Bob McDonnell victory party 2009 (Washington Times)

Yes, it was about Trump – but also GOP failure to change the campaign’s focus

written by Guest Contributor Ken Reid November 18, 2017

Just when you thought we had concluded talking about the Nov. 8 shellacking Republicans got in Virginia, I now bring to you another comment about why I think we lost.

I agree with Mick Staton’s thoughtful piece showing that Ed Gillespie, Jill Vogel, John Adams and at least 15 Republican delegates lost to the Democrats due to President Trump’s unpopularity and a surge in anti-Trump Democrat votes, mostly in the higher-income suburban areas of Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and the Richmond-Henrico-Chesterfield region.

I, as a supporter of the President and his agenda, who as 10th District chairman for Trump tried (and lost) to prevent Mick Staton and other “Cruzers” from being elected delegates to the Republican National Convention, will also admit that it was not due to felons and illegals voting, nor a surge in minority voters, as Mick noted

I also will agree with him that a stronger pro-Trump candidate on the ticket would not have helped either.

However, I firmly believe Gillespie and the Republican Party of Virginia should have seen the writing on the wall when Trump was trounced by Hillary Clinton in November 2016 and when Democrats outvoted Republicans in the June primary by 47%. They should have anticipated this was going to be a referendum on Trump, but failed to have any sexy transportation or education or jobs issue that could have captured suburban professional voters – staunch pro-life conservatives Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli did in 2009.

Gillespie had tons of policy statements for the 2017 race, but nobody knew about them. He ran anti-MS 13 ads in Northern Virginia so Hispanic voters could see them. Dumb.

All voters knew was they had to vote against Trump because Gillespie offered no reasons to vote FOR something, so they voted AGAINST something. Indeed, turnout was greater and it was Democrat turnout – but Ralph Northam was a bad candidate as was Creigh Deeds. Most of us thought Ed was going to pull it out based on the polls.

What’s ironic is that after the “McBolliNelli” sweep in 2009, which included carrying Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties – going against a trend toward Democrats – Gillespie outlined the strategy in this account in the Washington Post . See what I highlighted and tell us what appears to be key advice Gillespie failed to follow in his own campaign:

The GOP’s Ed Gillespie on election lessons from Virginia
By Ed Gillespie

Thursday, November 5, 2009

After losing Virginia’s governorship for the first time in eight years, some Democrats are trying to console themselves that Virginia is at its core a “red” state. This ignores not only that they won back-to-back governorships but also that Democrats defeated a sitting senator in 2006, took control of the state Senate in 2007 and won an open Republican Senate seat and three House seats in 2008 while carrying Virginia’s electoral college votes for the first time since 1964.

Some in the White House are trying to deflect blame for the defeat by saying that Sen. Creigh Deeds lost because he didn’t embrace the president and his policies. This ignores how much the Obama administration’s support for cap-and-trade, organized labor’s agenda, government-run health care and rampant spending hurt the Democratic nominee with independent voters.

And some Republicans are concluding that the Virginia governor’s race was a referendum on President Obama and that we can make major gains in next year’s midterms simply by running against him. This ignores the fact that while Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell benefited from voter concerns over Congress and the White House, he ran on a positive, detailed policy agenda.

There are lessons in the Virginia governor’s race for both parties, but Republicans nationally would do well to take a few pages from McDonnell’s playbook. Here are five:

— Convert conservative principles into practical policies — and finish the sentence. All year, McDonnell laid out a steady stream of policy initiatives rooted in a commitment to lower taxes, less regulation and innovation. Too often, however, Republicans don’t “finish the sentence” and remind voters outside our base why such conservative policies are better. McDonnell’s campaign attracted crucial independent voters by focusing on the benefits of his policies: better elementary schools, more college degrees, less time stuck in traffic, more affordable gas and electricity, and most important, jobs, jobs, jobs.

By Tuesday, voters gave McDonnell a sizable lead when it came to handling every critical issue facing Virginians, and he can now claim a mandate for his agenda.

— Run inclusive campaigns. When The Post reported on what is now the most famous graduate thesis in America and Democrats attacked McDonnell as “anti-working-women,” a broad grass-roots network of “Women for McDonnell” was in place to respond through e-mails, Facebook postings and conversations with friends and co-workers, making sure Virginians knew the Republican nominee’s record of promoting women.

Instead of indulging in the anti-immigration rhetoric of past Republican campaigns, McDonnell appealed to the growing Hispanic and Asian American enclaves of Northern Virginia, where his message of entrepreneurship, educational opportunity and strong families resonated.

As a member of the House of Delegates, McDonnell worked with community leaders to narrow the gap in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine. As attorney general, he rallied the commonwealth’s law firms to donate to food banks, forging relationships in traditionally non-Republican areas. During the campaign he worked to earn the endorsement of lifelong Democrat Sheila Johnson and appealed to former Democratic governor Douglas Wilder, who ended up withholding support for Deeds.

McDonnell’s performance among female and minority voters contributed to the biggest victory margin for any governor since Virginia became a two-party state.

