The full consequences of the Democratic Party’s victory last night in Virginia won’t become apparent for months or even years to come. By winning both houses of the state legislature, Democrats have turned the state totally blue for the first time in 26 years. They’ll have a chance to pass major new gun laws in the backyard of the Fairfax-based National Rifle Association, to more than double Virginia’s minimum wage, and to solidify their electoral gains by reversing Republican gerrymanders through redistricting two years from now.
But the more immediate significance of the results is what they portend for the Democrats’ much bigger battle ahead: They show that the electoral fire on the left sparked by Donald Trump’s stunning victory in 2016 is still burning hot three years later.