Congressman, the issues were all watching besides trump is issue of the confederate statues. 3 of 5 people in virginia including all races and genders were for keeping the statues the way they are, dont want changes, yet that was position of gillespie the republican. Position of the democratic candidate northam was get them all down. Thats how he started anyway. Says to me, voters said thats where i am on this issue, didnt vote on this issue. It was not the issue. But gillespie and trump. Gillespie didnt know who trump was in Northern Virginia but ran a Television Ad campaign that absolutely invoked worst of the trump campaign. Southerner . This time it didnt work. Catholic guy who grew up in new jersey running down there waving the flag of stonewall
a controversial president in byelection. Anybody with any problems with the government party, any problem they lay on you. Right . Absolutely right. You take all the hell with trumps name on it. And historically thats how virginia performs
i wonder about the statues, reasonable to assume good turnout in african-americans in the election, only 18% of white voters for getting rid of the statues, historically, wanted to keep the history despite its moral mix to put it lightly. and while gillespie ran aggressively on the issue, northam didn t take opposite position, kind of punted on it. municipalities, you decide. not doing culture war stuff from the other side. and started out as complete get them out of the way, then said leave it to the locals. i don t think that s right issue for democrats. i know they have to do it but better put it on the back burner for a while. that s where it belongs. as steve mentioned, removal of the monuments became a hot gsh
welcome back to special edition of hardball after midnight. what pushed trt ralph northam from over the top, exit poll that tells us more. joined by steve karn eky. what made it happen? exit poll asking what issues motivated you. see the national issues intersecting. talking about health care, big story nationally with the republican push to repeal obamacare and ongoing issue trying to expand medicaid. 40% who said this were democrats voting for ralph northam, then
see the numbers of people who say they want the statues up but don t care. number one issue is health care and they re trusting democrats. i like to put that issue aside for a while. let it calm down, benign neglect on the statues might be good. i don t like the pictures of the big cranes. this is trouble. steve, seems to me when you look at numbers, they wanted to vote no right? absolutely. it was pent-up outrage directed at donald trump and this was opportunity for voters to go out and really take a stand. and ed gillespie was unusual campaign because it was like invasion of the body snatchers. caricature of ed gillespie that ran was not the man we have known a long time. chamber of commerce establishment republican who beat trumpism in the primary and became trumpism in the general election and came back to bite
but what was really interesting, chris, this boiled down, not to those issues that steve just mentioned, though he s correct, that s what was asked on the exit poll. boiled down to trump and trumpism. it s not referendum on trump but a public backlash to trump and some kind of repudiation i think of trumpism. that s what this election ended up being about. yeah, mayor you know this as well, run for office, get elected mayor, i have a sense that voters only have a crude tool in voting booth. can t write a letter or essay, they ve got to vote, yes or no. this time they voted no. what is it about your community, your voters, be honest here, what is it they most dislike about donald trump? i think they hate the divisive and bigoted rhetoric coming out of his mouth. i mean you heard some the way