The Republicans of Virginia tumble – and they have no one who blames themselves

When Virginia voters chose businessman Glenn Youngkin in 2021, the Republican's victory of the Republican's victory in the entire Commonwealth and even Youngkin as future presidential candidates derailed democratic profits.

Less than four years later, the Republican party of Virginia is standing thanks to an explosive scandal that accepts the party for the governor Leutnant and the astonishing decision by Youngkin, Donald Trump's comprehensive layoffs of federal workers, shortly before the disaster, although the state houses over 340,000 federal workers. Few Virginians talk about a future President Youngkin more seriously.

The governor's problems are another memory that today's Maga-Fied Republicans have completely forgotten, despite the game of the serious leaders, as you go on ruled-how they do their own bad behavior police. Youngkins GOP switches off the voters with the thousands and increases hopes for a democratic blowout in nationwide elections in the course of this year.

And Virginia's Republicans are of no fault, except for themselves.

For many Virginians, the scandal, which the candidate of the Lieutenant of GOP, John Reid, is a lack of influence within his own party. At the end of April, he asked Reid privately, Virginia's first openly gay candidate for nationwide office to give up his breed after Republican research claimed to combine Reid with a Tumblr account with pictures of naked men.

Reid not only rejected the governor's request. He published a video on social media in which he denies the allegations. The Republican voters oriented by Trump gathered around Reid and his message of Maga persecution. “The governor has made a big mistake,” asked Reid to get out, Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told a news station in Virginia. “He really stepped in.”

Then, at the end of the last month, Reid Matt Moran, Youngkin's top political strategist, displaced and blackmailed him to push Reid out of the ballot. Moran emphasized the claims and even provided an affidavit an affidavit in which Reid's allegations were contested individually.

Moran's extensive defense hardly lasted a day before the audio recordings damage that showed that Moran had actually done exactly what Reid accused him of. Less than a week later, Moran quietly let his role, which Youngkin's spirit of Virginia Pac led. It was a breathtaking fumbling that Reid's perseverance only hired – and the fractures in the troubled alliance of the party with trumpism emphasized.

“The Lbertarian coalition in the Libertar coalition after Maga evangelik, Tech Bro, also begins to burst at the seams,” said the democratic state Senator Scott Surovell. “Youngkin sees John Reid's alleged parts of pornographic pictures disqualify on an obscure website, but he considers it to be in order to stand in order to be a president who brags sexual assault and was liable for sexual attacks by a jury.”

Reid's enormous popularity among Virginia's Trumpers has many more republican mainstream leaders of the Commonwealth, who have taken care of their political future. Some have already decided to avoid embarrassing potential losses by fully picking out of the process and increasing the hope of the Democrats that they can accommodate legislative seats that once seemed to be impossible.

Todd Gilbert, one of the most powerful republicans in the legislature, has made no secret to try to secure a defined job in the US law firm instead of confronting later this year. Another group of endangered GOP legislators formed the “Lila Caucus”, which tried to distance himself from the extremism of Reid and his Maga allies.

Seven GOP State legislators represent districts that Trump lost in 2024, while another seven in districts of Trump hardly won. In a normal election cycle, Democrats could have difficulty recruiting opponents for these Republicans. This is not the case this year when the Democratic Party in Virginia succeeded in finding candidates for all 100 people. This strategy forces the Republican Party in Virginia to spend more money than expected when the party is involved in a split, demoralizing young Civil War.

If the strategy of the Democrats pays off, it could provide the decisive votes to secure the adoption of three critical changes to the constitution of the state that protect the reproductive rights, restore voting rights for approved criminals and remove the archaic ban of the state for same -sex marriage. As part of Virginia's multi -year change process, if the Democrats hold their razor thin majority in the State House and these invoices can adopt a second time in 2026, the changes would play voters an important role in the elections of the next year.

Reid's presence on the ballot is not only Youngkin's problem, but also threatens to the governor of the governor of the governor and the planned successor, Lt. Governor, winnings, earle sears to tanks. Earle-Sears is currently pursuing her democratic opponent Abigail Spanberger by 7 points, and the survey participants predict that the crack between their conservative Christian basis and Reid, which is gay, could be crucial in order to have exaggerated Spanberger in November.

At the end of the last month, Earle-Sears published an explanation that quoted the Bible and refused to clearly condemn or support Reid's place as its running comrades. “It is [Reid’s] Race and his decision alone to go forward, ”wrote Earle-Sears. Obviously, she sees more risk in crossing Reid than in disappointing youngkin and her own basis.

Other Republican leaders are not as sanguine as Earle. “The governor … has just involved the entire party into a circular shot of shooting,” said Phil Kazmierczak, the former President of the Blockhaus Republican of Hampton Roads. “I think it will damage his legacy.”

For Surovell, the growing divisions of the Virginia GOP are not surprising for a coalition that was thrown together after Trump's first victory in 2016.

Youngkin's case of Grace is a dizzying drop for a man who once hovered as “the Maga-Lite future of the Republican Party”. Instead, Youngkin's time is an effective symbol for the Republican decline of the Trump era is a GOP that no longer believes in shame or accountability. Youngkin ignores his own party and probably leads a huge democratic comeback a year this year. He doesn't talk much about the future. His presence is painful enough.