Opinion: GOP victories shake up US

I want to take a couple of minutes and talk about the election results. It was an amazing night, an earthquake kind of night, the kind of night that has rattled even the New York Times which just ran an editorial, which resembled the Wall Street Journal, the kind of night that got Al Sharpton to say, the Democrats have got to move to the middle, that they’re too left wing. 

Now, when that happens, you know, you’re living through an earthquake and it was an earthquake.

I think the job that Glen Youngkin did in Virginia and winning the governorship, the way in which he developed education so that it became a conservative issue. Something people didn’t think was possible, but he brought parents together. He talked about key ideas. He took on the critical race theory and the whole issue of racism head on. And he did so from a position of great strength because he had as his running mates, for Lieutenant governor, the first African-American woman ever to win statewide in Virginia for Lieutenant governor, someone who came as a very young child from Jamaica, served in the U.S. Marines, totally patriotic, deeply committed to America. And he helped elect the first Latino elected statewide as the attorney general. So the team they’ve got represents a diversity of backgrounds, but a commitment to working together to create a more successful Virginia. 

At the same time, the sheer momentum also gave them the ability to elect enough members to the assembly that they took back the assembly, which they’d lost a few years ago. 

And so, Glen is going to be going straight into Richmond with the ability to get things done. It’s going to be very, very exciting, and he has a great program and he won in part because he talked about issues that matter to Virginians, talked about stopping crime, creating jobs, lowering taxes, putting parents back in the school system, so that parents have a say in their children’s education. All of these were things which resonated with Virginians while his opponent, the former Democratic governor, was not able to talk about these things.

Terry McAuliffe, who should have been focused on Virginia instead ran a very national political campaign, brought in Biden, uh, brought in Obama, brought in Kamala Harris, brought in Stacey Abrams.  You know, Virginians looking at the governor’s race about state issues, saw the newcomer, who was Glen Youngkin, who was doing exactly what they wanted and talking about the state. And they saw the former governor who should have known the state brilliantly, having served for four years as governor, talking about all this national junk that had no relationship to their lives in Virginia. Sort of remarkable moment.

Equally remarkable north of there in New Jersey, where we had, somebody who was a truck driver who got angry because they wouldn’t issue a concealed carry permit, even though he had an unblemished record and there was no reason to stop him. So he went out and he ran against the president of the New Jersey Senate, who four years ago had won the most expensive legislative race in America, $17 million. 

And the Republican insurgent spent $2,300 compared to $17 million. But he won. He won in part because he went door to door. He talked to people, he seemed like a nice guy, and they were just fed up. 

New Jersey has the highest tax structure in the country, is the most expensive state in the country, had the third highest death rate from COVID because governor Murphy had followed governor Cuomo and a totally insane policy of putting sick people back into nursing homes. And the result was, people said, yeah, I like you. I don’t like him anymore. 

A huge earthquake made a big, big difference.

And we saw the same thing happen across the country. We won a legislative seat in San Antonio, 73% Hispanic district. Special election. The Republican won. 

We elected the city attorney in Seattle, Washington. Now, when you start winning in Seattle as a Republican and, Ann Davison is a Republican, campaigned on law and order, campaigned on locking up criminals, campaigned on strengthening the police beat, against a radical left-winger, who openly said she hated cops and she didn’t want to arrest anybody. 

Huge earthquake around the country.  Big changes, more to come, and in future weeks, I’ll comment on many of the things I see happening.