Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) believes Virginia’s gubernatorial election could be a sign of a coming “Republican revolution” in the 2022 midterm elections.
During an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday, Cruz said, “I think Virginia is a very important canary in a coal mine. If you look back to 2009, the last time you had a new Democratic President Barack Obama, who adopted extreme policies, adopted Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, the reaction, Virginia was the first canary in the coal mine that foretold what happened in 2010, which was the Republican revolution where we retook Congress.”
“That was incredibly important, and I see the same dynamic going on,” he added.
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In the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans won control of the House, flipping the largest number of seats in a midterm election since 1938.
In 2009, Republican Virginia gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell won the statehouse, and his victory has been seen as a precursor to Republicans’ victories a year later.
However, Republicans have not won a statewide election in Virginia since 2009, and in the past decade, the state appears to have trended more Democratic.
President Joe Biden carried the state in the 2020 presidential election by 10 points.
Still, FiveThirtyEight’s tracker of polls found the race statistically tied with Glenn Youngkin, the Republican nominee for governor leading his Democratic opponent by .9%. Meanwhile, RealClearPolitics’ average of polls found Youngkin with a 1.7% lead.