— Use language voters want from their elected leaders. When asked to comment on the president campaigning in Virginia for his opponent, McDonnell responded that “the president of the United States is always welcome in the commonwealth.” In addition to citing the litany of issues on which they disagreed, he noted his agreement with the president’s support for charter schools.

When a GOP candidate for the House of Delegates referred to the Obama administration as “domestic terrorism at its worst” and said that if Republicans fell short at the ballot box, we might have to resort to “the bullet box,” McDonnell made clear that her comments were not representative of Republicans he’d been talking with and that he would not campaign for or with her.

McDonnell was critical of his opponent’s policies, but Deeds’s attacks frequently were harshly personal. Voters expect the former but reject the latter.

— Match the left’s use of technology. The Obama campaign blazed electronic trails in 2008, and the McDonnell campaign sought to adapt to the new contours, beginning with an online announcement of his candidacy and a message to “Text VA to GOBOB” on banners and yard signs. Between social media networks, texting and e-mail, the campaign was regularly in direct contact with more than 200,000 voters — impressive, especially given the low turnout on Election Day. In addition to the campaign’s efforts, the Republican Party of Virginia did an excellent job of driving coverage and perceptions of Deeds through creative Web videos.

— Back strong candidates. Elections are ultimately choices between two people vying for the same job. Bob McDonnell was, hands-down, the superior candidate. Virginia’s next governor proved to be a principled, disciplined, energetic, idea-driven, articulate and personable candidate — characteristics that will serve the commonwealth well over the next four years.

The writer, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, volunteered as general chairman of the Bob McDonnell for Governor Campaign.

The question now is where do Republicans go from here in Virginia, given the changing demographics and prospect of Democrat control in Richmond. Well, that may be a future column.

Guest Contributor Ken Reid

Ken Reid served four years on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors and six years on the Leesburg Town Council. He served as 10th District Chairman for the Virginia Trump campaign. He also publishes newsletters focusing on the regulation of the life sciences industries, www.FDAINFO.com

Warmac9999

I have a slightly different take. The most monstrous political lie in at least half a century was “Obamacare will be repealed and replaced on day one” – and this wasn’t Trump’s lie but the congressional Republican’s lie. This lie is more infamous than George HW Bush stupidly repudiating his promise not to raise taxes – one of the greatest examples of political tone deafness in modern presidential history.

It is easy to blame Trump because he is clearly bombastic, but, as a conservative Republican, I know where the fault lies. Now, if the Republican Congress fails, this time with tax reform, there will be a massive swing away from Republican leadership Including repudiation at the polls. (Unfortunately, there are at least half a dozen Democrat leaning republican senators who may very well take down tax reform plans. Also, unfortunately, it appears that the senate Republican leadership is much too comfortable with minority status – more Chamberlain than Churchill.)
Edward N Virginia

QUOTE
He ran anti-MS 13 ads in Northern Virginia so Hispanic voters could see them. Dumb.
UNQUOTE

Well, honey boo boo that tells us something right there.

You prefer that Gillespie had PANDERED to rural regions with the ‘MS-13’ ads? WHY?
– Because there are MORE gangs in rural places? THAT WOULD BE FALSE!
– Because YOU believe that racially biased anxieties are higher in rural places? DING DIN DING!
- Ken Reid
  
  This is where diretct mail is better. You use direct mail to flag hot button issues for select audiences. i.e. the guns issue, abortion, and immigration. Sure, the media and opponents can find out but to have endless TV ads airing on the subject didn’t help him.
  - GOTV
    
    Again with the top down urban centric mentality.
    
    Conservatives need a grassroots campaign to win, not more direct mail, ad campaigns, and RINO consultants. Conservatives need to win at the precinct level across the state, not piss around with fence sitters in Fairfax.
    - Chad Davis
      
      The Republican candidate for Statewide office does not need to win Fairfax County, but he/she needs to ideally get 40 percent, then the rural voters that you mention can probably win it.
  - Edward N Virginia
    
    Indeed. All those ‘Independents’ knew from the endless TV ads that the Republican Administration would tend toward racism, and other divisions, rather than ‘bringing us together’ on common ground goals.
Edward N Virginia

QUOTE
offered no reasons to vote FOR something, so they voted AGAINST something.
UNQUOTE

DING DING DING! Give the man/woman/bi-gender person a prize!
- Ken Reid
  
  Suburban voters are concerned about education, traffic, taxes and jobs . For example, if Ed had a plan to widen the interstates in Virginia that we all get caught on — 95, 64, 81 — i.e., proposing a statewide bond referendum to pay for this — that would have been a sexy issue that may have given suburban voters a reaosn to vote for him. Dave Larock has been making 81 a BIG ISSUE in his district, and extra lanes on 15 . He won. I never lost an election by supporting investments in transportation. Indeed, a number of conservatives may not have voted for him, but again, the voting population is NOT in the rural conservative areas.
  - GOTV
    
    You are wrong. It can be done either way, it depends on the races. When you’re talking about Delegates your argument might make sense, but when you’re talking about governor, lt. governor, our senators, etc, you’re WRONG WRONG WRONG. You can and someday will win those races with rural voters. But you won’t until you try.
  - Warmac9999
    
