100,000 fewer Dems voted than in 2017; 4 Dem incumbent delegates lose
President Sleepy Joe Biden nominated a diverse group of cabinet members, often only because of their race or sexual orientation. Identity politics and being “anti-racist” and woke is the mantra for today’s liberals, and symbolism is more important than solutions (like renaming schools vs. educating students).
But based on the June 8 Democratic primary results, it seems Virginia Democratic voters didn’t get the memo.
The party of Leftism and statism failed to nominate an African American to any of the three statewide posts, despite the kowtowing Democrats have done the last few years to Black Lives Matter and New Virginia Majority. However, Democratic voters gave the governor and attorney general nomination to two white male professional politicians, former Gov Terry McAuliffe and 2 term attorney general Mark Herring, who was supposed to be the heir apparent to Gov. “Al Jolson” Northam.
In addition, 100,000 fewer people voted in the Democratic party primary than in 2017, perhaps a sign of less enthusiasm now that Donald Trump is gone and can’t be a bogeyman to gin up their base, as John Massoud writes here.
This was not a good night for Democrats, but a truly wonderful one for Republicans, who won the “diversity test” by nominating Glenn Youngkin as governor, a white male; Winsome Sears as Lt. Governor, the first African American woman to be on a statewide ticket; and attorney general candidate Del. Jason Miyares, who is of Cuban descent. This is something Republicans should crow about, especially imploring black voters to support Sears to “make history!.”
In addition, there are now at least four more open seats in the House of Delegate races where Republicans can compete as Democratic voters jettisoned four incumbents in their primaries. We need just six wins to take control and turn back Leftist destructive legislation. A few GOP-held seats, like Kirk Cox’s 66th, are now open, so the HOD races are still an uphill fight for us.
McAuliffe won every county and city. None of his black, Latino and socialist opponents stood a chance.
Herring, a former Loudoun state senator, and onetime elected colleague of mine when I served in local elected office in Leesburg, barely won renomination for a third term over African American junior Del. Jay Jones of Norfolk. It seems Jones carried about half the counties and cities, garnering 43.3 percent of the vote. He also won his House of Delegates primary in Norfolk, but will have a GOP opponent, Hahns Copeland, whom I helped recruit (this is my delegate district).
Herring is the odd man out on this ticket. McAwful screwed him over by running for governor and Northam endorsed Jones in the primary to continue his penance for being in blackface as a med student. Democrat disunity might help Youngkin-Sears-Miyares.
In addition, freshman Del. Haya Ayala, who is part Latino and Middle Eastern, is the Democrat’s only nonwhite on the ticket as Lt. governor. Winsome Sears, our candidate, already issued a statement pointing out how much of a radical she is.
In the House of Delegate primaries, at least four incumbent delegates lost renomination — Mark Levine, District 45 in Northern Virginia; Steve Heretick, District 79, Hampton Roads; Ibrahim Samirah, District 86 in Loudoun and Fairfax, and Lee Carter, who also ran for governor and represents Prince William County in District.
Samirah and Carter’s defeats were the sweetest for Republicans. Both are radical socialists who never shed their activist skin when they got elected. Samirah, a Palestinian Arab, is anti-Israel and disrupted President Trump’s speech at the Jamestown quadricentennial. Carter participated in anti-police demonstrations and was pepper sprayed.
Neither were reprimanded by their Democrat caucus for their antics, but Democrats and Republicans joined hands to condemn three delegates and state senator who merely appeared at the Stop the Steal rally on Jan 6, but never participated in the Capitol Hill assault.
Carter had the audacity to issue this tweet contending his life has been a mess and he’s had death threats. Why do liberals always cry pity and play victim when they lose?
Levine is another radical, but Heretick, who defeated the late blue dog Democrat Johnny Joannou in 2015, was more moderate. He was upended by what appears to be a flaming local radical activist, age 26, who opposes Dominion Power, the 800-pound gorilla in Richmond. The 79th includes some conservative precincts in Norfolk, Chesapeake but is largely in Portsmouth, which is deep Blue. Lawrence Mason, another candidate we helped recruit, is a Navy veteran and GOP nominee and now has a pretty good chance to win.
Another June 8 oddity. Virginia Beach School Board member Kimberly Melnyk, who won her seat with Republican help, is the Democrat nominee in the 84th in Virginia Beach and will face incumbent Del. Glenn Davis, who lost his bid for Lt. governor in our May 8 unassembled convention.
Melnyk won narrowly, perhaps because her defeated opponent argued she was ”not a real Democrat.” So, it’s Republican against Republican in the very competitive 84th, which Davis worked very hard to win in 2019.
In the 83d GOP primary, Virginia Beach gun rights attorney Tim Anderson leads former Del. Chris Stolle by about four votes as of today’s canvass, and a recount is likely. Stolle lost to Democrat Nancy Guy in 2019 primarily due to court-ordered redistricting and the anti-Trump vote.
Clearly, Democrats June 8 handed us some great opportunities to exploit, especially failing the diversity test.
Indeed, making Virginia red again, or at least Purple, will be a significant challenge, but there are five months remaining in the campaign till the Nov. 2 election and five months in politics can be an eternity. It is possible if all of us unite behind this ticket and get our volunteers out there and take the issue of Trump and focus it on policing, transportation, education (especially supporting high standards and stopping critical race theory courses), and reopening the economy, we can succeed.
