Last Wednesday, Terry McAuliffe conceded to Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin in the Virginia gubernatorial race. After countless key Democratic figures campaigned for McAuliffe in Virginia, including President Joe Biden on multiple occasions, McAuliffe still lost. If you thought that that meant he was going away, though, you'd be wrong. The Biden administration is reportedly interested in bringing McAuliffe into the administration.
As the report from Punchbowl pointed out, "McAuliffe isn’t asking for a job; this seems to be the administration trying to find a place where McAuliffe can serve."
Biden appeared in Northern Virginia on July 23, and then again on October 26, just one week before the election. In between those visits, Biden's approval ratings took a nosedive in Virginia, as they did throughout the country at the national level and in many other states.
Terry McAuliffe: Joe Biden "is unpopular today unfortunately here in Virginia." pic.twitter.com/QOMAWRBi2A
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 5, 2021
Even McAuliffe acknowledged that "the president is unpopular today, unfortunately here in Virginia, so we have got to plow through." Yet, he still campaigned with Biden after admitting the truth out loud.
Perhaps Biden feels bad that he could have cost McAuliffe the election, and not merely when it comes to his approval ratings.
Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, fellow Democrats, both of whom also served as governors before heading to the Senate, certainly seem to think that Congress' failure to pass infrastructure or the reconciliation spending bills in time contributed to McAuliffe's loss.
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After many delays and much confusion, the House passed the infrastructure bill last Friday, with help from 13 Republicans. The president will sign the bill in a signing ceremony on Monday. The reconciliation bill has yet to receive a vote.
As excited as McAuliffe seemed to be tweeting about it, he surely was less than thrilled with the timing.
Big win for VA and USA. Roads, bridges, broadband and much more.
— Terry McAuliffe (@TerryMcAuliffe) November 6, 2021
Thank you Pres Biden, Spkr Pelosi and whole team for getting across finish line. https://t.co/UZOvpS8qqd
As for Biden, he pointed out that, "I think we should have and should have passed before Election Day, but I'm not sure that I would be able to have changed the number of very conservative folks who turned out in the red districts who were Trump voters." The president went on to offer, "But maybe, maybe."
McAuliffe served as governor of Virginia from 2014-2018, but the state constitution prohibits governors from serving back-to-back terms, hence why he ran again in 2021. Virginians tend to elect the candidate who is from the opposite party of the president. McAuliffe was an exception to that rule, winning in 2013 after then-President Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012.
It's worth stressing that McAuliffe in 2013 only won with 47.8 percent of the vote, while Republican Ken Cuccinelli got 45.2 percent. Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis got a whopping 6.5 percent of the vote.
Alas, McAuliffe was not able to once again fight off the historical trend. Further, only one governor in Virginia's history has been popularly elected twice. Mills Godwin served as Virginia's 60th governor from 1966-1970 as a Democrat, and then as the 62nd governor from 1974-1978 as a Republican.
It does not appear to have been enough that McAuliffe could have subjected the Commonwealth of Virginia to four years with him as governor again. Now, the whole country may have to be affected by it if the Biden administration has its way.
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