Political mood test
Defeat for Joe Biden: Republican Glenn Youngkin wins gubernatorial election in Virginia
– According to projections, Glenn Youngkin, supported by ex-President Donald Trump, won the election in Virginia © Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / AFP
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They are still only projections, but they are clear and should not please US President Joe Biden: The highly competitive gubernatorial election in Virginia was apparently won by Republican Glenn Youngkin. After all, a Democrat wins the mayoral election in New York.
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Republican Glenn Youngkin has been predicted to win the gubernatorial election in the US state of Virginia, which is considered an important test of sentiment. The Republican was just ahead of US President Joe Biden’s candidate Terry McAuliffe in the vote, according to CNN and NBC TV stations on Wednesday night (local time).
In New York, the Democrat Eric Adams becomes the new mayor. The black ex-police officer won the mayoral election in the US metropolis on Tuesday, according to projections with around 67 percent of the vote, clearly against his rival Curtis Sliwa of the Republicans. The 61-year-old becomes the second African American mayor in New York history.
Virginia: Republican wins with support from Donald Trump
The election in Virginia a year before the congressional elections is being followed closely in the country – for Biden’s Democrats the result is a severe setback. A neck-and-neck race had already emerged before the election, but in the summer the Democrat McAuliffe was still ahead. McAuliffe (64) was governor from 2014 to 2018, Youngkin (54) is a successful businessman. According to the forecasts, Youngkin was now around three percentage points ahead. At the beginning of the election evening, the gap between the two candidates seemed to be significantly larger – but McAuliffe then caught up.
Youngkin was supported in the election campaign by ex-President Donald Trump – even if he publicly distanced himself from him and focused on moderate voters. “Terry is up against a supporter of Donald Trump,” said Biden at a campaign rally in Arlington. In the current elections, the Democrats feared above all that many of their supporters would not vote because Trump is no longer in office as a specter of horror. That is also why they must have tried to make Trump an issue again and again.
The election is seen as a kind of litmus test for Biden, who was elected to the White House a year ago. His approval ratings are worse than ever since he took office. Biden easily won the presidential election in Virginia and New Jersey. The close result of the gubernatorial elections a year before the mid-term elections is a debacle for the Democrats. In the vote next year, your wafer-thin majority in Congress is at stake. Trump’s Republicans then want to regain control in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Biden has long tried unsuccessfully to get two investment packages through Congress. So far, however, he has failed because of wing battles in his own democratic party. However, he did not want to know that his political performance could have an impact on the election result.
The past few months have been marked by numerous setbacks for Biden. In addition to the internal party dispute over Biden’s investment packages, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan also did not make the president look good. The corona pandemic continued to trouble the country – in the summer, the delta variant drove the numbers up. The vaccination against the virus is making slow progress. Biden relies on compulsory vaccination in many areas – a topic that polarizes in the USA. The economic upturn is also sluggish – there are also delivery bottlenecks as a result of the pandemic.
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Mayor of New York: “Second Hardest Job” after President
In New York, however, the 61-year-old Democrat Eric Adams won the mayoral elections. “Tonight I made my dream come true, and with all my heart I will remove the barriers that prevent you from achieving yours,” said Adams after his election victory to celebrating supporters in Brooklyn. Even during his time with the police, the Democrat had campaigned against racism among the security forces.
New York has been a Democratic stronghold for years, so Adams was a big favorite even in the run-up to the election. The number of registered supporters of the Democrats in the US metropolis is seven times as high as that of the Republican supporters. Adams’ rival Sliwa, a right-wing conservative radio host and founder of the Guardian Angels, admitted his defeat shortly after the election.
Adams will take office in January. He succeeds the unpopular Democrat Bill de Blasio, who was not allowed to run again after two terms. The 61-year-old faces major challenges. The mayor’s office in New York City has long been considered the “second toughest job” in the United States after that of the president. The city is suffering from the consequences of the corona pandemic, high levels of poverty and a lack of affordable housing.
The devastating flash floods at the beginning of September with several deaths also made it clear that the city urgently needs to prepare for the effects of climate change. And as in many other US cities, there are calls to reform the police, which have come under criticism for violence against blacks.
Adams can draw on his own experience with the police. Born in poor conditions in Brooklyn as the son of a cleaning lady and a butcher, Adams was himself a police officer for 22 years before he switched to politics. In 1995 he founded an organization of black police officers to fight racism among the security forces.
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