An audience of about 160 turned out on Tuesday night to hear a briskly moving, candidly informative, and most importantly, refreshingly civil discussion of the 2018 Virginia election cycle.
The two-hour conversation, hosted by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, featured Kéren Charles Dongo, campaign manager for the successful reelection of U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Chris Jankowski, campaign consultant for defeated 2nd District incumbent U.S. Representative Scott Taylor (R-Va.).
Schar School dean Mark J. Rozell moderated the lively discussion that explored what went right and wrong for various campaigns around the state. It was, in the end, the “civil discourse as we try to untangle what happened” that Rozell promised at the outset.
An audio recording highlights of the program is here.
In the wake of the “blue wave” that swept many districts in the Commonwealth, Jankowski maintained that is was “not wise to abandon [support] for [President] Trump” despite the data indicating Trump, particularly during the bruising Justice Kavanagh hearings, was losing suburban female and younger voters. “You have to lay out where you are and point to your record,” he said.
Had Trump emphasized the current state of a hot economy, local politicians might have had more leverage using the White House as a campaign tool, Dongo said. But it was a gift, she suggested, when Trump focused on the Central American “caravan” even though the gambit did, at least temporarily, “scare a sector of the voters.”
In August it was announced the Taylor campaign was being investigated by a special prosecutor for claims that his aides forged signatures to help an independent candidate get on the ballot. Another candidate in the race might have complicated the campaign of eventual winner Elaine Luria.
“A one point you have five campaign workers taking the Fifth Amendment,” Jankowski said. “It’s a never-ending story in the press that you can’t control. You have dead people signing. It hit our fundraising and inspired the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] to get involved very early. It hurt [Taylor’s] brand and played into the Democrats’ message of Republican corruption. But I think they overplayed it and that’s what kept us in the race.”
The issue of redistricting drew intriguing responses. Dongo suggested that “when the district is competitive, it’s better for everybody.” Jankowski stated that voters “have a right to vote but they do not have a right to live in a competitive district. And I think the Supreme Court is thinking that too.”
As for coming elections in 2019 and 2020, Dongo said Democratic candidates “have to increase turnout in every race. They have to make it local, go everywhere [to meet voters], and you’ll see the energy.”
“I think the [blue wave] fever is going to break,” Jankowski said. “Democrats will be organized, and they’ll ‘resist,’ but Republicans will be in position to pick up House seats.”