Rachel Maddow of MSNBC has clarified the situation after Tuesday’s Gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey.
These two states regularly hold their gubernatorial elections the year after a presidential election, and for the past 40 years, the party in the White House loses the gubernatorial elections the next year to the opposition party.
This has been true every time in Virginia since 1981, except in 2013, but also true in New Jersey, until this year.
Despite the fact that the election was fairly close, about 40,000 votes, the point is that New Jersey stayed with its Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, breaking the 40 year tradition.
The Republican victory in Virginia, while troubling, was also a quite close election, about 70,000 votes, but no one emphasizes that, while paying attention to New Jersey being close.
The fact is that most elections in most states tend to be close in an evenly divided nation, whether we like it or not.
But the end result is what matters, so Rachel Maddow emphasized that progressives should not be so negative.
The reality is that even with Virginia going to the Republicans this week just emphasizes the importance of motivating people to vote, and realizing that those who care about progressive values must work hard, and not take anything for granted!
Republicans of color made some firsts in Virginia. A black, Jamaican-born woman won the race for lieutenant governor and the son of a Cuban refugee became the state’s next attorney general. The Democratic ticket featured two white men. I find it rather ironic.