After a crushing defeat for Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor’s race and a New Jersey gubernatorial election that is far too close for comfort for Democrats, it took only hours for different factions of the party to start hurling blame at one another.
“Hopefully progressives will get the wake-up call,” a moderate Democratic source told Fox News Wednesday morning. As it became clear the Virginia race was closer than anticipated, there was mumbling among moderate Democrats that the left wing of the party may be going too far on issues from massive government spending to wokeism in education and other institutions, driving away suburban voters.
The Virginia victory was so jarring for Democrats because it’s a state that President Biden won by 10 percentage points in 2020 and that they believed shifted to become safely blue with the explosion of the northern Virginia suburbs.
The New Jersey gubernatorial race, where incumbent Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy was winning by under 2,000 votes Wednesday morning, also was a major regression for Democrats. Biden won there by 15 percentage points.