic senators would stand up to the party’s progressive wing.
But I will say that one of the real indictments is what about the other 48 Democrats. Apparently, other than these two, no other Senate Democrat cares whether or not we approve of Bernie Sanders’ socialist budget.
This is the largest government tax increase on government spending we have ever seen. There are 48 Democrats at the helm of Bernie Sanders’ socialist budget.
The Texas Republican said the Democratic agenda is irritating Virginia voters.
“I think what we’re seeing in Virginia is that there’s a bunch of suburban moms out there who say ‘Wait a sec, open the borders, abolish the police, teach our kids racism, swear us on race.’ That’s not what I signed up for.”
“And I think when the Democrats adopt a radical agenda, I think 2022 will be an election like 2010, and it will be a wave election, and the Republicans will take back both the House and the Senate and they will go to do that because Joe Biden has delivered the agenda to the lunatics in his party,” Cruz said.
Youngkin, 54, was optimistic about his chances when he arrived at Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly, Virginia, to cast his vote on Tuesday.
“We feel very relieved, I have to say. I have just felt such a huge momentum in the past six to eight weeks,” He told CNN.
The Republican said the issues he highlighted during the campaign — the right of parents to have a say in their children’s education — have struck a chord with voters.
“These kitchen table issues are about lower taxes, better schools, better jobs, safe communities – that’s what people worry about,” he said.
The two candidates met in Virginia on the eve of their election to make last-minute presentations to voters.
Yongkin told his supporters that “the future of this commonwealth, the future of this country will be decided.”
McAuliffe also said the stakes are high, because of what a Republican victory could mean for Democrats in 2022 and 2024.
He said that his opponent “knew nothing about judgment”.
To indicate how hot the race was in Virginia, more than 1.1 million early ballots were submitted, which is roughly a fifth of the Commonwealth’s 5.9 million voters.
The majority of them were chosen by Democratic voters, according to statistics from TargetSmart data company.
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