Terry McAuliffe concluded his abysmal Virginia gubernatorial campaign fittingly, with a downtrodden final message.
In a last-gasp fundraising email titled “No Regrets,” the former governor wrote, “I want to wake up Wednesday morning knowing that we did everything in our power to win this race. What I don’t want is to wake up Wednesday with Glenn Youngkin as Governor-elect knowing that there was more we could’ve done.”
More he could have done? Maybe not run an entire campaign on lies, fear, and division?
This Virginia dad BLASTS Terry McAuliffe's "pandering" tactics:
"African Americans are waking up." pic.twitter.com/xk4RdLhbON
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 2, 2021
Even pro-McAuliffe media noticed the campaign’s over-the-top rhetoric, such as calling right-leaning Caucasians racist or pandering to black voters by saying the Commonwealth has too many white teachers.
“In the final hours of campaigning on Monday to become Virginia’s next governor, it was Glenn Youngkin offering an optimistic vision for the future while Terry McAuliffe delivered harsh warnings about ghosts of the past,” the New York Times confessed.
With rising inflation, supply chain woes, slow economic growth, a catastrophe at the southern border, and stalled legislation in Washington, McAuliffe fans will be tempted to blame the disastrous Biden administration, should their candidate lose Tuesday.
And with nearly two-thirds of Americans saying the country is on the wrong track, President Joe Biden is surely not an asset.
But McAuliffe ran a smug, dishonest campaign full of blunders — including one infamous debate gaffe — that led to Youngkin’s autumn surge.
McAuliffe responded not with facts or persuasion, but by lying about the former businessman’s vaccine beliefs and desperately continuing attempts to connect Youngkin to former President Donald Trump.
Perhaps bowing to Twitter mobs, McAuliffe invented a story Monday night. “Guess how Glenn Youngkin is finishing his campaign?” he said at his final rally. “He is doing an event with Donald Trump here in Virginia.”
Nope. The former president wasn’t in Virginia and never campaigned with Youngkin.
Related: As Pence Visits Virginia, Youngkin Widens Lead
Win or lose, Youngkin’s campaign should become a blueprint for all Republicans in 2022.
“If Youngkin wins, every Republican in the country will study his playbook,” Hugh Hewitt concluded in
The Washington Post. “If McAuliffe loses, Democrats will avert their eyes and cover their ears. Just as they did in 2010, to the ruin of their fleeting majorities in both chambers.”
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