Is Virginia The Start Of A 'Dump Trump' Movement?

It was supposed to be a close race for governor in Virginia. Republican Ed Gillespie had narrowed Democrat Ralph Northam's lead in the Virginia gubernatorial campaign to just 2 or 3 points prior to election day, according to poll aggregator RealClearPolitics. Gillespie could even win, the pundits said, and Republicans certainly weren't going to lose their majority in the House of Delegates with a massive 66-34 seat lead.

Well, that didn't quite happen. Northam crushed Gillespie by nearly nine points, and the Democrats just scored the largest swing in the Virginia House of Delegates in more than a century, picking up far more seats than even the biggest optimists thought possible.

It's causing everyone to wonder: just a year into his first term, is this the start of America getting ready to say "you're fired" to Trump?

Ever since Trump's upset win over Hillary Clinton a year ago today, the Democratic Party -- completely shut out of power in D.C. -- was looking for something, anything, to suggest that there was light at the end of the tunnel. As Trump appointed various politicians to cabinet positions, it opened up a few safe Republican seats earlier this year to special elections. With polling shockingly close in these races, the Democrats hoped they could score a victory they could hang their hat on -- but came up just short each time.

But there was no mistaking the results in Virginia Tuesday night. It was a clear, decisive, and resounding win for the Democrats. And it's earned the state national attention, with pundits everywhere weighing in to argue that this is more than just state politics.

The same day-after discussions are happening in New Jersey, where something more than Gov. Chris Christie's unpopularity drove voters to the polls on Tuesday. It just had to be President Donald Trump, analysts say. Garden State Democrats won races that they were never expected to win. They also finished close in races they were never expected to be competitive.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, tweeted that the victory was "a backlash to Trump and Trumpism, pure and simple."

It certainly didn't have the feel of a normal statewide election, with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton celebrating the win on Twitter. Joe Biden chimed in to call it a "resounding defeat" of Trump, while the president grumbled that Gillespie didn't embrace him enough.

Virginia also made history by electing Danica Roem over 13-term Republican Bob Marshall Tuesday night for the Prince William County seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. She's the first openly transgender elected official in the state and one of a handful in the nation. Campaign topics between Roem and Marshall were focused on traffic and other local issues. But The Washington Post said the race also contrasted Roem's gender transition with the social conservative who called himself Virginia's "chief homophobe"when he introduced a bill banning transgender bathroom use earlier in the year.

Vulnerable Virginia Republicans are worried about what this election means for them. Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.), said that Tuesday night's Democratic win was a referendum on Trump, claiming that the president's rhetoric was hurting the GOP.

"I think last night was a referendum. I don't think there was any way you could look at it a different way, to be honest with you, and be intellectually consistent," he said Wednesday according to a CNN report.

Former Republican congressman and MSNBC's "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough called the night a "disaster for Republicans."

But not everyone was talking about it. Fox News pundit Sean Hannity, a vocal supporter of President Trump, mentioned the Virginia elections for all of six seconds during his show -- suggesting more than a little bit of discomfort on his part with how things are going.

Also See: On Election Anniversary, Trump Supporters Are Still Hopeful

Image via White House