President Joe Biden apparently forgot former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) broke a long-running trend of gubernatorial candidates losing in the state when their party controlled the White House eight years ago.
Speaking to reporters after Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated McAuliffe in the race for the statehouse, Biden said, “I was talking to Terry to congratulate him today. He got 600,000 more votes than any Democrat has ever gotten.”
“And no governor, in Virginia, has ever won when he or she is of the same party of the president,” he added.
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However, just eight years ago a gubernatorial candidate did win when the president was of the same party.
In 2013, McAuliffe defeated Republican Ken Cuccinelli 48% to 45.5%. That came just a year after then-President Barack Obama (D) won reelection with Biden as his vice president.
As NPR reported, his victory that year was the first time a gubernatorial candidate won when their party controlled the White House since 1977.
Four years later, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) defeated his Republican contender while former President Donald Trump was in office.
And on Tuesday, Youngkin beat McAuliffe and became the first Republican to win statewide since 2009, as IJR reported.
Biden was asked if he accepts any responsibility for McAuliffe’s loss. He responded by saying he was “not sure” any “very conservative” voters would have been won over if Congress passed his domestic agenda ahead of the election.