By Ellie Bufkin|Townhall.com
Source: AP Photo/Steve Helber
With the November general election less than six months
away, results of local and special elections are giving an eye-opening preview
of possible voter behavior. While recent polls still show Democratic hopefuls, including
presumed presidential nominee Joe Biden, edging out their Republican
counterparts in competitive parts of the country, actual ballots are telling a
very different story.
Special congressional elections in California and
Wisconsin this month both yielded Republican victors after Democrats launched
strong campaigns in other races. In California, Republican Mike Garcia beat
Democrat Christy Smith by almost 10 points after receiving 10,000 fewer votes
in the primary election just two months earlier. Garcia replaced Democrat Katie
Hill, who resigned at the end of 2019, flipping a California House seat from
blue to red for the first time in more than 20 years.
As stunning as Garcia's resounding victory for
Republicans in California was, however, a shocking GOP blowout in the Staunton,
Virginia city council election this week has given Democrats a reason to be
alarmed.
Like many cities in Virginia through the last several
years, Staunton has trended toward liberal candidates in national and municipal
elections, supporting Barack Obama in both the 2008 and 2012 elections, and
Hillary Clinton in 2016. The city also helped buoy Democratic governors Terry
McAuliffe and Ralph Northam to victory in the past two gubernatorial elections
while consistently electing a majority of Democrats to the city council.
Following the 2019 'Blue Wave' in Virginia legislature
elections, however, residents of Staunton, which is supported in large part by
private liberal arts college Mary Baldwin, came out in droves to support
Republicans this week. Three Democratic council members lost to their
Republican challengers in an unprecedented sweep by the GOP with a voter turn
out that smashed previous election cycles.
More than 17,000 votes were cast in the in the election
in which all four council members were vying to protect their seats. The last
Staunton election for all four members was in 2016 in which fewer than 7,000
votes were cast. One Virginia political analyst, Chris Graham, of the Augusta
Free Press described the results as "stunning almost beyond words."
Noting the eye-popping voter turnout, Graham credited Democrats for
getting more votes than they did in the last cycle. However, Republican voters
left no chance for defeat, with a turnout "more akin to, not quite a
presidential year, but approaching gubernatorial their rivals at polls,"
according to Graham.
Following the 2019 Virginia election in which Democrats
took control of the state senate and the House of Delegates, liberal policy
pushes by local lawmakers and Governor Northam have soured residents of the
state on many Democrats. Anti-gun legislation signed by Northam earlier this
year drew massive protests in the state capital of Richmond and have drawn a
line in the sand between residents and progressive lawmakers.
Northam also angered Virginians at the onset of the Wuhan
coronavirus pandemic in the state, becoming one of the first Democratic governors
to enact strict lockdown orders and called for a shutdown into mid-June just
weeks into the crisis. He has since eased on his stringent orders for the
state, but as he keeps the most populous counties in the northern part of the
state on continued restriction and continues with a very slowly phased
reopening plan everyone else, criticism against him remains at a fever
pitch.
Election analysts and representatives of the August
County Republican Committee agree that the unpopular gun legislation and
Northam's response to COVID-19 factored into the GOP shellacking in Staunton
this week.
"I’m rarely shocked by something that happens in
politics, but I have to admit, I didn’t see this one happening," Graham said in a post-election analysis.
"This turning point for the city shows that the
citizens want a change in their government," Austin Armentrout of the ACRC
told Townhall. "Many people are getting involved in politics and making
their voices heard around our country, and it is resulting in Republican
victories. The Staunton City Council Election was one of many in the
Commonwealth of Virginia that show a growing momentum for Republican candidates
that will carry through into November when President Donald Trump and
Congressman Ben Cline [R-VA 06] are re-elected."
With Republican victories in California and Virginia
already on the books for 2020, Democratic Party operatives will be forced to
look at how to reach voters clearly frustrated with state lockdowns that are
almost entirely perpetuated by Democratic governors. Likewise, Democratic
congressional candidates and incumbents must stand behind their actions during
the last two years in which they pushed an unfounded impeachment of the
president and blocked attempts to help Americans during the pandemic.
The trouncing in Staunton, a city that has supported
almost every Democrat for more than 15 years, is a bellwether that Democrats
across the country would be foolish to ignore.
