Why Republicans won Virginia

 Republican candidate won the Election for Governor of Virginia by unseating the incumbent Democrat. Though the state of Virginia has turned blue of late, the results didn't come as bolt from the blue to me due to following reasons :

1. Democratic base is not usually excited and charged up to come out and vote during these one off elections. They are known to come out in droves for voting during the Presidential elections. This time it was no exception.

2. The infighting between the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic party is in contrast with the united Republicans. Washington is broken. The inability of Democrats to pass bills is hurting them pretty badly.

3. Increase in gas price and visible inflation didn't help the Democratic incumbent, so also Biden's low approval ratings. Though economy is doing well people feel the pinch of gas price and inflation rather the rate of GDP or job growth.

4. The current Democrat Governor was defensive about certain local schools related issues which was fully capitalized by his Republican opponent to his advantage.

Virginia and of late my state of Georgia are light blue states. So a Republican winning there is no surprise. But what really surprised me was in the deep blue state of New Jersey the Democrat Governor barely winning by a slim margin. Too much taxes and New Jersey's property tax being the highest in the Unites States makes it stifling for the tax paying working class. My friends their who are hard working Democrats aren't happy with the high tax they are paying. Also ralleys in liberal strongholds Seattle, Minneapolis, California to defund the police hasn't gone down well in suburbs. These places may be far away from Virginia and New Jersey but it did reverberate and sabotaged the chances of Democrats in the suburbs. 

Politics is matter of perception. America 🇺🇸 is after all a Center-Right country. Perception of Democrats taking a sharp left turn has caused accident for them in Virginia and New Jersey. Unless they stay center-right it could hurt them pretty bad in the future. They need to be careful and focus being the champion of middle class rather than pander to their extreme Left base. Remember statistically 35% of Americans are Conservatives, 25% are Liberals and 40% are Center of Right. So a message to Democrats - do your Math here. Pandering only to the 25% of your Progressive base won't help you win elections. It's as simple as that.