    You forgot the destructive impact of illegal immigration. Suburban voters see the problem for themselves and their children every day. And it becomes a particular problem when the illegal immigrant is not only put ahead of the legal immigrants but the native born citizenry as well.
FrankUnderwoodSr

Ann Coulter looked at this election and came to an entirely different conclusion. http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2017-11-15.html

“Republicans, being idiots, …. arguing only about whether Gillespie’s problem was that he didn’t embrace Trump enough or embraced him too much. What happened was: Democrats brought in new voters.”
- Ken Reid
  
  we brought in new voters, too, but the problem is – -how many new voters can you bring in in conservative rural areas? I looked at voter registrations as they stood in Sept. 2016 vs. Oct. 2017, by congressional district.
  Sept. 2016 Oct. 2017 Net change
  
  District 1 474,718 497,980 +23,262
  Dist. 2 414,382 431,903 +17521
  Dist 3 405,445 432,662 +27217
  Dist 4 444,317 474,719 +30,402
  Dist 5 457,183 471,937 +14,754
  Dist 6 429,221 448,635 +19,414
  Dist 7 472,620 495,783 + 21,163
  Dist 8 441,024 456,807 +15,783
  Dist 9 421,656 429,375 +7,719
  Dist 10 488,569 512,223 +23,654
  Dist 11 436,026 456,264 +20,238
  
  Dems were very proactive in registering new voters in the Dem areas (i.e. Dists 18 and 11), but the 9th district had a very small increase in registrations. Again, we can register every voter in the 4th , 5th,, 6th, 7th and 9th districts and still lose due to the heavy amount of voters in the North . So, statewide republican candidates have to appeal to issues of interest to those voters — transportation, educaiton, taxes, jobs. Issues like immigration and Ms 13 and monuments/history are part of our agenda, but can’t be peceived as the BASIS of our agenda.
  - GOTV
    
    See my other post on this thread. Most rural counties have HORRIBLE voter registration numbers. Democrats get every last urban person to the polls, but Republicans don’t even try to get people out to vote in rural areas, they’d rather fight over suburban voters.
    
    In my other post, as an example, Accomack county Accomac precinct (no reason for choosing it, it’s alphabetically first in the state) has 2300 people (approx) of voting age, only 492 of them voted for Gillespie. That’s .. what … 21% ?
    
    We can’t do better than that in a county where the largest town has 530 people in it ? Really ?!??
    
    Rural Virginia should be the focus, not the suburbs. Stop fighting Democrats for Democrat voters and start getting out the conservatives in conservative areas. Democrats want the real Democrat, and it’s time for Republicans to STOP listening to urban consultants who keep telling them they have to be Republican-lite to win elections. The reason they keep saying that is because THEY ARE URBAN PEOPLE AND SHARE THE SAME VALUES AS DEMOCRATS.
    - Ken Reid
      
      i actually discovered that large number of non registered rural voters in Virginia in December 2015 and told the Trump campaign about it. After he got the nomination, us RNC Convention delegates were assured by John Whitbeck that they had a goal to register 60,000 conservative voters, mostly in rural areas. I do not believe they met that target in 2016, but the numbers i provided show increases in the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th from 2016. I dont wish to blame RPV if we dont have the facts, but I gave money to a special fund for voter registration. However, let’s be real. It is very dificult to do voter registration drives in sparsely populated areas, especially in hilly country. Dems always outgun us in the 1st, 3d, 8th and 11th because those districts have heavy concentrations of minority unregistered voters. Is it worth doing? Absolutely but it’s very expensive and again, the payoff might not be that great given the heavy concentration of voters in NoVa, Hampton Roads and the RIchmond area
      - GOTV
        
        Thank you for the thoughtful response.
        
        It would have to be grassroots, no doubt, you can’t pay to advertise to rural areas. It has to be done precinct by precinct by feet on the ground, by caring responsible humans who GOTV. That was the point I was trying to make. I agree you can’t reach them from RNC HQ in (wherever that is, Richmond, Nova, I don’t know but I’m sure it is in the city somewhere …)
        
        Rural people need to pick up the slack on this one. If you are tired of losing to Nova, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
      - Kenneth Reid
        
        I do not disagree with you. More needs to be done to register “the unregistered” in consreevative rural areas and get them to the polls. RPV blew that in the 2016 election when rural white voters had a champion on the ballot – -Donald Trump. But the numbers I provided in the comment above show that there has been an increase in registrations across ALL Congressional Disricts, but again, the DOMINANT voting bloc is Nova, Hampton Roads and Richmond, so I don’t see how much more “blood you can get out of a stone” when the total population totals in these rural areas is so small. Here is the data :
        
        Sept. 2016 Oct. 2017 Net change
        
        District 1 474,718 497,980 +23,262
        Dist. 2 414,382 431,903 +17521
        Dist 3 405,445 432,662 +27217
        Dist 4 444,317 474,719 +30,402
        Dist 5 457,183 471,937 +14,754
        Dist 6 429,221 448,635 +19,414
        Dist 7 472,620 495,783 + 21,163
        Dist 8 441,024 456,807 +15,783
        Dist 9 421,656 429,375 +7,719
        Dist 10 488,569 512,223 +23,654
        Dist 11 436,026 456,264 +20,238
Richard Statman

