1 - Messaging - From the start, the Republicant messaging in Virginia was non-stop CRT and "the government is going to tell you what your kids are going to learn", and "the Democrats are going to defund the police". This racist air raid siren messaging resulted in most of the Democratic messaging being drowned out and what was seen was more about countering the R's racist messaging and not enough about communicating what the party will accomplish over the next 4 years. This messaging gap was identified by Abigail Spanberger after last year's Congressional losses, and this issue needs to be addressed here and elsewhere not only by state Democratic Parties, but the National Democratic Party.
Since the CRT message worked in Virginia, look for the National Republicant Party to continue to weaponize this "issue" across the country in next year's midterms.
2. Turnout - We as Democrats need to continue to push GOTV. Looking at the return numbers, those efforts did not end up in the result we wanted. Just looking at the numbers, there were more voters participating than in 2017, but if you compare them to how they voted in last year's general election. Trumpkin trailed tRump's numbers by less than 300K. McAuliff's numbers trailed Biden's numbers by almost 600K. I know I'm preaching to the choir here as most, if not all active DU members vote in every election, even in states where the Republicants have been dominant for decades like Florida and Texas. What needs to happen is the Democratic party needs to figure out how to energize what I refer to as the "4-year Democrats" who only go to the polls for the Presidential races.
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