Trump/Musk May Energize Virginia's Elections for Democrats

With its off year state elections in 2025, Virginia will again be in the spotlight and their will be extra attention paid to whether or not state Republicans are punished for the misdeeds of the Felon and congressional Republicans who are sitting with their thumbs up their backsides as the Felon and Elon Musk bludgeon federal agencies and House Republicans seek to slash Medicaid.  Many Virginians are face with loosing their federal jobs, hospitals and MAGA voters in Southwest Virginia in particular could see Medicaid payments slashed and access to healthcare eliminated.   In Hampton Roads with its huge military presence, federal funding cuts that will hit defense contractors as well as servicemembers and upheaval likely to come from alcoholic (in my view) Pete Hegseth's assault on the military could cause further anger at Republicans.  The Felon has never been popular in the educated, urban areas of Virginia and failed to carry the state in both 2016 and 2024.  With economic pain likely being inflicted across various regions of Virginia by the Felon and Musk - the likely Republican gubernatorial candidate (a nut job in my opinion) has said the Felon was sent by god - one can only hope that animosity towards the Felon serves to energize Virginia Democrats and swing voters who opted to back Kamala Harris in 2024.  A piece in Politico looks at the political landscape:

Virginia Democrats have a new message for the tens of thousands of federal workers who will vote in their state elections this fall: Republicans stood by silently as President Donald Trump came for your jobs.

The state’s off-year races are often a bellwether for the national mood a year before the midterms. But they are poised to take on even more significance this November because so many government employees and contractors who live in Northern Virginia are experiencing firsthand the impact of the Trump administration’s attempt to shrink the federal bureaucracy.

For Democrats, who have the thinnest of grips on the House of Delegates and are eagerly seeking to reclaim the governor’s mansion, it may be an opening.

“Of course it’s going to have an impact on the elections of Virginia, because we are seeing put into motion the potential destruction of massive amounts of our economy and of the very work that people have dedicated their lives to on behalf of our country,” said state Del. Dan Helmer, the Democratic campaign chair for the Virginia House of Delegates.

[I]n recent days, they [Democrats] have started to zero in on Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency as a foil, painting the tech mogul as an unelected South African billionaire wreaking chaos on everyday Americans.

At Trump’s behest, Musk has used DOGE as a beachhead to attack the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, USAID and the Department of Education. DOGE has offered buyouts to thousands of federal workers and threatened layoffs to those who don’t take it.

And if Musk and DOGE have given national Democrats an opening to make an argument against Republicans — Musk himself is less popular than Trump, according to recent polling — the Virginia elections may stand as a test case.

The state is home to more than 140,000 federal workers, many of them concentrated in the northernmost counties closest to Washington. And there are even more contractors who work for companies dependent on the funds Musk has sought to “delete.” The state also has some areas deeply entwined with the military and its contractors, such as Hampton Roads, that are likely to be affected by cuts.

Helmer and others are betting voters will decide to take out their frustration at the Republicans controlling the federal government on the Republicans in Richmond.

“Unlike Republicans who are crowing in Washington right now, Republicans in Virginia are almost silent,” Helmer said. “They are not speaking on the floor to Trump’s agenda. They are not celebrating the work that’s being done in Washington. They know in their hearts that this is hurting their constituents.”

Democrats are optimistic, but they have limited room to grow. . . . . Democrats already hold every state House seat in Arlington and Fairfax counties — the areas closest to Washington and most impacted by DOGE.

Still, Hampton Roads has some potentially competitive districts. And then there’s the governor’s race. Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic front-runner, criticized Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in a recent MSNBC interview for his alignment with Trump, while stressing the economic impact of the buyouts and cuts proposed by DOGE.

“The idea that we would have a president and a governor who is standing by as said president says, ‘We’re going to push them out of the workforce?’ I mean, this is a kitchen-table issue in Virginia,” she said.

But Democrats do have history on their side. Virginia voters have been known to punish the party in the White House during off-year elections — and rarely has a White House enacted policies so uniquely targeted toward the Virginia voter.

“It will redound to the benefit of Democrats and the ill of my Republican friends,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who represents Northern Virginia. “I think there will be buyer’s remorse.”

It is crucial that Virginia Democrats retake the governor's mansion and hold both houses of the General Assembly so that can work to lessen the harm the Felon and his regime seek to inflict on everyday Virginians.