Thank you for the post.
I would politely say that BD covered Ed Gillespie
On August12 2016 forming “lawmaker policy teams”
Committees ,and subcommittees , posted by Shaun Kenney.
These committees did exactly what ?
Gov. McDonnell and 2009 seem light years from the Republican
and the Charlottesville moment of August 2017.
And the Gillespie campaign responded exactly how?
The BD post is revealing , the photo of Ed Gillespie is telling.
Looks about 20 years younger than the photo header in your post.
My opinion; you have a candidate who seems to have been campaigning
Endlessly since 2014. I think he had enough time to introduce himself
To voters .
Trump, Immigration, Corey Stewart , all point to the candidate
And his CM and others in his campaign .
The thought that he was the right person to run a second time
For statewide office was wrong from the get go.
The emergence of Stewart seems on the face of it , that
Gillespie was the wrong choice for donors , RPV, and voters to make.
My opinion , Stewart and that Huey Long kingfish personna
Is a terrible signal for 2018.
So difficult to believe as Robert Frost said “ two roads diverged in a yello wood..”
And Virginia voter choices were a tired m aging before your eyes Gillespie
Or someone peddling , politely , snake oil , and would like to peddle
It again in a few short months.
The Republican Party in Virginia has some issues to deal with.
Looking to the past , or exit polls , or Trump , is not the way forward.
It is not that I have an answer , I simply feel that the RPV has past
The fork in the road ,into very unchartered territory.
Thanks again for the post.
AMERICANMUSLIM

Ken Reid and anyone who supports Trump is not a conservative:

“It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, and who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican party — the party that for so long has defined itself by belief in those things,” Flake said during his speech.

“It is also clear to me for the moment we have given in or given up on those core principles in favor of the more viscerally satisfying anger and resentment,” Jeff Flake

Amin for people with principal. People who are not party first. But country and principles first.
- John Jones
  
  Trump not a conservative ? I guess you’ve missed the part where he has appointed conservative judges, reduced 100s of federal regulations, supported tax cuts, moved to limit illegals from dangerous parts of the world, pushed keystone pipeline, opening federal lands for more energy independence, the list goes on..True no Russell Kirk, but far better than the Bushes…
  - AMERICANMUSLIM
    
    He would have appointed whatever list he felt would work for maintaining his failing credibility. He had no principles. Do you think he even knows who he had appointed. If a reporter asked him to name 5 people below the supreme Court he had named, do you think he would have been able to? Do you think he could answer basic questions about the Constitution or even pass the citizenship test immigrants have to pass?
    
    Cutting hundreds of regulations is also meaningless. Obama cut hundreds too. Trump has created thousands of regulations. Even Reagan did.
    
    He doesn’t care about anything conservative. He only cares about him.
    - Warmac9999
      
      Thus, the leftist talking point. One thing for sure, he is more Reagan than Obama.
      - AMERICANMUSLIM
        
        Leftist talking point? BS. I am a conservative. A concept you clearly don’t understand if you think anti free trade Trump is more conservative than Obama. See, your idea of conservative is rooted in different things. You are a social conservative. A concept which is filled with cognitive dissonance at the policy level.
      - Warmac9999
        
        So now you expose your previous lies. Obama was an extreme global socialist whose purpose was to bring the USA to its knees – and he did a good job of it. Trump now has a massive damage control mission, and you are afraid of it.
      - AMERICANMUSLIM
        
        Look at this post from Warmac. You see the perfect example of paranoia and distortion. Obama’s purpose was to bring the USA to his knees. If any of you actually believe that literally then you deserve to lose. I think Obama was a terrible president and disagree with almost all his policies. But his PURPOSE was to follow some Global conspiracy?
        
        Folks, until you admit Trump and the warmacs of this party are the PROBLEM, then it will never get better.
        
        I am going to feel very good in 2018 watching the crushing of Republicans and I was one 1.5 years ago. I am going to feel good to see Trump impeached or driven out of office. I am going to allow the leftist stuff I don’t agree with to happen because my calculus is that it is far safer for me and my family to allow them to crush these bigots and push them back into the sewer they were hiding in before Trump. Those people will die off naturally and another generation will come along with less bigotry. Sure the debt will go up. Government power will rise. I hate that. But I hate people who attack my minority and other minorities even more. They threaten me in more than just my pocketbook.
        
        And that is how I feel. The warmacs SCARE us minorities even if we would otherwise love the party. And there are a lot of us minorities. It is scary how many of you republicans don’t see the obvious lies and bigotry. The propaganda. And don’t think for one second there isn’t real impact. The number of attacks on minorities has been rising. The number of deaths by the hands of bigots dramatically rising. Check FBI stats to check. And it has even hit me personally. My mother-in-law was hit by Trumps ridiculous travel ban for a while in that early chaos. Just to visit her grandkids. 70+ years old. Kindest lady you would ever meet. So this became personal after Trump was elected. Not only that but since Trump was running, for the first time, my wife was harassed by some guys at a mall for being Muslim. And one of my kids was called a terrorist by another kid and came home crying. Yeah. This is personal.
        
