A week ago today, voters in the Commonwealth of Virginia elected a Republican governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general – sending a message that they were tired of the crippling policies of the last eight years under two Democratic governors (current Governor Ralph Northam and his predecessor, Terry McAuliffe). Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin will assume the governorship on January 15.
The elections in Virginia and elsewhere proved to be a referendum on Joe Biden's presidency, including his disastrous open borders policy – according to Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
"It certainly indicates there's a sense among the population that the country is moving in the wrong direction," says Mehlman.
He points to Tuesday's election results in New Jersey – historically an even more solid Blue state than Virginia – where the incumbent Democratic governor barely squeaked out a victory over his GOP opponent.
"[Also] the president of the New Jersey State Senate [a Democrat] was knocked off by a truck driver with a $153 in his campaign coffers," Mehlman adds. "So clearly, there's an indication among the voters that they're not happy with the direction that the country is moving."
And immigration, he argues, is certainly a component of that.
"When Glenn Youngkin becomes [Virginia's] governor in January, he does have an opportunity to reverse some of the sanctuary policies [and] other policies – like in-state tuition for illegal aliens, driver's licenses, things like that – that the Northam administration has put into place," says the FAIR spokesman.
Some of those pro-illegal immigration policies, he adds, likely go back to when Terry McAuliffe was governor.
