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Nov. 8, 2017, 9:48 a.m.
Republican Rep. Frank LoBiondo’s retirement announcement in New Jersey was simply the first in a day full of positive signs for Democrats’ midterm hopes.
In Virginia, a dominating 9-point win in the governor race and an astounding double-digit pickup of state House seats was a display of the anti-Trump energy the party will need a year from now to net at least two dozen House seats, a couple of Senate seats, and any number from a grab bag of governor seats.
The president missed the point as he reflexively tweeted from South Korea that Ed Gillespie’s loss was a result of not embracing Trump. Gillespie received more votes than Bob McDonnell in his 2009 victory, but the deeply unpopular president drove up turnout for Democrats up and down the ballot.
Parsing the results further, Rep. Barbara Comstock’s Northern Virginia district voted even more Democratic than it did at the presidential level last year. That should concern her and a string of fellow House Republicans in similarly suburban districts.
— Kyle Trygstad
