in frank wolf s district who is republican congressman in northern virginia here. the last republican congressman in northern virginia. it is my understanding of his old tenth district, 62% of elected officials are now democrat. i mean, it is a total suburban just flight from trump. so you ll all appreciate this. i was about to tell you the story off air. my husband, when we got married, insisted because he went to uva like larry sabado, insisted we move to virginia because maryland which looked like my hometown was just too democrat. yeah. who got the last laugh there? how s larry hogan doing? it is cornell, what d you learn? what i learned is that national republicans trying to nationalize election doesn t help them even in deep red places. look. bevin was was was someone in trouble. we had a good candidate there but i also don t want democrats to over learn this ideal that it s simply about one or two issues. i know we want to talk about
last night was bad for both of them. they lost the governor s race in deep red kentucky to democrat andy beshear. not just that, though, republicans lost control of the legislature in virginia for the first time in a generation. in some ways, you might have been able to predict both a few weeks ago, but the actual event itself happening is still a big deal. republicans also lost ground with suburban voters all over the country in local and statewide contest. it was an area stretching from richmond to washington, philadelphia to cincinnati, indianapolis, and even when republicans won in places like mississippi, they still lost ground with suburban voters outside of memphis. the president s scorched earth rally in kentucky didn t succeed. neither did the vice president s trip to virginia beach. nor did kentucky governor s matt bevin s attempt to use impeachment as a rallying cry. one of the biggest questions last night is what it means for the future of this presidency but not to be over
a bevin referendum than a national one. phillip bailie with important perspective from kentucky of kentucky and reporting on kentucky. thank you, sir. good to see you and i m sure we ll be checking in as that senate race with mr. mcconnell heats up. joining me now, larry director of the university of virginia center for politics. and dave wasserman and nbc news contributor. dave, you just heard from phillip bailie there it was a very put it this way the dnc s not sending around those talking points, are they? basically saying, weirdly enough republicans are secretly happy about this almost as much as democrats are. interesting perspective. yeah. and it was really northern kentucky in those suburbs that where we saw the biggest erosion for matt bevin versus 2015. we saw democrats advance further in the suburbs in virginia. in 2020, there won t be a single state or federal office holder
people would say we don t have it yet i m told. but he said you re sending that big message to the rest of the country. you have to get your friends out to vote. he says if you lose, they re going to say trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world. you cannot let that happen to me. the fact of the matter is the trump effect is a negative, not a positive. and the fact is that bevin and republicans felt like this was going to be the galvanizing moment. in fact, this is what their own campaign is saying about 2020. people will galvanize and defend him. and i think what was fascinating is particularly how this debate was framed in the final weeks. right? was it framed on the one hand, you had bevin running this nationalized campaign against an opponent who was running a very localized campaign. but the opposite was true in virginia. right? where there s a democrat trying to nationize it. so on both elements here, it didn t work. danielle, not to out where you live
through, all the political capital the president used. all these democrats laying on the sword for this to get this thing passed. now, they want to now, when it s above water, kieser has 11 points above water now. now, they want to tear it all down and start start start over. to a lot of the obama people, it makes zero political sense. do you ever think the republican party would end up becoming the party of obama care at one point? i don t think they are yet because matt bevin didn t want to be it either. but that is the position that may become default if warren s the nominee. yeah, if warren s the nominee. but i think it makes it a heck of a lot easier for donald trump or whoever is the republican nominee because it is a fight that s been had repeatedly and i don t care what the polls say. this fight has not been taking place on a national level and there haven t been the attacks that there were of the, you know, harry and louise epic hilary clinton healthcare days. i don