in VA. Certainly Virginia Democrats have to be disheartened, and should certainly be wary of culture warriors. They did a poor job of debunking concerns over Critical Race Theory. They can't keep losing PR battles.

But that didn't happen in a vacuum. McAuliffe also ran a pretty lousy campaign, and spent his entire campaign running against Trump rather than against Youngkin. He got caught in unsavory sound bites(he wasn't necessarily wrong, it just didn't sound good) as did Youngkin. The difference was, Youngkin's campaign was smart enough to really push those soundbites, and McAuliffe's campaign wasn't.

The message is clear, Democrats in purple states cannot simply run an Anti-Trump campaign and expect to win. But, it also seems to be true that Republicans in purple states do better off distancing themselves from Trump rather than embracing him. Seems like NJ and VA Republicans benefitted from emphasizing to voters that Trump wasn't on the ballot. Will that be a more prevalent strategy for Republicans in purple states moving forward? What happens when Trump is on the ballot?

Seems like the biggest loser last night might have been Trump. It appears that voters are not necessarily rejecting Republican policies or ideologies, they're rejecting him. When he isn't on the ballot, Republicans do better. At any rate, he needs people to continue talking about him to stay relevant and influential. Clearly, in purple states at least, its better for both sides to talk less about Trump.