Democrats get another gain besides the Kentucky Governorship….
They get a lock on the top political offices in Virginia…
Election officials reported unusually high turnout in races that served as an opening salvo in next year’s presidential showdown, a test of Democratic defiance and Republican resolve in the era of President Trump.
Democrats consolidated power in Richmond for the first time in a generation, completing the political evolution of a Southern state on Washington’s doorstep from red to blue.
Both U.S. Senators, a majority of the congressional delegation and all three statewide office holders are Democrats and the state went Democratic in the last three presidential elections. Republicans have not won a statewide contest since 2009.
National Democratic organizations and interest groups – from gun control to women’s rights to clean energy – carpeted the state with money, boosting suburban legislative races to the spending level of congressional elections.
Republicans had the less sexy task of trying to prevent the onslaught, arguing that progressives were tugging the Old Dominion too far to the left. GOP candidates in swing districts found themselves in the awkward position of distancing themselves from Trump – who is unpopular in most of Virginia – while trying to paint Democratsas extremists….