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Covid, Critical Race Theory & Virginia’s Biden Blues

The Virginia gubernatorial race is always a fetish for politicos—an off-year Rorschach test and harbinger of the general mood two years before Iowa. And this year’s iteration is both tamer than ever (a contest between two rich white guy dads) and yet more indicative than ever of what wins in politics in our post-Trump (or is it pre-Trump?) age.

Glenn Youngkin and Teddy McAuliffe
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Peter Hamby
October 12, 2021

Every four years, a divided nation turns its lonely eyes to … the Virginia governor’s race. And by “the nation,” I really just mean bored political reporters, exhausted by the tedium of Washington policy-making and hungry for their next fix of real-world campaign action. Because who in Texas or Colorado or New Hampshire could possibly care about the next occupant of the Virginia Executive Mansion? Especially this year, when the two white guy dad candidates—Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin—aren’t exactly Coachella headliners.