It’s the morning after the election, and it’s mourning time for the GOP. For those Republicans living in Donald Trump’s fantasyland, heads up. His coattails are on fire. You want to run in 2018 on the Trump agenda? Voters in New Jersey and Virginia said no thanks, or more likely something not printable here. Republican Ed Gillespie lost to Ralph Northam in the Virginia governors race despite distancing his GOP campaign from the White House. Can you imagine how bad it would have been if Trump campaigned in Virginia?
And it wasn’t just the governorship. In what The Richmond-Times Dispatch called the “tsunami election,” Democrats erased a 32-seat GOP advantage in the Virginia legislature.
A Dem also was elected governor of New Jersey.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall at the Republican National Committee this morning. We guess lots of meetings, naval gazing and finger pointing, no?
But this is bigger than an off-year election. The real story may be those in Congress who have decided to hang it up. Two more GOP representatives announced they’re bowing out next year, making it nearly two dozen Republicans leaving Congress rather than face mid-term Trump tantrums from voters. Less than half a dozen democrats have announced retirements.
Still, it’s a long time until the 2018 election, but make no mistake, last night was a referendum on Donald Trump. And he lost. Bigly.
Ezra Klein at Vox says Trumpism without Trump is toast.