Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, pointed out that the other seven senators who signed on to the deal with the GOP have either announced they won’t be seeking reelection or, like Kaine, will not face voters in next year’s elections. “Elected officials who are further from their next election are less concerned by political considerations and more focused on what they see as the best policies,” Farnsworth said.
Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor and director for the Center of Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington, explained surveys as snapshots in time rather than crystal balls.
Political scientist Stephen J. Farnsworth of the University of Mary Washington said Kaine’s calculation reflects the kind of decision lawmakers make when they’re freed from the immediate pressures of reelection. “The farther an elected official is from their next election, the more likely they are to make the decision about how to proceed based on sound public policy evaluation,” he said, noting that Kaine’s next reelection campaign is five years off.
“The main thing that was surprising was magnitude of Spanberger’s win,” said Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington.
Opinion Column
By Stephen J. Farnsworth, Stephen Hanna and Ethan Sweeny
The politics of Northern Virginia have come to the Fredericksburg region with an Election Day roar.
Tuesday’s victories for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger in the long-time Republican bastions of Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, coupled with two Democratic flips in the region’s House of Delegate districts along Interstate 95 (the 64th in Stafford and the 66th district in Spotsylvania/Caroline) demonstrate that “the times they are a changin’” around here.
Stephen Farnsworth, a political-science professor at the University of Mary Washington, told WTOP anchor Nick Iannelli and Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller on Tuesday that the Democratic candidates capitalized on a distaste towards President Donald Trump. “This was very much a repudiation of the Trump policies and their painful impact on Virginia,” Farnsworth said. “An awful lot of votes are cast in Northern Virginia, and a lot of those people are connected to the federal government.”
