Winners
- Abigail Spanberger – the former congresswoman ran a virtually mistake free campaign. Smart, disciplined, and organized Spanberger ran up the margin of victory through an onslaught of TV ads and message consistency. In a sea of chaos, she offered boring but good. Suburban voters like that and Virginia suburban voters can’t stand Donald Trump. See lessons below. Spanberger made history as the first female governor in Virginia and she has a real opportunity to be one of the best given all the challenges ahead. If her campaign is an indication of her upcoming fast four year term, Spanberger should over perform expectations.
- House Speaker Don Scott – wow – the onslaught of commercials by House Democrats was impressive was due to the fundraising prowess of the Speaker. Those ads also mirrored the messaging of Spanberger. No wonder Democrats won swing voters almost 80/20 which piled up 13 new House Democrats. That makes 64 out of 100. Speaker Scott looks to be in firm control of the Virginia House well into the next decade. Savvy, pragmatic, and strategic. Now that’s a trifecta.
- Affordability – what’s President Trump focusing on this week? Affordability. When state and city campaign themes change messaging in the White House? Yeah, that’s called Winning. His ideas are unaffordable – tariffs, tariff rebates, and pressuring the Fed to cut interest rates (shhh.. don’t tell Heritage), but will Democrat ideas be any better?
Republicans in the midterms better be praying that the Supreme Court tosses Trump’s tariffs. And don’t get me started on 50 year mortgages…Alex, I’ll take Dumb and Dumber for $800, please. - Legislative Black Caucus – a DOMINANT force in the Democratic Party whose power grew by leaps and bounds through fundraising and electoral successes. Force = Mass x Acceleration. The LBC is a FORCE in Virginia and will be.
- State Senator Ghazala Hashmi – Never debated her opponent and still won Lt. Governor by over 10 points.
- Former Delegate Jay Jones – overcame his self made storm and won the Attorney General’s race by almost 7 points.
- Pollster Chaz Nuttycombe – Dial up an award for the Most Accurate Pollster and drop it off it at State Navigate. Nuttycombe called it throughout the cycle accurately and blew the doors off the academic pollsters. There really should be some regulations drawn up to mitigate the mistakes and likely intentional falsehoods that permeate public polling. Amanda Iovino also gets a gold star on the forehead for her internal polling which lined up with Nuttycombe’s. Everyone else can go pound sand. Obviously, Democratic campaign pollsters are winners here, too. See Spanberger above.
- Politics 101:
Campaigns with the fewest mistakes usually win.
Sales growth (fundraising) covers a multitude of sins (h/t Grandpa Brown)
Staying the EFF on message is Job #1 on growing sales.
It’s still the economy.
Government shut downs NEVER work – especially in Virginia. Ask Ken Cuccinelli.
You are never OUT SPENT – you are OUT RAISED. That means you were OUT WORKED.
More money means more ads means more ad impressions. It’s just math.
Don’t wear hats and scream at hecklers. - Econ 101:
Still undefeated after all these years, Econ 101 is grounded in Supply and Demand. Things are unaffordable because Demand is ahead of Supply – especially on Housing. I warned of housing costs back in the 2023 legislative cycle and it has only gotten worse. Apartments are but a band aid and policy makers had better get ahead on one of the primary elements to the American Dream – owning your own home. - Local Governments – the real battle ahead is not going to be between Democrats and Republicans, it will be State vs Local decision making. From energy supply and delivery to housing construction to education policy to tax policy, Local Governments are going to be final deciders. In the battle between Abundance & Affordable (YIMBY) vs. No Thank You (NIMBY), take the NIMBYs to cover. Until the connection is made between Supply and Demand with folks voting in favor of lowering costs vs. direct subsidies, this will only get worse. #BoomersVsGenX/Z/Millennials.
[Editor’s Note: Chris Saxman is the Executive Director of Virginia FREE a non-partisan, non-profit established in 1988 that informs the business community in order to advance free enterprise and responsible, pro-business government. We published the winners section. Readers can continue with the entire article by visiting the following Virginia FREE website click here]
