Reeling From Surprise Losses, Democrats Sound the Alarm for 2022

But DCC Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat from New York, was not questioning the decision.

There is no way Mr. Maloney and the House Republicans can allow Glenn Youngkin to get away with being all things to all people as he did.

The Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey, which combined for a 17-point margin of victory for the GOP, were more shocking, but still not as lopsided as the party’s 2009 losses in the White House and Congress.

In some suburban areas, such as Fairfax County, Virginia, where Mr. McAuliffe won his comeback bid by 30 percentage points, growing division has rooted out Democrats.

These suburban voters, who haven’t changed their minds about Donald Trump, may be impossible to win over for the GOP in the coming year. However, the growing division of the country has two sides, and the massive losses that Democrats suffered in rural Virginia and New Jersey proved that they were in severe danger of losing even more states and districts with sparse populations next year.

Democrats are encouraged by the notion that, despite this year’s legislative squabbles, they will be able to boast of substantial successes in the coming year.

Biden pollster John Anzalone stated, “When we’re talking procedure, we’re losing, but once the process is done, there will be a lot more talk about what we’re doing for actual people.”

But in spite of this, Democrats lost the 2010 midterms despite having an opportunity to promote the Affordable Care Act, in part because they were perceived to be too focused on the economy’s recovery.

Democrats Sound the Alarm for 2022

A diverse group of Democrats, still reeling from a wave of unexpected losses, pleaded with President Biden and his party’s lawmakers to address the quality-of-life issues that plagued their candidates in Tuesday’s elections across the country, from heavily Hispanic San Antonio to the suburbs of Virginia, New Jersey, and New York.

Democrats were expecting a tough battle for governor of Virginia, but they were unprepared for the magnitude of the reaction against their party in important off-year races.

In Virginia, Republicans won all three statewide posts and are expected to win control of the state House of Delegates. In New Jersey, Republicans came close to unseating Governor Phil Murphy, whose re-election had been seen to be safe by officials of both parties.

Some of the less famous races were just as shocking for Democrats: The president of the New Jersey State Senate, Steve Sweeney, was losing ground to a truck driver who conducted a low-budget campaign; a Latino Republican flipped a Democratic seat in South San Antonio; and Democrats were soundly defeated in local contests across Long Island.

Voters were exhausted by the demands of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and unhappy about the rising prices and unavailability of products, as seen by the magnitude of the party’s losses.

Democrats were saved from even larger losses thanks to their strength in cities and several large suburbs, but their electoral coalition showed symptoms of fracturing as voters vented their dissatisfaction with the party in power.

Next year’s Democratic candidates for office, reacting to Tuesday’s results like a wake-up call, warned that their party would lose its congressional majority if Mr. Biden and other party leaders did not address voters’ local complaints.

Conclusion

Representative Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat from Virginia who is in the midst of a tough re-election campaign, said, “We were so willing to take seriously a global pandemic, but we’re not willing to say, ‘Yeah, inflation is a problem, and supply chain is a problem, and we don’t have enough workers in our work force.'” We only like to confess to issues in areas that we control, so we tend to brush over that fact.