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In only 10 months as President of the United States, with his erroneous internal and external policies, Joe Biden managed to turn his electoral victory into a defeat that is spreading in several states of the country.
On Tuesday, November 2, elections were held in 7 U.S. localities, where states such as Virginia became a “thermometer” measuring the political environment. The results reveal the massive discontent against the administration and the Democratic Party.
During the election campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris went so far as to state that “what happens in Virginia will determine, in large part, what happens in 2022, 2024 and beyond”. If this is so, what happened was a major defeat for the Democratic Party and a bad omen for the remainder of the Biden administration.
The discontent against the blue party and Biden’s policies is such that the president won the elections in Virginia with a 10-point lead, and in only 9 months in office, he reversed what had not happened in 10 years, since in the last decade the Democrats dominated that territory.
For the first time in 12 years, the state will be governed by a Republican, Glenn Youngkin, who defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe by less than three points. In addition, the Republican Party won the remaining contested seats: Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and all 100 members of the House of Delegates to the General Assembly.
But Virginia is not the only state that turned its back on Biden and the Democratic Party. New Jersey, which also had an election day, swung from endorsing the president to making the results so close between the two gubernatorial candidates that the winner is still undecided.
The closeness of the New Jersey count alone is a bucket of cold water for Biden since, along with Virginia, it was supposed to be a plebiscite on the first months of his mandate. In New Jersey, the polls gave the Democratic candidate, Phil Murphy, a wide double-digit lead that was eventually cut short.
Another blow to the Democratic Party was seen in Minnesota, where voters in Minneapolis said “no” to the intent to reorganize the state police. The initiative which was led by Democrat Ilhan Omar was rejected by a majority of voters (56 %).
Joe Biden’s defeat is not surprising
A report by the Associated Press news agency last Wednesday, October 27, noted that the McAuliffe Democrat’s team in Virginia is concerned about Biden’s “weakened position among voters”.
The president, who has only been in the White House for 10 months, faces serious crises that he has not yet been able to resolve: the improvised withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the massive increase in illegal immigrants, the unpopular mandate for obligatory vaccinations and a disastrous foreign policy in which he has turned his back on his greatest allies. These are all factors that have caused Biden’s approval rating to be in the doldrums.
An October 11 poll by the web portal specialized in opinion polls FiveThirtyEight revealed that 49.2% of the surveyed voters disapproved of Biden’s handling of the presidency.
Likewise, a Quinnipiac poll published on October 6 revealed that the majority of Americans disapprove of Biden in all areas of his administration and describe him as “incompetent.”
All this indicates that the electoral results, where the Republican Party is gaining strength, are the mirror of a massive dissatisfaction with a weakening Democratic administration. In fact, for Republicans, a Glenn Youngkin victory in Virginia would be a burst of confidence and a roadmap to break through before the 2022 midterm elections, which will decide control of Congress and dozens of state capitals.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo