State Level Republican Parties Have Gone Crazy
The decline of Virginia’s once-dominant Republican Party is a case study in how a party’s waning electoral appeal is often accompanied by a descent into madness. Rather than view the Virginia GOP’s experience as a cautionary tale, though, it seems state-level Republican Parties across the country see it as a model worthy of emulation.
Virginia Republicans had every reason to believe that Barack Obama’s 2008 victory in this historically red state was a fluke. It was the closest presidential contest in the state since 1976 and the first time a Democratic candidate had won in Old Dominion since LBJ’s landslide win in 1964. The following year, amid the rise of the Tea Party, Republicans retook the governor’s mansion and maintained a prohibitive block of reliable districts at the state legislative level. But in the decade that followed, Republicans became less and less appealing to the state’s voters. And as the GOP declined i
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| Updated February 10, 2021
Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R) was caught on tape making cracks about physical violence against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who last year was the target of a kidnapping plot by right-wing militia extremists.
He was also recorded spreading lies about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that was carried out by pro-Trump insurrectionists, calling it a “hoax” and “staged.”
In the footage made by Republican activists, Shirkey bragged about metaphorically spanking the governor.
“We’ve spanked her hard on the budget,” he said in the video posted on YouTube. “Spanked her hard on appointments.”
Michigan s GOP-controlled Senate blocks 18 of Whitmer s appointees in attempt to combat virus restrictions Print this article
Michigan Senate Republicans voted to reject five of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s appointees to state positions, continuing their effort to force the governor to the negotiating table over her COVID-19 restrictions. This governor has done everything possible to avoid working with the elected members of this chamber,
said Republican state Sen. Aric Nesbitt of the effort, noting that the governor should be forced to work with the “people’s representatives.”
At issue is Whitmer’s continued COVID-19 restrictions, which now limit indoor dining capacity to 25% and have