After raising millions to put Democrats in control of the Virginia General Assembly, the joke is on former and wannabe future governor Terry McAuliffe as the same liberal activists he helped put in power are sending him a clear message: stay out of the governor’s race.
In a recent Washington Postcolumn, Virginia political analyst Norm Leahy wrote that “events — and the chance to make history — have marginalized ‘the Macker’ in ways few could have foreseen even a month ago,” and “the energy and ideas that will shape Democratic politics for the rest of this year and next are not going to be found in McAuliffe’s playbook.”
McAuliffe has stayed silent while Democrats he helped put in office embrace a radical defund the police agenda and crowds of rioters wreak havoc and destruction in the streets of Richmond.
The “progressives” currently in charge of the Virginia Democratic Party are becoming increasingly vocal against a McAuliffe comeback, with numerous activists speaking out in a recent Virginia Mercury report:
Not all progressives were happy to see McAuliffe try to reassert his place atop Democratic politics as he considers running for a second term in 2021, particularly at a time when two Black women — Sen. Jennifer McClellan and Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy — have already launched gubernatorial campaigns of their own. One activist summed up her thoughts with a Twitter hashtag: “#StandBackTMac”
The same activist went on to excoriate McAuliffe “to lift up women of color and not push them aside.” Another activist went even farther, calling a McAuliffe run “disrespectful”:
For McAuliffe to take the historically rare step of running for a second term after McClellan and Carroll Foy have stepped up, Sales said, would be “disrespectful.”
As the Democratic primary gets more and more crowded by the day, it’s clear that this is one Party that notorious good times guy Terry McAuliffe isn’t invited to.
“After leaving Virginia in shambles thanks to the failed leadership of his handpicked cronies, Terry McAuliffe thinks he can buy another election – but even his fellow Democrats aren’t sold on his consolation prize comeback tour,” said RGA Executive Director Dave Rexrode. “The Democrat primary’s descent into infighting between liberals and radicals simply underscores how deeply out-of-touch the Democratic Party is with Virginia families trying to get by in these tough times.”
