It's 'a new day' in Virginia, but that doesn't mean it's better

Some of the nation's most reliably "blue" states have Republican governors. What's more, many of these state chief executives — Maryland's Larry Hogan, Massachusetts' Charlie Baker, and Vermont's Phil Scott, for example — happen to be some of the most popular governors in the country.

With this in mind, when Gov. Glenn Youngkin and his GOP slate ran the table last fall in Virginia — a state where President Joe Biden won by nearly double digits in 2020, and where Republicans hadn't won a statewide contest since 2009 — it was easy to imagine the new governor following in the footsteps of Hogan, Baker, and Scott, and positioning himself as a relative moderate by contemporary Republican standards.

So much for that idea. As The Washington Post summarized:

The blizzard of partisan controversies in the commonwealth — only some of which relate directly to the governor — has unfolded with striking speed.

• Youngkin has picked a legally dubious fight over mask protections in local school districts.
• Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears told Fox News the state might withhold funding from districts that defy the governor's order against mask protections during a pandemic.
• Youngkin has pulled Virginia out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which will benefit no one — except polluters — while also trying to make Donald Trump's favorite coal industry lobbyist the steward of Virginia's natural resources.
• Youngkin is touting a tip line parents can use to report school teachers who reference "divisive" subjects in classrooms.
• Youngkin asked the commonwealth's diversity chief to be an "ambassador for unborn children," while announcing plans to rename the department to remove the word "equity."
• Jason Miyares, Virginia's new Republican attorney general, fired roughly 30 people, more than half of whom are lawyers, including those responsible for investigating wrongful convictions.
• Miyares also ousted Timothy Heaphy, the top staff investigator for the Jan. 6 committee from his position, as the top attorney for the University of Virginia. Asked why he did this, the state attorney general said yesterday he's "not gonna get into it."
• Miyares this week also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
• In the General Assembly, Republican legislators are drawing up plans to loosen gun laws, cancel the commonwealth's pending minimum-wage increase, and impose new restrictions on abortion and voting.

Keep in mind, Virginia Republicans aren't exactly pacing themselves: Youngkin, Miyares, Earle-Sears were only inaugurated 10 days ago. At his swearing in, the new governor declared, "It's a new day in Virginia."

That was clearly true, though as we've discussed, there are important differences between "new" and "better."

Circling back to our earlier coverage, there's a larger significance to this that extends far from the commonwealth. Youngkin & Co. assured voters they'd focus on mainstream, kitchen-table issues. The subtext was hardly subtle: Virginians need not fear Republican governance. There would be no radical shifts from the fleece-wearing dad who likes basketball.

It worked: GOP candidates cruised to victories, fueled in part by voters who backed Democrats a year earlier, who assumed Republicans weren't interested in a dramatic turn to the right.

It's a safe bet other Republicans will push similar messages in this year's campaigns.

It's a dynamic that has plenty of observers concerned. Eugene Robinson argued in his new column, "Youngkin, Earle-Sears and Miyares might look like something new — fresh-faced and laudably diverse — but so far, at least, they act more like members in good standing within the Cult of Trump. Someday, I hope, the Republican Party will escape the grip of a certain angry pensioner in Florida. Until then, don't be fooled — and don't give them your votes."