China News Service, Washington, November 3 (Reporter Chen Mengtong) Virginia, USA held a governoral election on the 2nd. According to US media estimates, Republican candidate Glenn Youngjin will win the election. The results of the billing as of 1 a.m. on the 3rd showed that Yangjin defeated Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe with a 51% or 48.3%.
Virginia and New Jersey are among the few states in the United States to hold gubernatorial elections the following year of the presidential election. Currently, the governors of both states are Democrats. The election of governors in the two states is regarded by public opinion as the "barometer" of the election of the US 2022 midterm elections.
Data picture: On the evening of November 1, local time, Glenn Yangjin, a Republican-based governor candidate in Virginia, held a campaign to build momentum in Louden County, northern part of the state.
Virginia, adjacent to the capital Washington, has reason to receive "extraordinary" attention. In 2009, it was in the first year of then-President Obama's administration that Republicans won the Fernandez governor's election, becoming a "precursor" for Democrats to lose control of the House of Representatives in the following midterm elections.
Glenn Youngkin is 54 years old and a former executive of a private equity group. He has 25 years of financial investment experience and has no political experience before running for governor. McAuliffe is a "veteran" in politics and was elected governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018.
is different from the "elective college" system in the US presidential election. The US governor's election adopts the principle of simple majority and is directly elected by voters in the state. According to preliminary vote counting results, Yangjin received more than 1.65 million votes, while McAuliffe received 1.569 million votes.
Although Virginia is geographically located in the southern United States, it has been increasingly regarded as a "blue state" that supports the Democratic Party in recent years. In last year's presidential election, Biden's lead in the state reached 10%. The election situation between McAuliffe and Young King was still in a completely different situation three months ago. In early August, McAuliffe's poll support rate led by Yangjin by nearly 8 percentage points, and the gap between the two has narrowed all the way. Three days before the voting date, Yangjin overtook the support rate of less than 1%.
On November 2, local time, Virginia, USA held a governoral election. The picture shows a polling station in Arlington County, Virginia that day. Photo by Chen Mengtong, China News Service reporter
This summer, a home-school dispute occurred in Lawton County, Northern Virginia, made education issues unexpectedly one of the key factors that influence the election situation in Virginia. On this issue, Yangjin supports parents to have more say in public school governance, while McAuliffe believes that parents should not interfere in the work of educational management agencies. American media analysts believe that McAuliffe's position has caused him to lose the support of middle-aged voters, thus losing the previous "good luck" in the election situation.
Judging from the election results, Yangjin and McAuliffe's votes can be basically divided by rural areas and cities. The former has won voters in most rural and valleys in Florida, while McAuliffe's votes are mainly concentrated in sporadic metropolitan areas such as the capital Richmond, southern Norfolk, and Northern Virginia.
This year's Virginia gubernatorial election is also seen as a "test" of the Democratic and Republican midterm election campaign strategies. McAuliffe plays the "experience card" this time, and binds his opponent to Trump in his campaign strategy and attacks. Yang Jin kept an appropriate distance from Trump, while also grasping breakthroughs in issues such as economy and education to win the support of middle-aged voters.
The Associated Press pointed out that Yang Jin has found the password for the Republicans to "break the deadlock" in the midterm election, that is, "refusing to deny Trump, but not embracing him very much." It is expected that more Republicans will imitate Yang Jin's campaign operations in 2022. At the same time, the "turning popularity" in Verona is enough to sound a wake-up call for Democrats. Using Trump as a negative example and lacking substantial policy dividends is not enough to win middle-class voters.
Yangjin's victory has been seen as the Republican Party's "good start" towards 2022. Republican National Committee Chairman McDaniel issued a statement saying the Republican victory in Virginia is a strong fight back against Biden and the Democratic political agenda. The Republican Party will set off a red wave in 2022, and Virginia is just the beginning.
US campaign data analysis website "Five Thirty Eight" believes that Virginia's election situation reflects a typical form of American election situation. When both the federal and local governments are controlled by the same party, the election situation will generally be more "friendly" to another party. With the Democratic president in power, voters who support Republicans are obviously more motivated to vote, just as Democratic voters did during Trump’s administration. (End)
Source: China News Network
