Democratic Women, Black Voters Made the Difference in Virginia

Caption: Maria Houser Conzemius at the Sag Wagon Bar getting ready for a very cold bicycle ride in February 2016.

Democratic pediatric neurologist Ralph Northam beat race-baiting Republican Ed Gillespie in the governor’s race in Virginia. If men were the only people allowed to vote, Gillespie would have won. If blacks were the only people allowed to vote, Northam would have won by a much larger margin, 87% for Northam to 13% for Gillespie. Exit polls showed eight out of 10 blacks voted for Northam. If only women were allowed to vote, Northam would have won by a healthy margin, 79% to 21%. If only people over 45 were allowed to vote, Gillespie would have won. Voters under 45 favored Northam by a wide margin. A large majority of Virginians are worried about health care.

The MSNBC statistics were very interesting, because Virginia is a formerly red state turning into a blue state.

Ed Gillespie should have known better. He knew better than to invite Pres. Trump to campaign with him, but he did hew to Trump’s racist messages as he talked about gangs. He campaigned on retaining Confederate statues and monuments throughout Virginia (many Civil War battles were fought in Virginia). The Charlottesville riot and death of a protester happened in Virginia.

The election is seen as a repudiation of Trump, and of course Trump doesn't like being associated with "losers." He immediately berated Gillespie for not having embraced him and his views, which isn't true. Gillespie didn't embrace Trump personally, though he did run a Trump robocall supporting him through his supporters' phones. (Love those robocalls, don't you?) Gillespie also adhered to Trump's views insofar as Trump's views are bigoted and reactionary. Gillespie's tack to the alt-right was an unprincipled decision and it didn't work.

Socialists and transgender candidates were elected nationwide. The news for Republicans is worse than they possibly could have imagined.

I'm hoping that the good news for Democrats will sweeten the moods of Democratic activists and make us less likely to continue the civil war that's been raging in the Democratic Party since the election of 2016.

For one thing, Bernie Bros need to stop being so damned misogynistic. I'm not the only one who finds "progressive" misogynists a turn-off. Over the last nine presidential elections, women have been far more likely than men to vote for Democratic candidates. Alienate us at your peril. Even Bernie knows that Bernie Bros are a problem.