Republicans on Thursday ended Democratic control of Virginia’s House of Delegates in the elections, winning enough seats to achieve at least a 50-50 tie in the chamber. The upset for the Democrats will likely see Republicans take control of Virginia’s House of Delegates.
GOP candidate AC Cordoza scored a surprise victory against incumbent Democratic delegate Martha Mugler in the 91st district race on November 3.
AC Cordoza said in an interview with Newsmax that Mugler’s campaign went downhill after Biden endorsed the 21 Democratic Virginia house candidates on October 19.
“My opponent was endorsed by President Biden and she just started sinking from there,” Cordoza said.
“People in my district are very upset about what’s going on in the Biden administration and they don’t want a local Biden in the chair. We want real positive change and what the administration is doing is not positive at all and no one wants it here.”
Cordoza was responding after the show host played a video of Biden reflecting on Democrats losing the house in Virginia, saying that “people need a little breathing room” and wanted the Democrats “to get things done.” He said that there would be a renewed push to pass the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better and $1 trillion infrastructure bills his administration has been struggling to get through the chambers.
The host then ridiculed Biden, saying: “You know what’s amazing to me AC Cordoza, I think the Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi think they haven’t done enough to sink America. They think the Americans want more of their bills passed? This is how out of touch they are.”
Cordoza said that the Democrats underestimated him.
“I don’t think the Democrats believed I had a chance at first. As it [the race] progressed they started to put some money into it but by that time it was a little too late, we had already had the grassroots momentum, the enthusiasm was with us this time. The Republicans have been speaking about the right things. We want to get our gas tax down, our grocery tax gone and they’re talking about Trump and it just didn’t work,” he said.
The races for New York mayor, New Jersey governor and Virginia governor also took place this week. The Democrats won New York and New Jersey, with Eric Adams and Philip Murphy winning those elections respectively. Republican Glenn Youngkin beat Terry McAuliffe to become Virginia’s governor.
These races are widely seen as a preview for the 2022 midterms and an indication of where the country’s politics stand a year after Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the presidential election.
