Can Youngkin govern as a moderate and please the base by keeping his promises on education?
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FYI: The Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association has selected Claybrooke Farm in Louisa County to present the Virginia Executive Mansion with holiday trees this year. An eleven-foot Fraser Fir and a seven-foot Fraser Fir will be placed on display. The Rhoades Family of Mountain View Farm will provide wreaths.
Republicans walk the line of local and national in Virginia’s new political environment
Virginia’s congressional candidates are using a mixture of national and local talking points to try and garner support for their campaigns heading into 2022. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Henrico) has notoriously avoided campaigning on national politics by focusing on district-based issues in an area that has historically supported Republicans prior to Donald Trump. She is now the center of attention for a long list of candidates looking to unseat her next year.
With national headwinds now blowing in the opposite direction, Spanberger has to hope that her focus on issues within the district can be enough to combat the national Republican momentum.
During her campaign to unseat the Republican incumbent Dave Brat in 2018, Brat referred to Nancy Pelosi 21 times in a one-hour debate. Spanberger eventually beat him later that year and won reelection again in 2020 over Del. Nick Freitas, a state legislator that often focuses more on national politics compared to issues at the local level.
For 2022, however, the environment will be different. Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin just provided Republicans with their first statewide win since 2009. Additionally, as Youngkin’s victory proved, Donald Trump is no longer in office to help drive Democratic voters to the polls.
Youngkin avoided the national political scene and focused mostly on local issues like gas prices and parental involvement in schools during the final days of the election. His Democratic opponent focused largely on tying him to Trump and nationalizing the race with big political figures on the trail.
But with an analysis showing that Youngkin won Spanberger’s district by double digits, her potential opponents are wading into the national scene with much more frequency.
“Why isn’t banning travel over COVID ‘xenophobic’ when Joe Biden does it? Could it be that it never was?” tweeted Tina Ramirez, a Republican seeking the nomination in the seventh district. Her comment is a veiled defense of Trump, who faced criticism for banning people from other countries in the years prior to the existence of COVID-19.
Ramirez sought the nomination in 2020 but came in third during the nomination process. A single mom from Chesterfield, she has executed a more conservative campaign during her 2022 campaign compared to 2020.
“The China-Russia military cooperation deal is more evidence that the weakness Joe Biden projects abroad is emboldening our adversaries,” Ramirez tweeted Sunday. “We need real foreign policy leadership.”
Some of the other Republican opponents are latching more heavily onto some of the same local issues as Youngkin in an attempt to ride the wave of momentum in Virginia. “Are you offended?” Del. John Mcguire’s (R-Goochland) campaign asked in the subject line of an email Friday. “I hate to break it to you, but if you thought that the attacks on our concerned parents in Virginia would stop after the election, then I have some bad news for you. It hasn’t!”
McGuire’s campaign email then referenced the ongoing situation involving the Loudoun County school board and parental backlash over than handling of two sexual assaults within the school system.
McGuire quietly launched his campaign recently with just an email to supporters. In the announcement, he mixed national and local issues as a means to attack Spanberger. “Under Democrat Abigail Spanberger our borders are open, the FBI is targeting parents for speaking up at school board meetings, we botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan and gas prices are crippling working class families.”
In the email Sunday night, McGuire’s campaign used unique language to talk about the current momentum behind the Republican party as he was fundraising for his bid. “Make no mistake they are feeling the breeze coming off of the Red Wave, but they need to feel the water crashing down on them. Right now they are dipping their toes in the water with the Red Wave crashing just before them. We have to keep up the pressure to put them in the impact zone.”
More from today’s newsletter:
Republican strategists are worried Youngkin might disappoint the base on education, women in both parties made gains in Virginia’s elections this year, LG-elect Winsome Sears talked to The Hill after staying away from the media for the majority of her campaign, Amanda Chase discusses fundraising, two bipartisan legislators show support for penalizing greedy online practices, Democrats are worried about losing Latino voters, Spanberger talks with CBS News about Biden & FDR, Trump is looking at potential vice president running mates — plus more political headlines from around Virginia and the country. Subscribe now to read it all and receive insider political news to your inbox each day.