Why Republicans did well in the Virginia and New Jersey elections



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Supporters of Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin celebrate during an election night rally at the Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles on Tuesday in Chantilly, Va.

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The result in the Virginia governor’s race Tuesday night highlighted some major shifts in the electorate, according to exit polls. (There were no exit polls in New Jersey.)

The shifts were notable, especially considering that education and how children are taught in schools about racism dominated as a campaign issue.

Overall, the electorate in Virginia was older and whiter than in the 2020 presidential election – both were advantages for Republican Glenn Youngkin.

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Voters between the ages of 18 and 29 were down significantly as a share of the electorate from 2020. Last year, they made up 1 in 5 voters. In this election, they were just 1 in 10.

The biggest shift was among independents, a group that President Biden won last year by 19 points, but Youngkin won by 9.

There were also notable double-digit shifts among women (+17 toward the Republican), white women (+15R), white voters overall (+15R), suburban voters (+14R), whites without college degrees (+28R) and parents with children under 18 living at home (+12R).


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Among those who said parents should have a lot of say in what schools teach, Youngkin won them 76% to 23%, and those voters made up 51% of the electorate.

Youngkin’s expansion with whites without college degrees is remarkable, considering how well Trump did with them. And it underscores that, right now, it is a group that is simply out of reach for Democrats.

Black voters, who are traditionally a backbone of the Democratic Party, made up a slightly lower share of the electorate than they did in 2020. They were 18% of the electorate then and 16% of the electorate in 2021. They also voted at a similar margin for Democrat Terry McAuliffe as they did for President Biden last year.

But while Youngkin was able to ride a fired-up base that went for Youngkin in rural areas in some cases by wider margins than for Trump, McAuliffe wasn’t able to do the same with Black voters.

Latinos and Asian Americans were also down slightly as a share of the electorate, but they voted in wider margins for McAuliffe this year than last. Whites with college degrees were also up 5 points as a share of the electorate and voted by about the same margin for McAuliffe as for Biden.

But the other shifts toward Youngkin more than offset these increases among key Democratic groups.



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