US president Joe Biden has refused to take direct responsibility for disappointing showings by the Democrats in governorship elections in Virginia and New Jersey, citing Covid-19 and fuel prices as possible causes for the showings.
Republicans pushed Democrats out of the Virginia governorship and came up just short of an upset in heavily Democratic New Jersey on Wednesday.
The results suggest that candidates from Mr Biden’s party could well find themselves in trouble in next year’s congressional elections.
In Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity executive, defeated former governor Terry McAuliffe. Mr Youngkin had distanced himself just enough from former president Donald Trump to win back moderates who had supported Mr Biden only a year ago.
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In New Jersey, incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy squeaked by Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli, even though registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans there by more than 1 million. The result had been in doubt until the Associated Press called the race for Mr Murphy on Wednesday evening, sparing the Democrats a humiliating defeat.
Mr Ciattarelli (59) had trailed by as much as 10 points in some opinion polls but gained ground by criticising Mr Murphy’s unpopular mask requirements for school children.
Both Republican candidates saw strong gains in the suburbs from independent voters who had been turned off by Mr Trump’s style of politics. The results in states that Mr Biden won easily last year suggest that Democrats’ razor-thin majorities in Congress are highly vulnerable in next year’s elections.
If Republicans gain control of both, or even one, chamber of Congress, the party would be well placed to block Mr Biden’s legislative agenda in the final two years of his term.
Repudiation
The Democratic loss in Virginia gives Mr Trump an opportunity to portray it as a repudiation of Mr Biden as the Republican sets the stage for another possible presidential run in 2024.
Mr Biden, whose approval ratings last week were at the lowest level of his presidency according to a Reuters/Ipsos national poll, avoided taking direct responsibility for the disappointment.
“People are upset and uncertain about a lot of things, from Covid to school to jobs to a whole range of things and the cost of a gallon of gasoline,” he said.
“And so if I’m able to pass and sign into law my Build Back Better initiative, I’m in a position where you’re going to see a lot of things ameliorated, quickly and swiftly.”
The top Democrats in Congress vowed to push ahead on Mr Biden’s legislative agenda, hoping to pass twin bills worth a combined $2.75 trillion to rebuild roads and bridges as well as bolster the social safety net and fight climate change. They have been held up by months of infighting between progressive and moderate Democrats.
Mr Youngkin’s campaign focused on parents’ anger over schools’ handling of Covid-19, as well as teaching on race and gender issues. He walked a fine line on Mr Trump, taking care not to alienate the former president’s hardcore base and not offering a full-throated endorsement of his false claims about widespread election fraud last year.
Mr McAuliffe’s efforts to paint his rival, a former chief executive of the Carlyle Group, as a Trump acolyte fell flat with voters. Republican congressional campaigns may follow Mr Youngkin’s model of focusing on culture wars and promising to give parents more control over public schools.
Left-wing ideas
He and other Republicans latched onto concerns from parents that schools are teaching left-wing ideas to combat racism, at the expense of more traditional subjects.
He vowed to ban the teaching of “critical race theory,” a legal framework that examines how racism shapes US laws and policies and is linked to anti-racism concepts such as “white privilege”. Virginia school officials say critical race theory as a subject is not taught in classrooms.
Republicans also appeared to erase the Democrats’ 10-seat lead in Virginia’s House of Delegates, appearing to gain a 50-50 split or perhaps a one-seat advantage.
In New Jersey, Mr Murphy (64) ran as an unabashed liberal and became the first Democratic governor to win re-election there in four decades. He sought to strike a tone of political unity in brief victory remarks before cheering supporters at an Asbury Park convention hall on Wednesday.
“I renew my promise to you, whether you voted for me or not, to work every single day of the next four years to keep moving us forward,” he said. – Reuters