What Do Dems' 2023 Election Wins Mean for 2024?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Following a string of 2023 election victories for Democrats, media voices considered the implications for how the Republican and Democratic parties will approach 2024.
‘Seemed to stiffen Democrats’ spines’: MSNBC (Left bias) commentator Paul Waldman argued that the results “vindicate” Democrats’ focus on abortion rights and showed that Democrats “need not cower and apologize when Republicans trot out familiar attacks about criminals running amok and ‘wokeness’ in schools.” Waldman said Virginia Republicans cast themselves as moderates on abortion, but “there simply was no middle ground to stake out.”
‘Don’t Panic’: National Review (Opinion rated Right) writer Jim Geraghty said that while the results were “ominous for the GOP,” they were “not reason for panic.” Geraghty argued that Tuesday’s elections were local, and thus could not be tied strongly to national politics: “How much were voters thinking about Biden when selecting a governor in Kentucky or state legislators in Virginia or New Jersey?”
Read about the election results in our Headline Roundup.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Right
Yet Another Disappointing Election Night for RepublicansOn the menu today: Are you tired of all the winning yet? Eh, maybe that joke isn’t all that fair, as Donald Trump wasn’t on the ballot yesterday, and conservatives hit one disappointment after another for rather non-Trump issues — the popularity of the Beshear name in Kentucky, the pro-Democratic reflex of Virginia’s electorate, and the fact that even deep-red Ohio isn’t comfortable with the notion of sweeping restrictions on abortion.
Don’t Panic over Last Night’s Results
This is where I’m supposed to decry the outcome of last night’s elections...
From the Left
Virginia just showed Democrats the way to win in 2024Six years ago, the elections for the Virginia state Legislature were so close that control of the House of Delegates had to be determined by drawing a name out of a bowl when the deciding race ended in a tie. This year, the result was much clearer: Democrats won most of the battleground districts, held their majority in the state Senate and retook the state House.
The results don’t just vindicate Democrats’ strategy of focusing relentlessly on abortion rights. It also shows that they need not cower and apologize when Republicans trot out...
From the Center
Republican Problems With Voters Are Clear. Solutions Are Not.The Republican Party is facing some tough choices after Tuesday's election results, but the most likely outcome is that they can't or won't make them. And that spells trouble for its chances in 2024 -- no matter what the latest polls are saying about President Biden's weakness.
Abortion as an issue that breaks strongly for the Democrats doesn’t seem to be going away at any point soon, and neither, apparently, is Donald Trump.
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