As far as elections go, 2017 wasn’t a good year for Republicans. Democrats won gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, frequently outperformed their baselines in special elections across the country and won a senate seat in Alabama—arguably the most GOP-friendly state in the country.
On November 7, Democratic lieutenant governor Ralph Northam became the governor-elect of Virginia, beating Republican Ed Gillespie by a nine point margin. Two days later, the political world shifted almost all its focus to Alabama. Various news outlets have now reported that while Republican…
On Tuesday night, as the Virginia returns were coming in, I wasn’t surprised—at all—by Ed Gillespie’s loss. He finished right around where Ken Cuccinelli did while running for governor and where Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, and John McCain did in Virginia while running for president. Virginia is a…
Ed Gillespie ran a perfect campaign for an election that didn’t happen. Ralph Northam ran a sloppy campaign with the same election in mind. Northam won, no thanks to his own efforts, and will become governor of Virginia in January.
The November 7 elections, in which Democrats took governorships in Virginia and New Jersey and most of the other closely contested offices, have been analyzed and debated in the way off-year races always are. The winners interpret their wins as a sign of imminent triumph; the losers make excuses.
Republican Ed Gillespie didn’t just lose his race for governor in Virginia on Tuesday. The former George W. Bush aide and Washington lobbyist led the GOP ticket in what ended up being a huge rout for the party. From gubernatorial nominee Ralph Northam to the lieutenant governor and attorney general…
With a week to go before Virginia’s governor’s election, Democrats were wringing their hands.
The doubts are gone now about Virginia: It really is a Democratic state. The election of Ralph Northam, a bland and ideologically fuzzy candidate, as governor is all the proof that was required.
The following is an archival version of our Election Night 2017 live blog. Posts are in reverse chronological order.
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, executive editor Fred Barnes talks with host Eric Felten about today's Virginia gubernatorial election and why it has Democrats worried.
If Ed Gillespie wins tonight, it’s proof that Trumpism is triumphant in the Republican party. Gillespie may have been a longtime establishment party-insider, but he spent most of his campaign fighting on populist cultural issues. If Gillespie wins, so does Trumpism.
Virginia and New Jersey—two states with a combined population of about 17 million—are voting today in the largest American elections since November 2016. Both states are choosing new governors and electing numerous state and local officials. So it’s worth asking: Who’s going to win? And what do…
A mailer sent out by the Democrat party of Virginia depicts Republican candidate Ed Gillespie alongside President Donald Trump with the torch-bearing white supremacists from the rally in Charlottesville pictured below them.
In the Virginia governor’s race, Democrat Ralph Northam is leading Republican Ed Gillespie by 17 points, according to a newly released Quinnipiac poll. The survey shows 53 percent of likely voters backing Northam and only 36 percent supporting Gillespie. But last week, a Hampton poll showed…
Last week, Monmouth University published a poll showing Republican Ed Gillespie ahead of Democrat Ralph Northam by one point in the race for Virginia’s governorship. This poll shocked some political observers—some had likely looked at Virginia’s recent results on the presidential level and…
Abingdon, Va.
Abingdon, Va.
The race for the Virginia’s governor’s mansion is tightening with three weeks to go. A Monmouth University poll released Tuesday shows Republican Ed Gillespie with a razor-thin lead over Virginia’s Democratic lieutenant governor Ralph Northam, 48 percent to 47 percent, Politico reports:
In a series of tweets, the Republican Party of Virginia attacked Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam on Wednesday for calling for the removal of Confederate statues.
After Corey Stewart narrowly lost the Republican nomination for governor of Virginia to Ed Gillespie, he declared, “There’s one word you won’t hear from me, and that’s ‘unity.’” Apparently his supporters don’t agree.
Ed Gillespie, the Republican hope for a revival in Virginia, squeaked out a narrow victory Tuesday night over a populist Corey Stewart to win the GOP nomination for governor.
In this episode of THE WEEKLY STANDARD Confab, Fred Barnes talks about the tricky balancing act of Virginia GOP gubernatorial hopeful Ed Gillespie; and Lee Smith explains the international politics of Wonder Woman.
Alexandria, Va.
President Obama has always wanted to be a historic president. In an election that was driven by Obamacare, he took another big step toward that end on Tuesday — just not in the way he intended.
Ed Gillespie continues to close the gap on Mark Warner in the Virginia Senate race, causing Real Clear Politics to move the race from “Likely Dem” to “Leans Dem.” Virginia is currently the only Senate race in that category, which suggests it’s the GOP’s best chance to stage a substantial upset on…
Two new polls show Republican Ed Gillespie closing in on Democratic incumbent Mark Warner in the Virginia Senate race. Christopher Newport University, which had Warner up 12 points earlier in the month in its survey, now has Warner's lead down to 7.
Entering the final fortnight of the Senate races, something of a pattern has started to develop. Republicans are leading in the Real Clear Politics average of recent polling in all states that were to the right of the national average in the 2012 election (which President Obama won by 4 points),…
In the wake of their passage of Obamacare, the Democrats have repeatedly claimed two things: Republicans don’t have an alternative, and in any case the health care debate is over. But a Washington Post editorial published Saturday makes it clear that neither of these claims is true.
Virginia senator Mark Warner claimed he did not offer a federal judgeship to the daughter of a Democratic state senator who was about to resign, but he did admit that they "brainstormed" about the idea.
Some winning campaigns are late-breaking. The most famous is Ronald Reagan’s surge in the last two weeks of the 1980 presidential campaign. And some candidates are elected after being far behind. Mitch McConnell trailed Democratic senator Dee Huddleston by as much as 30 percentage points in 1984,…
There are signs that the U.S. Senate race in Virginia, previously considered a long-shot for Republicans and a safe seat for Democrats, could get interesting in the final weeks of the campaign. The incumbent, Democrat Mark Warner, has had a large lead in the polls over his Republican opponent Ed…
Republicans in two Northern Virginia House districts selected their nominees Saturday, one of them a three-term female delegate and the other an African American Marine veteran. Barbara Comstock, a former congressional aide, won her firehouse primary to be the GOP nominee for Virginia's 10th…
Ed Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has announced he is running for the U.S. Senate in Virginia against Democratic senator Mark Warner. He introduces himself and his candidacy in a new ad. Watch it below:
The boss, writing for Politico magazine:
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, with editor William Kristol on the 2014 elections and whether Ed Gillespie will run for the senate in Virginia.
In 2008, John McCain and Sarah Palin not only had to run against Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and the Democrats’ usual allies in the news media, they faced an onslaught from entertainment media as well. Everyone remembers Saturday Night Live’s skewering portrayals of Palin and McCain and President…