Are the US Democrats in big trouble?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 2 December 2021
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When voters in Virginia elected a Republican as Governor they sent a wake-up call to President Biden and the Democrats. The handling of the pandemic and rising prices are harming the party’s standing, while a move towards radical liberalism is also alienating some voters. So how likely is defeat at next year’s mid-term elections? Tanya Beckett asks if the Democrats are in big trouble.
Contributors: Sarah Baxter, former deputy editor, writer Sunday Times Thomas Edsall, adjunct professor, Columbia University Larry Sabato, professor of politics, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics Robert Schlesinger, president, Schlesinger Communications
Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Sheila Cook Researcher: Chris Blake
(Photo: President Biden at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the inquiry with me, Tanya Beckett, one question, four expert witnesses, and an answer. |
| 0:10.6 | On November the 2nd, voters went to the polls in the East Coast American State of Virginia |
| 0:16.4 | to elect a new governor. |
| 0:19.2 | It was supposed to be a safe state for the Democrats. |
| 0:22.7 | In last year's US election, the state voted heavily for Biden. |
| 0:27.4 | But when the ballots were counted, Democratic candidate and former governor, Terry Bacoliffe, |
| 0:33.4 | was defeated by an outsider. |
| 0:36.4 | This is our Virginia to build together and we are going to go to work on day one. |
| 0:45.4 | Glenn Youngkin, a successful businessman who never held office, won it for the Republicans. |
| 0:52.4 | One year after Joe Biden was elected as president, in a state where Democrats had been ten points ahead, |
| 0:59.4 | the electorate had turned against him. |
| 1:02.4 | So this week on the inquiry we're asking, are the Democrats in big trouble? |
| 1:10.4 | Part 1. What happened in Virginia? |
| 1:14.4 | Virginia runs south of Washington, D.C. |
| 1:22.4 | The top part of the state is very much in the orbit of the nation's capital, |
| 1:27.4 | but its rolling green farmland, mountains, beaches and cutesy towns are also home to a population |
| 1:34.4 | which likes to make up its own mind. |
| 1:39.4 | Virginia's have a long record of voting against a sitting president in their local elections, |
| 1:46.4 | but in recent years the state has turned towards the Democratic Party. |
| 1:51.4 | The Democrats have been winning almost every election. |
| 1:55.4 | In fact, for the last ten years in Virginia at least, Democrats have not lost a single election. |
| 2:01.4 | Our first expert witness lives in Virginia. |
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