Wanted to save this discussion for the weekend crew:
Rural voters from 2021 to 2025 moved more Democratic than the state overall did in Virginia. Even Republicans took notice of what happened in their own backyard.
Spanberger makes inroads with rural Republicans unhappy with Trump
The governor-elect deviated from past Democrats’ strategies by spending time in deep-red rural Virginia.
The result was a rude awakening for some rural-state Republicans, who have long relied on large margins in these deep-red areas. “Last night, honestly, was an awakening for a lot of folks,” said Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.V.) Wednesday. “If you don’t pick up on what really happened last night, the margin of victory … then I think you’re living in a cave.”
Spanberger outperformed Kamala Harris’ margin in 48 of Virginia’s 52 rural localities. And according to exit polling, she won 46 percent of rural voters — an 8-point deficit to Republican rival Winsome Earle-Sears, and a 19-point swing from 2021 Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe’s 27-point disadvantage.
Spanberger, the first woman elected governor in Virginia’s history, deviated from party orthodoxy by spending significant time campaigning in the deep-red rural pockets of the state, even as recently as last week. Her messaging there focused almost exclusively on the economic issues ailing rural America during the first nine months of the Trump administration, including the seismic impact of tariffs and the fallout on rural health care from Medicaid cuts.
How big were Tuesday's Democratic wins in Georgia? As Greg Bluestein writes, the Democrats running for the PSC outperformed Harris’s 2024 vote share in 157 of 159 counties and won so big that they would have won even without the votes from the Atlanta area’s five deep-blue counties. https://www.ajc.com/politics/2025/11/how-georgias-psc-races-are-already-changing-the-midterm-landscape/
Wanted to save this discussion for the weekend crew:
Rural voters from 2021 to 2025 moved more Democratic than the state overall did in Virginia. Even Republicans took notice of what happened in their own backyard.
Free read from Politico: https://archive.ph/4Jst2
Spanberger makes inroads with rural Republicans unhappy with Trump
The governor-elect deviated from past Democrats’ strategies by spending time in deep-red rural Virginia.
The result was a rude awakening for some rural-state Republicans, who have long relied on large margins in these deep-red areas. “Last night, honestly, was an awakening for a lot of folks,” said Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.V.) Wednesday. “If you don’t pick up on what really happened last night, the margin of victory … then I think you’re living in a cave.”
Spanberger outperformed Kamala Harris’ margin in 48 of Virginia’s 52 rural localities. And according to exit polling, she won 46 percent of rural voters — an 8-point deficit to Republican rival Winsome Earle-Sears, and a 19-point swing from 2021 Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe’s 27-point disadvantage.
Spanberger, the first woman elected governor in Virginia’s history, deviated from party orthodoxy by spending significant time campaigning in the deep-red rural pockets of the state, even as recently as last week. Her messaging there focused almost exclusively on the economic issues ailing rural America during the first nine months of the Trump administration, including the seismic impact of tariffs and the fallout on rural health care from Medicaid cuts.