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The Democratic Unraveling Began With Schools — Republican Glenn Youngkin's victory in Tuesday's Virginia gubernatorial election was about schools. It wasn't about Donald Trump, or inflation, or defunding the police, or Medicare for All, or President Joe Biden's infrastructure agenda.
Discussion:
The Hill, Townhall, The Federalist, Bloomberg and CNN
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Takeaways from Tuesday's elections: Bad omens for Democrats — The off-year elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey tend to receive outsize attention, and the results are mined for deeper meaning about what they portend for the midterm elections the following year that determine which party controls Congress.


Shocker in New Jersey: Governor's race a nail-biter — New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli were locked in a neck-and-neck battle Tuesday night, with the outcome too close to call in a race Democrats had long been confident about.


Virginia Results: Giving Up on Rural America Is Proving a Nightmare for Democrats — Margins matter. — About a year ago I wrote about the big “trade” that had taken place in our politics. Democrats were picking up former Republican “red dogs” who live in the suburbs.


How McAuliffe Lost Virginia — An uninspiring candidate with no big ideas and terrible messaging. — Going into the 2021 gubernatorial election in Virginia, a state that Joe Biden won by ten points, former governor Terry McAuliffe likely reasoned that he had a good chance of repeating his remarkable feat from eight years earlier:
Discussion:
Virginia Mercury, Washington Post, Associated Press, CNN, Mother Jones and Washington Examiner


Virginia Election Results — Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime fixture in the national Democratic Party, is seeking a new term in a race widely viewed as a bellwether for the midterm elections. His opponent, Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity executive, has made hot-button cultural issues central to his campaign.
Discussion:
The American Independent, No More Mister Nice Blog, CNN, Alternet.org, Forbes, Slate, Variety, Breitbart, Rolling Stone, Fox News and The Guardian


POLITICO Playbook: Let the Democratic freakout begin — DRIVING THE DAY — THE NAIL BITER — New Jersey's gubernatorial race is still too close to call as you wake up this morning. With 88% of the expected vote in, incumbent PHIL MURPHY is trailing Republican JACK CIATTARELLI by just over 1,000 votes.
Discussion:
Washington Post, New York Post, New York Magazine, Fox News, The Daily Beast, ABC News and Instapundit


Trump gloats as Virginia results come in — Former President Trump is gloating over Republican Glenn Youngkin's lead in the Virginia governor's race as results continue to trickle in. — In a statement Tuesday night, Trump said he didn't even have to rally for Youngkin in the Virginia governor's race …


A deserved Democratic defeat and Republican victory
Discussion:
Persuasion, New York Magazine, CBS News, Los Angeles Times and Associated Press

What Youngkin's Win in the Virginia Governor Race Means for Democrats
Discussion:
Washington Post, Bloomberg, NBC News and The American Independent

Another American Revolution in Virginia
Discussion:
Ace of Spades HQ

Glenn Youngkin's Journey From the Heights of Finance to the Top Tier of G.O.P. Politics
Discussion:
Washington Post, New Republic, Forbes and Jewish Telegraphic Agency

5 takeaways from Republicans' big win in Virginia and the shocker in New Jersey
Discussion:
Newsweek, ABC News, NBC News, Washington Post, National Review, Vanity Fair, HuffPost, The Atlantic and The Hill


Eric Adams's Victory Tour Is Underway — The last day of a 15-month long race for mayor of New York was not boring, even the outcome of the contest was not in doubt. Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee, made his final public appearance on a radio show — in this case, one hosted …
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We Staked Out Eric Adams's House in Brooklyn And he came home. Twice!
Discussion:
City & State New York, Insider and New York Post

Incoming pro-cop NYC Mayor promises a more “business-friendly environment”
Discussion:
New York Post

NYC mayoral election: Democrat Eric Adams soundly defeats Republican Curtis Sliwa
Discussion:
NBC News, Bloomberg, New York Daily News, The Guardian, Townhall, Politico, Washington Examiner, New York Post, ABC News and Deadline


Trump campaign payments for ‘command centers’ at D.C. hotels could undermine executive privilege claim in Jan. 6 investigation — It was a month after the 2020 presidential election, and Bernard Kerik was starting to panic. The former New York City police chief and his friend Rudolph W. Giuliani …
Discussion:
Raw Story and Crooks and Liars


