Virginia election looks exciting!

I do not live in Virginia but we do end up hearing about what goes on with our neighbors to the north. Virginia is a proper "swing-state" in that they do not always vote red and do not always vote blue. They have a mix of population that makes that state a place where it is always a toss up about who is going to win in any election from president down to city council.

I hate the 2-party system but unfortunately it is a part of life for all of us in the United States as people seem to be too aligned with their team in order to look for candidates that they actually believe in.

Terry McAuliffe (D) is running against Glenn Youngkin (R) and it looks like this race is going to seriously come down to the wire as all polls have the results pegged at around 1%, some even less than that.

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The main factor in this race probably isn't even the two people involved but rather the guy in the middle, which as you know hasn't exactly been killing it in the polls as his popularity just seems to drop further and further every week. He obviously endorsed McAuliffe as did the equally unpopular Kamala Harris, and if I was McAuliffe, I probably would have asked them to "sit this one out." A great deal of the resentment that Virginians that I know have right now isn't even directed at McAuliffe but rather their perception of the failure of the President's administration.

A few years ago would could look at the same situation but in reverse as I don't think many Virginians actually cared or even knew who their governor was, but went to the polls simply to vote against whoever Trump endorsed. Trump has wisely sat this one out until the last minute, perhaps realizing that the animosity against him is very real and that if he were to tour Virginia with Glenn Youngkin that it could actually result in a net negative result.

Something that is a bit dirty that has happened in this election - and is expected because this is politics - is that McAuliffe seems in his speeches to be running against Trump as he talks about the ex-President constantly. Perhaps even more than he talks about the person that he is actually running against. Just a few days ago after facing a lot of criticism for his obsession with Trump, the Democrat tried to talk his way out of it by stating "I'd love to have him (Trump) come in, But you know... this is not about Trump."

Youngkin's group responded in what I thought was a pretty hilarious manner by stating this:

"Terry McAuliffe is backpedaling so hard he could win the Tour de France in reverse."

While I haven't been watching it terribly closely because again, I do not live in Virginia and this race has exactly zero impact on my life, I have found it quite interesting that Virginia's state elections seem to be based on voting for the opposite of who the current President is.

Biden won Virginia in 2020 by around 10% and up until the past 6 months or so, it looked as though he was definitely going to win the race for governor. He has however, seen that lead shrink and shrink as Biden becomes less and less popular and now by all polls, even the ones taken by left-leaning groups, show Youngkin ahead by anywhere from half a percentage point to 4 percent.

I'd love to see Youngkin win this thing but only because McAuliffe appears to be the bigger liar our of the two of them. He has continually lied so much about his opponent that even The Washington Post fact checks him and reports that what he says at rallies is completely false. One of the main things was accusing Youngkin of being an anti-vaxxer... despite the fact that Youngkin is completely vaccinated and is simply calling for it to be up to the individual, not the government, whether or not a person gets the jab. He also lied about there being 1200 children currently in ICU beds in Virginia when the total number of children that have ever been hospitalized with Covid in Virginia since it started is less than 1000.

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The reason why this race could be so interesting is because with a Republican governor, Washington D.C. would right next door to a red state and we could see Virginia have legislation that counters orders passed down by the federal government. Therefore, if you lived in a D.C. suburb, many of which are actually in Virginia, the rules passed down by the federal government might not apply to you unless you cross that line to go to work or shopping in the city.

Sadly, no matter who wins I would be willing to bet that the other side cries foul and some sort of recount ends up happening though, this is the state of the country that I live in now and I think there are some really good reasons for that. Politics has never been as toxic in USA as they are right now and I don't see that situation changing any time soon.