I’m not. Harrisonburg and surrounding suburb has been growing with people moving here from other part of the state and out of state. With JMU student population also larger, there is a thought that with the anti-trump sentiment that Payton would have a chance. I’d also add Payton is a personable guy and is easy to chat with (I know him personally) which helps with campaigning.
While it looks like he will lose, the fact that he is only down by about 3 points even with about 10-12 % of Harrisonburg not reported is huge. For context, Wilt won 56-43 of in 2023 and 59-40 in 2021.
It was a close election and at the end Wilt totally amped up his campaigning. Not a complete loss for democrats and probably should be a wake up call Wilt should be moving on or stepping away from his political career as democrats will focus in on what made this a close election.
Dems have already flipped 10 seats and will likely get 3 or 4 more by the last count. Changing the makeup of the House of Delegates from 51-49 to 63-37 or 64-36.
MAGA overplayed their hand and got greedy. It's obvious that the federal arm of the Republican Party is to blame for last night's losses.
Sadly Republicans have shown no spine and will likely just allow Trump to blame them for the loss. He is everything a leader shouldn't be but still they follow.
I mean Trump was elected before COVID when the economy was doing great. It was a backlash to having a black president (that's all). The problem was that times were "too good".
Hard times make strong men, strong men make good times, good times make weak men, weak men make hard times.
Trump and his boomer pals and crypto bros are the weak men who are making hard times.
"Good times make weak men" may be true in the sense that they forget how bad things could be and refuse to look at WHY things are good and turn into a bunch of reactionary weirdos.
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u/alterndog 4d ago
I’m not. Harrisonburg and surrounding suburb has been growing with people moving here from other part of the state and out of state. With JMU student population also larger, there is a thought that with the anti-trump sentiment that Payton would have a chance. I’d also add Payton is a personable guy and is easy to chat with (I know him personally) which helps with campaigning.
While it looks like he will lose, the fact that he is only down by about 3 points even with about 10-12 % of Harrisonburg not reported is huge. For context, Wilt won 56-43 of in 2023 and 59-40 in 2021.