        Trump was a fluke. He only got past the primary because too many good candiidates divided the vote of good Republicans while Trump captured the old bigoted democrats that moved into our parts in recent decades. Some moved in JUST to vote for Trump.
        
        Why he won the general is complicated but he certainly did not win it well, and has never had a mandate. You either follow the advice of the analysts who suggested a need to expel this bigoted wing from the party and get a big tent of minorities or you will lose worse every year.
        
        Warmac(s) are INSURING strong anti Republican turnout every election. Stop being PC and tell the bigots they are bigots and to stop. Otherwise you will see me and every friend of mine I can bring going to every election and even though we are conservative or libertarian, voting for democrats. To protect our families from the Trump’s and the Warmacs.
      - AMERICANMUSLIM
        
        And read this politico piece thoroughly. You are under the leadership of a true Manchurian Candidate. Can you explain why he NEVER says anything negative about Putin? Open your eyes. You are aiding and abetting one of the greatest treacheries and/or spy games we have ever seen against the United States. Shame on anyone who still supports Trump. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842
      - Warmac9999
        
        I am not surprised at all by any of your comments. As a matter of fact, they are to be expected. However, the truth is there to be seen on a daily basis with violence around the world. For example, Islam is responsible for over 90% of the honor killings. I suspect you will deny that. Just a day or two ago, muslims in Brussels attacked a Christmas market – why a Christmas market I ask. Christian and Jews wouldn’t attack an Islamic market. One final thought, my church has a missionary in Brussels. He says it is not at all uncommon for muslim men to completely abandon their families to the streets because divorce is simply disarming unwanted property, namely women and children.
        
        Are there good muslims? Of course. But the ideology of Islam is totalitarian and anathema to constitutional America. The supremacy of Islam over the Constitution, Christianity, individual freedom, respect for women and children, and individual life is pretty clearly seen in the behavior of muslims in Asia, Arabia, Africa and now much of the Western world. None of this bodes well for the future.
- Warmac9999
  
  As a conservative republican, i still believe in those things when they are legal and in the interest of America first. This conflation of pro-immigration with pro-invasion is something I do not believe in as it is dangerous to the rule of law, the Constitution and to the USA in general.
  - AMERICANMUSLIM
    
    The immigration stuff is just regulation. Our country has a long history of welcoming unlimited immigrants and it works well. Some people called the Irish migrations an invasion. But they eventually assimilated and changed the country. We want the change and positive influenced high levels of immigration bring. It is that melting pot that makes us great.
    - Warmac9999
      
      I suggest that before you open your mouth about immigration to the USA you actually study history a bit. Ellis Island existed for a reason and restriction on Immigration go back well over 150 years. This idea that “you all” come and get on the American welfare system is extremely destructive of the nation.
      
      Western Europe is absolutely collapsing under the weight of the muslim invasion which has not only brought a crime wave but an excessive welfare burden on the European citizenry. France, Germany, the UK and Sweden are literally being overwhelmed as no-go zones are increasing in number, violence, and resistance to the native culture. Tourism is being adversely affected because tourists don’t want to have to run the gauntlet of violence to see the Louvre or Big Ben. Worse, native citizens find their streets, schools, shops, and women quite unsafe – and a government that is incapable of providing or unwilling to provide security. The final straw is that these supposedly socialist democracies punish anyone who speaks about the conditions or tries to arm themselves for protection.
      
      Finally, the immigration stuff isn’t just regulation but it is in legislation/law for a good reason. The fact that Obama refused to enforce the immigration laws is one of the reasons that Trump won. 9/11 did happen and I expect an increasing tempo of Islam inspired attacks via bombs, trucks, acids and knives. What is happening throughout the Western world is instructive regardless of how much you wish to distort the truth or lie about it.
      - AMERICANMUSLIM
        
        So, let’s be clear. Warmac is why the GOP lost. The bigoted and crazy ring if the party that subscribes to anti immigrant and even anti Muslim ideas and rhetoric is destroying the party. The stuff he says above is crazy to anyone who is a Muslim or understands them and the religion or had spent more than a few weeks in Europe. In fact, they are taking points anplifief by Russian bots. Warmac is the useful idiot.
        
        Learn this lesson or don’t. I left the party the day Priebus said that Trump was the presumptive nominee. So did a lot of people who are offended by the rise of bigotry as a force in the party. Incivility and conspiracy crazy talk like that from warmac ruled. I and my fellow Muslims were attacked and lied about again and again. We were heavily Republican prior to Trump. Now as a demo, we are lost because of the endless lies like warmac states above. Sure at the national level we are less than 2 percent. But in Nova we are an important minority demo lost almost 100 percent to the Dems.
        
        Add to that the equally ridiculous attacks on Hispanics and their culture and values that are obvious to anyone not in a “conservative” echo chamber. Stupid allusions to illegal immigrant’s being carriers of crime. Focus on minor problems like MS13 as a proxy of attacking the community.
        
