The voters spoke Tuesday night, and rather than reject Democrat extremism, they embraced it emphatically.
In New Jersey and Virginia, two fake moderates — high-test resume female candidates practically built in a lab by the party establishment, who nonetheless hold to extreme leftist views on social policy — cruised to victory, in line with polls and the expectations of the political elite.
None of the outcomes were surprises, except perhaps one — the Virginia Attorney General race, where Jay Jones, the bloody-minded partisan who was exposed for openly fantasizing about murdering a Republican political opponent and hoping his children died in their mother’s arms, won handily.
Jones’ victory is a vindication of the pro-assassination faction of the radical left.
It turns out you can celebrate your opponents’ deaths, and muse about how great it would be if their children died, too, without any repercussions.
It might even help you prove your bona fides.
You’re a true leftist now, Jay Jones.
The Commonwealth is a long distance from the great Doug Wilder and the old Virginia Way.
Every four years, the off-year elections in Virginia and New Jersey have outsized importance in the minds of the national political class.
Lacking any other data points, they seize on the results in these states as indicators of the national mood.
But the truth is, more often than not, these off-year elections are independent variables, dependent on local battles and priorities, and motivated by backlash against whoever occupies the White House.
The rare exception is 2009, when Bob McDonnell in Virginia and Chris Christie in New Jersey presaged the rising tide of the Tea Party movement to sweep Republicans into office as an offset for President Barack Obama’s overreach.
In other years, national politics and decisions about investment played a decisive role in undermining hopefuls.
Such poor decision-making has been rampant in Virginia, where underfunded Republican candidates have lost elections more narrowly than expected.
And then there is New Jersey, which always seems to be participating in a live-action reenactment of Charlie Brown racing toward Lucy and the football.
Even if there’s some momentum and its candidates lean into charismatic messaging, the state is still even more solidly blue than Virginia.
The real lesson from this one, though, is that Democrats’ strategy worked, and Republicans continue to struggle without Donald Trump atop the ticket.
By Ben Domenech
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Ben Domenech is editor at large of The Spectator and a Fox News contributor.
