Glenn Youngkin’s blank-slate strategy to win Virginia’s gubernatorial election ran aground again in Fredericksburg as he couldn’t bring himself to refute the Big Lie – even entertaining the possibility that Donald Trump could still reverse last year’s election.
Youngkin – who refused to acknowledge [1] Biden “was legitimately elected’ until after he’d sewn up the GOP nomination, then pretended he’d said it all along [2] – went back to the base-feeding status quo ante. As reported by HuffPo [3]…
“I don’t know the particulars about how that can happen, because what’s happening in the court system is moving slowly and it’s unclear. And we all know the courts move slowly,” Youngkin said, in response to a question about whether Trump’s reinstatement could help Virginia Republicans [4] claim seats they lost in elections the voter claimed had also been stolen.
In other words, Youngkin is hoping that Republicans don’t remember him acknowledging Biden’s win – and that everyone else in Virginia isn’t paying attention to him disavowing said acknowledgement. It says something about the state of the GOP in Virginia that the closest thing they can think to offer to swing voters is a candidate who tries to come off as only half delusional.
But the delusion is too dangerous for Virginians to empower anyone even with just a partial commitment to the crazy.
Should he manage to win this fall, Governor Part-Time QAnon would take control of every election board in the Commonwealth, while he promises unnamed “reforms” – presumably starting with an Arizona-style fiasco [5].
It hasn’t been a great summer [6] for the Republican nominee. This won’t make it better.
In the meantime, Virginia voters have once again been shown that democracy itself is on the ballot. Terry McAuliffe, for all his many faults, is at least willing to preserve it.
Youngkin?
It’s unclear.