        I will not check in here again. Mainly because I intend, as a conservative, to go back to focusing on defeating any Republican who is not calling for pence to replace Trump immediately. Pence is s conservative. Trump and warmac and the crazy bigoted I’ll who are the descendents of the Democrat invasion of our party in the 70s and 80s need to be different out if the Republicans want to win.
        
        The country is changing. It should. It always has. There is no AGAIN to make America great about. It was always great and will always be great as long as we embrace American values. Inclusion. Fidelity to the Constitution. Welcoming all. The melting pot. Small federal government. Individual responsibility. I could go on with an endless list of positive American values.
        
        What are not in that list is bigotry and irrationality. Go read the nonsense warmac wrote above and the likely comments supporting him below. This is the values conservatives don’t embrace. If you agree with him, then you are living in an echo chamber of messages anplifief by Russian bots. How many false posts that originated from Russia are in your timeline on Facebook. Have you gone back to check against the now exposed accounts?
        
        If you think like warmac, then please leave the GOP. Go start the bigoted party that focuses on the negative and not the positive. A group that focus only on muslim terrorism instead of embracing the good muslims do in America and separating them from the bad guys. A group that focuses on the entirely tiny negative impact of illegal Hispanic immigration while ignoring all the positive that illegal immigrants do for America.
        
        Some of you all just don’t get it. The message to minority groups is lost. All the effort of the past decade to bring people like me and other minorities into the party is lost. You can make whatever argument you want to believe about the facts about Muslims or Hispanics or blacks. You can keep focusing on the negative and not focusing on the positive like Reagan did and you will lose again and again.
        
        Europe is fine. We are fine. The world is fine. Get a clue. Be optimistic.
        
        Trump is the problem. The bigots are the problem. The negativity is the problem. New leadership from Trump down to Whitbeck is needed. The warmac folks need to be handed their tin foil caps and told to go start the negativity and conspiracy party.
        
        Leave the Republican party for conservatives and libertarians. Otherwise it dies.
      - Warmac9999
        
        You are permitted to lie all you wish to advance the cause of Islam. The truth is not islamophobic but to you it must be made into islamophobia in order to advance the cause of an ideology that has done tremendous damage in the modern world.
        
        At some point, and this is what I truly fear, a violent response to the abuses of islam will take place in the Western world. A day or two ago in a suburb of Paris, a group of French officials stood up to a mass of muslims who had taken over a street to “pray”. These officials had enough of the abuse. Enough was enough.
        
        I decided to take on your claims of bigotry and outright lies. What is happening in Europe isn’t Russian bots, it is a daily disaster of increasing destruction. I will not let this go unaddressed in the USA.
      - AMERICANMUSLIM
        
        For the interested reader, everything Warmac just posted about Islam is false. The fact is he has no clue and he IS the perfect example of the problem. You will lose as long as bigots like him play any role in the party. Just briefly, his reference to permission to lie is BS and at best only seen in Shia and even then not simply to “advance” anything, but rather to save a life. I am not Shia. His paris suburb reference is a distortion of a complicated issue which has multiple sides inlcuding land use approval issues common for all kids of religious street events. His quote from Churchil is edited to exclude what he said in that 1899 quote that was positive about Muslims. Go look on the Churchill Foundation website for the correct language. And guess what… Churchill evolved that bigoted thinking a great deal as he went through life. That quote was from 1899, when he was 25 (and as we know in science yet his brain wasn’t even finished maturing). Let’s look at what he said in 1931 (at 57 and much wiser):
        
        “The life of the Mahdi is a romance in miniature and wonderful as that of Mohammed himself. The rebellion of the Sudan was the last great outburst of the blood-red flower of Islam….The black banner of the Mahdi swept the Sudan to the booming of the war trombone made of elephant tusk. The rule of the Saints was established. The Puritans of Islam enforced Prohibition. Smoking was punished as a deadly sin. The Mahdi was a mystic and a visionary….The Mahdi raised himself to dazzling heights by the virtue of poverty and the Holy War,… the ascetic and the Sufi, the Twelfth Imam that was to come, who came and conquered, and wisely went again before he was conquered himself. ”
        
        All on the Churchill foundation website. Warmac frequents an echo chamber of conspiracy and propaganda. Some of it pushed by the Russians. You can see in real time the propaganda data at this website: http://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/
        
        Warmac follows (I am sure unintentionally) Russia’s propaganda towards the right perfectly. They amplified the lies and distortions warmac just posted any chance they could get.
        
        Warmac is a bigot. It is time to stop being PC. If these people are allowed in the GOP unchallenged then the party will lose. Posting endless negative propaganda about Muslims is bigotry.
        
        Note that Ken Reid responded to him, and did not chastise him for posting false information about Muslims, and even seemed to indicate that the MS13 craziness should be promoted. This is the problem. Keep allowing this nonsense and keep losing. In fact, you deserve to lose as long as you continue allowing this stuff to go unchallenged.
        
