As the U.S. government moves closer to shutting down after the House of Representatives failed to pass a short-term spending bill on Friday, the implications of a shutdown could impact Virginia’s upcoming elections.
NBC News noted that the situation is similar to what happened in 2013 when Republicans forced a U.S. government shutdown in October and it ended up costing Republicans in Virginia that year.
Chris LaCivita — who served as the chief political strategist to GOP gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli that year and who is now managing Trump’s third presidential campaign — said after Cuccinelli’s narrow defeat to Democrat Terry McAuliffe that the shutdown “more than anything … is what cost us the race.”
Ellen Qualls, McAuliffe’s senior adviser, said that the shutdown was “the October surprise” for Democrats and that they “spiked during the shutdown.” Qualls added that the shutdown “helped crystallize the impression we were already creating about Ken Cuccinelli, that he can’t get along with anybody and won’t find solutions.”
Early voting has already started as Governor Glenn Youngkin has been aggressively campaigning for Republicans in both the House and Senate in his quest to gain control of both chambers.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said that the shutdown in 2013 “definitely helped” and that voters in Virginia, a state where a lot of people would be impacted by a U.S. government shutdown, associate government shutdowns with the Republican Party.
Democrats running in the Virginia elections were licking their chops over the prospect of a U.S. government shutdown, with one state senator saying that the shutdown would allow them the “opportunity to draw parallels” between their Republican opponent and Republicans in the U.S. House.
Republicans failed to pass House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) stopgap funding bill on Friday in a 198-232 vote after 21 Republicans voted against it. Funding for the U.S. government runs out at midnight on Sunday.
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The 21 Republicans who voted against the bill were Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ), Dan Bishop (NC), Lauren Boebert (CO), Ken Buck (CO), Tim Burchett (TN), Eric Burlison, (MO), Michael Cloud (TX), Eli Crane (AZ), Matt Gaetz (FL), Paul Gosar (AZ), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Wesley Hunt (TX), Nancy Mace (SC), Mary Miller (IL), Cory Mills (FL), Alex Mooney (WV), Barry Moore (AL), Troy Nehls (TX), Andy Ogles (TN), Matt Rosendale (MT), and Keith Self (TX).