Why hundreds of QAnon supporters showed up in Dallas, expecting JFK Jr.'s return — In rainy Dallas with temperatures dipping into the low 60s, hundreds huddled with umbrellas, flags and signs to wait for history to be made on Tuesday. Some even brought folding chairs.
Discussion:
Insider, Raw Story, Althouse, Digby's Hullabaloo, Slate, Mediaite and Metro.co.uk
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On the Ground With the QAnon Believers Who Flocked to Dallas for the Grand Return of JFK Jr. — Though the Kennedy scion failed to appear at Dealey Plaza this afternoon, some are hopeful he might make an appearance at a Rolling Stones concert later — DALLAS — QAnon true believers gathered en masse …


Cincinnati elects its first Asian American mayor, Aftab Pureval — Aftab Pureval won Cincinnati's race for mayor on Tuesday, according to unofficial results, making the 39-year-old lawyer the first Asian American elected to lead the city. — Pureval defeated David Mann …
Discussion:
WXIX-TV, Associated Press, WVXU and emptywheel
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Boston elects Wu, first woman and Asian American as mayor
Discussion:
Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, NBC News and NBC Boston


House GOP campaign arm expands target list after brutal night for Dems — The National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee expanded its offensive target list on Wednesday morning following Democrat Terry McAuliffe's loss in Virginia's gubernatorial contest and a must closer …
Discussion:
Washington Times, National Review, Real Clear Politics, Daily Kos and ABC7
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NRCC Expands Offensive Map, Announces 13 New Targets
Discussion:
Fox News and The Daily Caller


Dem disaster: Did they lose ... *New Jersey*? — Joe Biden won New Jersey by sixteen points one year ago. Polls had incumbent Democrat governor Phil Murphy ahead outside the margin of error. Challenger Jack Ciattarelli jumped out to a lead in early vote counting, but everyone knew Murphy …
Discussion:
CNN, Fox News and Washington Post
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The Threat From the Anti-Woke Right — America is confronting two powerful illiberal movements. Where you stand on their relative threats depends on where you live. … Late last week, my friends Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt published an important piece in the online journal Persuasion that contained a startling statistic.
Discussion:
New York Times and The Dispatch


Trump urges judge to slow down Jan. 6 investigators' access to records — Former President Donald Trump is pleading with a federal judge in Washington to slow down the Jan. 6 committee's effort to obtain his White House records, instead asking her to order a document-by-document review that could take months.
Discussion:
HuffPost, CNN, Insider, Alternet.org and Lawfare
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Widespread Coronavirus Infection Found in Iowa Deer, New Study Says — The analysis by Penn State and Iowa researchers strongly indicates that deer are getting the virus from humans, worrying experts about a deep wild reservoir for the virus. — A new study of hundreds of white-tailed deer infected …
Discussion:
bioRxiv and New York Post


Trump's Odds of Escaping Criminal Charges in Georgia Do Not Look Good — Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger confirms the ex-president threatened him over the 2020 election results while demanding he magically come up with enough votes to beat Biden.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Fox News, Raw Story and The Hill


Facebook's Only Logic is Its Own Power — At the ongoing Web Summit in Lisbon, former British politician Nick Clegg, Facebook's (now Meta's) vice president of global affairs and communications, spoke Tuesday about his company's role in propagating extremism and harmful content.


Byron Brown's write-in gambit apparently worked — The former state Democratic Party chair worked with the GOP to seemingly defeat socialist India Walton. — Byron Brown at his election night party on Nov. 2. — When India Walton won the June Democratic mayoral primary for Buffalo mayor …
Discussion:
Democrat and Chronicle, Buffalo News, WIVB-TV, New York Post, Forbes and Washington Examiner


Tucker Carlson's ‘Patriot Purge’ Is Too Crazy to Believe — and Too Dangerous to Ignore — The Fox News host's series on the Jan. 6 insurrection is a piece of fascist propaganda that wouldn't be out of place in 1930s Berlin — Patriot Purge, Tucker Carlson's new three-part series …