        Warmac is at best a useful idiot to the bad guys or one of the bad guys himself.
      - Warmac9999
        
        Well, if everything I posted is a lie, then why have you essentially agreed with it. The relationship between Taqiya and infidels is rather interesting, and I suggest some who read this site actually look at the various definitions of it. As far as the Paris situation, that has been in the news and can easily be researched. The quote from Churchill’s book River Wars has been considered to be correct by none other than Snopes who isn’t exactly friendly to conservatives.
      - AMERICANMUSLIM
        
        For those who still are unwilling to stop Warmac and his clear bigotry by calling him out, understand that he represents a threat to our nation. He and his kind always have. They are intolerant propagandists steeped in such hate for something (in his case Islam) that they are incapable of understanding the balance of one thing vs another. He quotes again Churchill from his youth and ignores that Churchill obviously grew up. Unlike Warmac. He refuses to have a discussion with Muslims or look at what they actually say to each other because he thinks he will be suppressed by listening to another POV.
        
        In his mind Islam is ONE thing with one character (and that is bad) and the Christian and Western World is a complex melange of things that he will concede include the bad, but he will recognize how much good there is in the West. He will accept one sided negative propaganda about Muslims and then give his fellows a pass. Was Hitler bad? Sure, he will say. But he wasn’t christian. He was an aberration. He knows all Germans aren’t like that. But Muslims? No. In his mind they follow only one form of Islam. The one that the radical preachers teach to terrorists. That MUST be the right one. That is why he will only watch THEIR crazy videos and not seek out videos from mainstream Muslim leaders in America or elsewhere.
        
        Warmac is not engaging in critique. Heck, I and many Muslims are happy to critique particular things in Islam and to engage in discussions where there is a back and forth, based on fact, of various situations or ideas. He has some idea that we are all extremists who will defend anything Muslim like he will attack it.
        
        Warmac, there are Muslims who do bad things and for no good reason. There are too many Muslims willing to engage in violence. There should be less. In some parts of the Islamic world there are cultural norms I find abhorrent regarding – for example – gays or women. But I know that Muslims are overwhelmingly good people who abhor these things also and that almost every Muslim I have ever met is against those bad people and practices and are STILL good Muslims. You will never engage in a reasoned discussion on Islam. You refuse to listen to me or anyone but the sites that make you feel comfortable with your hate. You call “Taqiyya” and that is the end of the conversation. Nothing anyone says that is positive can be accepted by you. You are… a bigot…. plain and simple.
        
        More importantly, look at Warmac’s posts and the horrifying retweets by Donald Trump this morning and you will understand that I view Warmac as a DIRECT threat to my family. Donald Trump as well. I don’t care if Elizabeth Warren is in office (and I am a conservative) as long as people like Warmac are put back in the hole they crawled out of when they managed to get past a clearly mentally ill man into the presidency. The danger is real. Muslims are really and actually getting attacked and killed and bullied in the United States. Innocent people. Children. Sometimes they are not even Muslims, but they just “look” Muslim to the Warmacs. My family has been harassed in the last year for the first time in decades. Just last week my son told me that kids at his Loudoun County school in the gym were gathering around a couple Muslim kids (including him) and pretending to blow themselves up while saying AllahuAkbar. These were all white kids. The teacher stepped in and made them stop. My child was a bit scared after that. He is asking me why they are doing this to him. I assured him kids are idiots sometimes and that he should just ignore them. Even after 9/11 nothing negative happened to us personally. I have had enough. I have been forced to make plans to flee with my family if things get too bad here in the country I and every member of my immediate family was born in.
        
        And to put a political point on it, since too many Republicans are unwilling to consistently attack the bigotry in their ranks, I am forced – for the safety of my family – to work as hard as I can to now elect the democrats I have never voted for before, because even if they want idiotic economic policies, they will not stand for Warmac’s unchallenged. You are literally driving minorities away in huge numbers because they fear what Republicans mean for their families. Nobody will care about Obamacare or the budget or anything else when their family is being harassed by people inspired by Republican leaders and members who go unchallenged. I will align with socialist, communists, or anyone else because my hierarchy of priorities does not put tax reform above civility and safety.
        
        Jeff Flake is right. Good conservatives are right. The Republicans are lost. Conservatism is gone for a generation at least in the wake of Donald Trump. The left will get so many votes from people like me and the others who are being unnecessarily threatened that they will hold control for a long time. It will take a generation to forget the Donald Trump connection to Republicans and this era where the bigots rose and destroyed any sense of Conservative agenda.
        
        Wake up. Stop the bleeding that Warmac represents before you are completely destroyed by the decent people who recoil from the insanity that is plaguing you openly now. Don’t stand by. I remember the early TEA party rallies I was so proud to be a part of. People shouted down and pressured people to remove signs or symbols of bigotry. I was never prouder to be a Republican. Now, these people run the party and too few are willing to challenge.
        
