The US President's visit to the Demilitarised Zone in South Korea was called off because of bad weather. Photo / AP
The US President's visit to the Demilitarised Zone in South Korea was called off because of bad weather. Photo / AP
Just a year after his election, US President Donald Trump tasted the salty backlash of voter rebuke yesterday.
Ralph Northam's decisive victory in the Virginia Governor's race delivers Democrats a much-needed win, a jolt of momentum heading into next year's congressional elections and a taste of the potential energy that could be generated from Trump's historic unpopularity.
Northam's triumph marks voters' first major repudiation of the Trump Administration. In New Jersey, front-running Democrat Phil Murphy trounced Republican Lieutenant-Governor Kim Guadagno to succeed unpopular GOP Governor Chris Christie.
The Republican Party thought it had a plan to win in Virginia: Run a mainstream candidate who could nonetheless employ the racially charged culture-war rhetoric of Trump to turn out a white working-class base.
A one-time establishment stalwart, Ed Gillespie, declined to campaign with Trump but he executed on the plan as well as he could.
He defended Confederate memorials, vilified Central American gangs in ads that looked like horror movies and denounced the kneeling protests of football players.
Then the voters voted, and Republicans went down in defeat across the state, from the top of the ticket to the bottom.
A Democratic transgender candidate unseated a conservative. The Republican whip in the House of Delegates lost to a self-identified democratic socialist.
The result is a bad omen for the Republican Party nationally, which will face headwinds across the country in 2018, given continued frustration with political leaders in Washington and Trump's low approval rating of about 37 per cent.
U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive on Air Force One in Beijing, Nov. 8. Photo / AP
Without faith that Trump's base voters will match the enthusiasm of Democrats, many Republican candidates believe they will have to seek out a new political strategy to hold onto power.
"This is just an old fashioned thumping," said former Virginia GOP congressman Tom Davis. Urban voters, he said, came out in droves to send the Republican Party a message.
"The party is going to have to get right on immigration if they want to win in these areas."
In a tweet after the election, Trump, who was travelling in South Korea, tried to explain away Gillespie's loss by claiming that it did not reflect poorly on his own political potency.
"Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for," Trump wrote, before referencing recent special elections in Republican-leaning districts.
"Don't forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers, we will continue to win, even bigger than before!"
But it was not clear that a further embrace would have produced any better results. Virginia was the only southern state won by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
She beat Trump by a margin of five points in 2016, compared to a nine-point margin for Northam over Gillespie. Trump's tweets also glossed over the fact that the President had repeatedly praised Gillespie and his strategy.
As he absorbed the blow from thousands of kilometres away, Trump talked tough against the threats posed by "a country ruled by a cult" in North Korea.
"Do not underestimate us," Trump said, addressing North Korea.
"And do not try us." He emphasised that the US is not seeking conflict, but he added that: "History is filled with discarded regimes that has foolishly tested America's resolve."
But in the short term, the defeat is likely to be a major headache for Trump at home, broadening a deepening divide between traditional Republicans and the new populist conservatives who have embraced the polarising approach of the President.
The message from Democratic voters, who came out in droves for an off-year election, was loud and clearly aimed at the President.
Voters used the opportunity to make a statement. But even so, there was no definitive guidance about whether the torrent of anti-Trump votes can translate into an effective strategy for Democrats in swing or red states in next year's congressional elections.
Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, tweeted, "In case there was any doubt, the Resistance is real."
