Lee Jae-Won/AFLO via ZUMA
Pushback against Donald Trump helped lift Democrats to governorships in the two highest-profile U.S. elections since the 2016 presidential contest. In Virginia, voters by a 2-1 margin said they were casting their ballot to show opposition to Trump rather than support for him. In New Jersey the margin was nearly 3-1. And Trump’s weak approval rating among voters in Virginia, 40 percent, was weaker still in New Jersey, a dismal 34 percent.
Relatedly, a surge in turnout by politically liberal voters boosted Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, as did a broad advantage on health care, which voters by a wide margin identified as the top issue in the vote.
That’s good news. It provides some hope that Republicans will start to realize how bad Trump is for their brand. If Virginia voters opposed Trump by 2-1, it’s quite possible that Republicans would have won if someone else had been in the White House.
I wish Republicans were willing to turn against Trump just on principle, but I’ll take what I can get. America will be a much better place if we can demonstrate once and for all that Trump-style politics has no home here anymore.