        Make me want to be a Repubican again. Don’t make me be a conservative forced to vote for socialists. This is how insane you have made this world.
      - Ken Reid
        
        you dont think i agree with you? I do. However, what can Ed Gillespie do about illegals if the feds arent cooperating and should MS 13 and gangs be part of TV ads in a campaign for governor? I would submit that the proper way for him to have handled that was through targeted direct mail. Once elected, take it head on.
      - Warmac9999
        
        There are something like 60 million immigrants impacting the USA with a population of 330 million. It is difficult to know which of the immigrants actually support the idea of being Americans and which only come here to live off the welfare state. The numbers aren’t good.
        
        So, when you go after MS-13, even though that should be good politics, you end up crosswise with the larger illegal and even legal hispanic community. I note the ad showing a Gillespie redneck supposedly running down a bunch of immigrants.
        
        This problem of illegal immigrants and supposed refugees was a result of Obama’s global socialist agenda which was a direct opposite of Trump’s MAGA agenda. Obama had 8 years to damage America and it will take a long time to repair the damage. The left has clearly used the Obama years to attack Christians and white conservatives and have been emboldened to use such phrases as white privilege and white supremacy as an excuse for any grievance. Even in this thread of comments, we see the finger of bigotry directed at a comment that was simply factual.
      - AMERICANMUSLIM
        
        Except it is not factual. That is why it is bigotry. Go ask a Muslim directly. Go to the nearest Imam and ask questions. Go look at the many English language Islamic websites. It is no more factual than the people saying a Catholic is loyal only to the pope and thus cannot support the constitution.
        
        If you want to continue to ignore bigotry in your midst or pretend that the stuff warmac says is “facts” then you deserve every loss. You deserve every person who could have been a loyal Republican moving into the independent column and voting to defeat your party. I certainly am going to do everything I can to defeat Republicans for now, because they represent the greatest danger to the country. They are not stopping Trump. They are infused with crazies like Warmac who spout Russian propaganda, and they are alienating the majority of America.
        
        Virginia is only the beginning boys and girls. If you keep allowing the warmacs to be a part of your party we will crush you just like we crushed the Nazis and the democrats when they were bigots.
      - Warmac9999
        
        Why would I go to any Islamic sites or talk to any Imam? Obviously, their intent is to make the best case for Islam and to suppress the ideas that are critical of Islam. Personally, I had no concerns about Islam until 9/11 – and then I started studying the history, nature and problems associated with Islam.
        
        I study Islam’s impact on the world every day and aren’t about to fall into the trap of excusing behaviors that are uncivilized simply because you can conveniently yell “Islamophobic” whenever confronted. If you really wanted to get me to be less “bigoted” (to use your language), then go after the really bad guys and gals within your communities rather than trying to excuse or be silent about the significance of the problems within the Islamic community.
GOTV

Want to win ?

Do you know what precinct you are in ?

Do you know how many people voted in your precinct in the past few elections ?

Do you know how many of those people voted for your favorite candidates ?

Do you know how many people in your precinct did not vote ?

Do you have a plan to GET OUT THE VOTE in the next election ?

Or … do you just want to sit around and talk about it on The Bull Elephant ?

Following is a link to the Commonwealth’s voting history by precinct since 2005. Find your precinct, figure out how its voting, and DO SOMETHING to get conservative voters to the polls.

https://apps.elections.virginia.gov/SBE_CSV/ELECTIONS/ELECTIONRESULTS/
- GOTV
  
  For example .. if you are a Libertarian and you vote in Accomac precinct in Accomack county, your precinct has approximately 3060 people in it. 75% of those are over the age of 18, so that’s about 2300 people of voting age.
  
  How many of those 2300 voted for Hyra in 2017 ?
  
  Answer: 4
  
  Four people voted for Hyra out of 2300.
  
  Could you have made it 8, or 12, or 16 people ?
  
  What about Republicans, if you vote in that precinct and you are a Republican, how many people out of 2300 voted for Gillespie ?
  
  Answer: 460
  
  460 people out of 2300 potential voters chose to vote for Gillespie.
  
  What if you doubled it to 920 ?
  
  What if that happened in every precinct ?
  - Edward N Virginia
    
    Well done. BUT …. it is the relative trust in the alternative candidates that matters, doesn’t it. It you DOUBLED ‘trust’ in Gillespie or Gillespie’s message to 920 but a greater number ‘trusted’ another candidate or message … you lose! Or, if a great number MIS-trusted Gillespie or Gillespie’s message you lose. In Virginia a FAR GREATER number MIS-trusted Gillespie and his message, and the other top candidates and their messages. The HIDEOUS performance of the White House – Trump and all! – not finding an acceptable plan to replace ACA – AS HE PROMISED, that ALL AMERICANS – ALL, EACH AND EVERY! – with love it – the ENDLESS LYING!, the ENDLESS BULLYING!, the ENDLESS playing games with RACISM!, hiring TRAITORS – Flynn, etc – ….
mezurak

I don’t know why you blame Trump. He has given GOPe everything they wanted including a path to a tax increase on the middle class. The Dems should be absolutely giddy come the next election cycle. Guess it just more convenient to point the finger at the populist, “nativist”, just average American voterswho want a change of direction in our leadership. But every scheme needs a fall guy in banana republic politics.
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Yes, it was about Trump – but also GOP failure to change the campaign’s focus

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