how much fun? reporter: republicans across the country celebrating big gains in the first significant elections during the biden administration. all righty, virginia! we won this thing! reporter: in virginia, political newcomer glenn youngkin handed former governor terry mcauliffe a stinging defeat as he flips the commonwealth red one year after the state delivered joe biden a ten-point victory. we re empowered by a conviction, a righteous conviction in our children s future. we re strengthened by our collective belief in the virginia promise. reporter: democrat mcauliffe made tying youngkin to former president trump a focus of his campaign. we don t need a donald trump in khakis. reporter: but the now governor-elect kept trump as arm s length. instead highlighting issues such as taxes and critical race theory and parents rights in schools p. we re going to embrace our parents, not ignore them. reporter: a potential road
the while making sure to not alienate trump voters, and attracting moderate voters into his side. now, he certainly was tapping into a lot of state and local issues, too. a big part of the speech on education, crime. that is something that last night in his victory rally he gave a nod to education in the core part of his candidacy. terry mcall i have made the super piece all about tying youngkin to former president donald trump and put frankly, that simply did not work. certainly, brianna, as democrats are looking at the aftermath of last night, the aftermath of election day in the campaign, certainly race assessing that strategy going forward to midterms as they are licking their wounds this morning. brianna. . huge postmortem to be done. sunlen, thanks. back to new jersey. 65 votes separate the two