{"id":963907,"date":"2021-11-03T18:14:40","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T22:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=963907"},"modified":"2021-11-03T18:14:42","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T22:14:42","slug":"curl-heres-what-really-drove-the-vote-in-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/curl-heres-what-really-drove-the-vote-in-virginia\/","title":{"rendered":"CURL: Here\u2019s What Really Drove The Vote In Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcurl-heres-what-really-drove-the-vote-in-virginia%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=963907&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Former President Donald Trump endorsed Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin not once, but three times.<\/p>\n<p>But Youngkin walked a tightrope throughout the campaign. He accepted the endorsements, but he kept Trump at arm\u2019s length. As his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe, brought in a string of heavy hitters \u2014 President Joe Biden (twice), former President Barack Obama, first lady Jill Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris \u2014 Youngkin didn\u2019t invite Trump or other national party leaders, and even steered clear of an 11th-hour telephone rally headlined by Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Media reports the day after Youngkin pulled off the win in a state Biden won by more than 10% exactly one year ago are awash with claims that Trump was the decisive factor. Not so.<\/p>\n<p>Exit polls deliver the proof. Just 42% of Virginia voters said they have a favorable view of Trump, while 54% hold an unfavorable view. But Biden\u2019s numbers were the important ones: 45% said they approve of his job, while 54% disapprove. Biden\u2019s approval rating has plunged more at this point in his presidency than any other president since World War II.<\/p>\n<p>So hatred for Trump didn\u2019t drive Democratic voters to the polls this time around, nor does it appear that support for Trump prompted a surge in turnout. <strong>Instead, dissatisfaction over Biden\u2019s policies drove the vote \u2014 and kept many Democrats from showing up.<\/strong> Nearly 3 in 10 voters said that they voted for the Republican as \u201ca way to express opposition\u201d to Biden, CNN reported. And even though McAuliffe spent most of his campaign trying to connect Youngkin to Trump, voters just didn\u2019t buy it.<\/p>\n<p>Biden has made a mess of things in just 287 days. Inflation has soared, a supply chain crisis has left stored shelves empty, a worker shortage has caused major problems, the southern border catastrophe is still unsolved, and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan left a decidedly sour taste in voters\u2019 mouths.<\/p>\n<p>But Youngkin ran a race focused on local issues, especially the perceived anti-parent stance on education that exploded in Virginia in the campaign\u2019s final weeks. Those two issues \u2014 the economy and education \u2014 drove the race, not Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbout one-third of Virginia voters called the economy the most important issue facing the state, placing it ahead of other topics that dominated headlines in the closing days of the race. Just under one-quarter said education is most important, about 15% chose taxes, about 14% chose the COVID-19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former President Donald Trump endorsed Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin not once, but three times.But Youngkin walked a tightrope throughout the campaign. He accepted the endorsements, but he kept Trump at arm\u2019s length. As his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe, brought in a string of heavy hitters \u2014 President Joe Biden (twice), former President Barack Obama, first lady Jill Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris \u2014 Youngkin didn\u2019t invite Trump or other national party leaders, and even steered clear of an 11th-hour telephone rally headlined by Trump.Media reports the day after Youngkin pulled off the win in a state Biden won by more than 10% exactly one year ago are awash with claims that Trump was the decisive factor. Not so.Exit polls deliver the proof. Just 42% of Virginia voters said they have a favorable view of Trump, while 54% hold an unfavorable view. But Biden\u2019s numbers were the important ones: 45% said they approve of his job, while 54% disapprove. Biden\u2019s approval rating has plunged more at this point in his presidency than any other president since World War II.So hatred for Trump didn\u2019t drive Democratic voters to the polls this time around, nor does it appear that support for Trump prompted a surge in turnout. Instead, dissatisfaction over Biden\u2019s policies drove the vote \u2014 and kept many Democrats from showing up. Nearly 3 in 10 voters said that they voted for the Republican as \u201ca way to express opposition\u201d to Biden, CNN reported. And even though McAuliffe spent most of his campaign trying to connect Youngkin to Trump, voters just didn\u2019t buy it.Biden has made a mess of things in just 287 days. Inflation has soared, a supply chain crisis has left stored shelves empty, a worker shortage has caused major problems, the southern border catastrophe is still unsolved, and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan left a decidedly sour taste in voters\u2019 mouths.But Youngkin ran a race focused on local issues, especially the perceived anti-parent stance on education that exploded in Virginia in the campaign\u2019s final weeks. Those two issues \u2014 the economy and education \u2014 drove the race, not Trump.\u201cAbout one-third of Virginia voters called the economy the most important issue facing the state, placing it ahead of other topics that dominated headlines in the closing days of the race. Just under one-quarter said education is most important, about 15% chose taxes, about 14% chose the COVID-19 pandemic and just about one-tenth chose abortion,\u201d CNN reported.Biden\u2019s support among Democrats has also plummeted. Just 36% of Democratic voters want Biden to run again in 2024, while half think the country is on the wrong track, according to a recent NPR\/PBS News poll.Voter turnout \u2014 a true measure of enthusiasm among the party faithful \u2014 was also crucial. Consider these numbers: Biden crushed Trump in Virginia in 2020, winning 54.1% of the vote to Trump\u2019s 44%. That 10.1% winning margin was the largest for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1944 when Franklin D. Roosevelt beat Thomas Dewey in the state 62.4% to 37.4%.On Tuesday, more than 3.2 million Virginians voted, a 27% increase from 2017, the last election for governor. In that race, Democrat Ralph Northam defeated Republican Ed Gillespie 53.9% to 45%.But in 2017, just 2,584,906 people voted in the state. This year, with 99% of the vote counted, 3,277,931 state residents cast ballots, according to FiveThirtyEight.That surge in turnout gave Youngkin the win. He received 1,675,171 votes \u2014 a nearly 500,000-vote increase from Gillespie, who got 1,175,731 votes. McAuliffe pulled in 193,585 more votes than Northam \u2014 1,602,760 versus 1,409,175. But it still wasn\u2019t enough.Exit polls showed independents went heavily for Youngkin.\u201cYoungkin also carried male voters in this year\u2019s election by a roughly 12-point margin, White women without college degrees by about 50 points and White evangelicals by about 76 points \u2014 all broader margins than then-President Donald Trump posted over Joe Biden among those demographics in the 2020 election and than Republican Ed Gillespie posted over his gubernatorial rival in 2017,\u201d CNN reported. \u201cThe early exit polling also suggests a slim advantage for Youngkin in the suburbs, an area that shifted toward Democrats during Trump\u2019s presidency.\u201dSo\u00a0Youngkin\u2019s win delivers a blueprint to the GOP for winning back the House and Senate in the 2022 mid-term elections. Embrace the local issues that most affect your state\u2019s residents \u2014 and it\u2019s OK to keep your distance from Trump. While the next national election is still a year away, economists don\u2019t expect things to be much better.\u201cWe\u2019re going to have a whole new crop of Republicans come in and define a new way forward,\u201d Youngkin told supporters the day before the election.Indeed we are.Joseph Curl covered the White House for a dozen years and ran the Drudge Report for four years. He can be reached at josephcurl@dailywire.com and on Twitter at @JosephCurl. A version of this article ran previously in The Washington Times.The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":1898190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-963907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1898190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}