In Virginia the Democrats nominated a guy (Northam) who voted for Bush twice. If the Democrat voters were all right with that, the nominee stood a fairly good chance of winning over moderates and Republican defectors and carrying the state.
That's because Virginia's already become a Democrat state. Put together all the Democrats with upscale voters who might have voted for Bush but not Trump, and the downscale voters who voted for Bush, but then Obama (but not Trump) and Northam's on his way to winning.
The irony, though, is that if Virginia were a even more Democrat state and had more liberals, some of them would have stayed home or voted for third parties, and Gillespie might have won in spite of himself. But Virginia Democrats really wanted to give the Republicans a black eye -- and so many of them already work for the government that they weren't going to waste their votes on a third party.
Here are the numbers:
2016 Trump 1,769,443
2017 Gillespie 1,173,326
2016 Clinton 1,981,473
2017 Northam 1,405,041
If ALL of the Trump voters had turned out for Gillespie in 2017, and the same number of voters turned out for Northam, Gillespie wins by 364,402!
My point is that by going all-in for Trump and working diligently to turn out the Trump voters, Gillespie could have won.
Instead of embracing President Trump and asking for his help, Gillespie chose to distance himself, and lost, BIG TIME!
As a native Virginian, I am embarrassed that the LIEberals have taken over!
Do you think that the Republicans will learn this lesson: “Embrace Trump and win?” Or not?
If the Republicans lose in 2018, we can kiss America good by!