tamamagic.blogg.se

He was a Stealth Trumper and Sorta Trumper who took pains not to offend or alienate Forever Trumpers. Political observers who say that Youngkin was a Never Trumper - proving the viability of that movement - are deluding themselves. Yes, you can - or so the Virginia outcome suggests.

Youngkin simply chose Trump in spirit over Trump in the flesh, a Trump Lite tack sure to be mimicked by Republican candidates in the 2022 midterms and beyond, at least until Trump’s favor fades and his shadow shrinks.Īll of them are asking the question that Youngkin just answered: Can you have your Trump and eat it, too? Can you kiss up to his voters without visibly kissing his ring? Can you capture his magic without prostrating yourself before the sorcerer? In no sane world and by no sound reading did Youngkin run without or away from Trump, though that’s one of the spins being applied to his election in a state that President Biden won by roughly 10 percentage points just a year ago. It’s no fluke that he never appeared in public with Trump, the most popular figure in the Republican Party by far.īut Youngkin, the first Republican to win a governor’s race in Virginia since 2009, also never gave any particular sense that he had much of a problem with the former president’s ethics (by which I mean the lack thereof), his lies or his efforts to undermine American democracy. It’s no accident that he never beckoned Donald Trump to campaign with him.

What candidates don’t do can have as much impact on an election as what they do, and Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia was a triumph of omission.