Political analyst Stephen Farnsworth pointed to a name that’s not on the ballot to explain the surge. “President Trump is very, very effective in energizing activists on both sides. The high level of feelings about the president – positive and negative – have really led to higher turnout in elections during his time in public life, and we’re seeing that intensively so this time around,” he said.
“I think Democrats are looking at these nonpartisan and bipartisan redistricting efforts in blue states and Republicans doing redistricting not once but twice, and seeing this as unilateral disarmament,” Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, told me this week.
“There is a question as to if this is even legal, but in order for this to work the Democrats will have to pass the constitutional amendment before the election,” said Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington.
Mr. Trump looms large over Democrats’ reversal on redistricting, said Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington.
“Remember, Democrats are looking at the fact that Donald Trump, even now, refuses to accept that he lost the 2020 election,” Mr. Farnsworth said. “The world is very different when you think about the way that both parties accepted whether they won or lost elections before 2020.”
“The stakes for Democratic control of the [Virginia] House just increased,” said Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington. “The last-minute effort will draw a lot of attention to the races around the commonwealth.”
“People are already anxious about the economic situation. The shutdown makes it much worse,” Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, previously told the Washington Examiner.
