Mamdageddon and Other Thoughts on Last Night’s Unpleasantness

Ah. post mortems, or what we Marines call ‘after action reports.’

Where one takes a step back, looks at expectations and results of operations, pick through what worked and what should remain dead and buried forever going forward.

This one is going to be more of a clinical exercise for me, as I explained in the opening to my evening spent last night in y’all’s wonderful company before returns started.

…And lemme add, I’m not falling for the ‘bellweather against Trump’ hype. These are deep blue states to begin with, where Trump had made, much to Democrats’ panic, deep inroads in the last election. Any gains or holding close to his percentages from last year would be pretty impressive. If we, miracle of miracles, flip one?

That was probably the most important point of all, which I highlighted – that Trump had made gains in those states we were watching, but he hadn’t won them. New Jersey and Virginia are seething cesspools of Democratic fervor. It was going to be a testament to those shining spots of red that had bloomed a year ago if they grew, maybe even flipped.

You bet I was hopeful for my old home state, but alas.

It remained true to its aubergine lurching self. Ciattarelli couldn’t even take counties that Trump had won, including, there for a heartbreaking while, my most northwestern Sussex. Formerly a bastion of Republicanism and a bulwark against the liberals of Newark and the NYC metro area, it was blue for quite a while when their returns finally started. Then again, since I left, the county demographics have shifted dramatically from the farmers, Ford factory workers, and yeomen types I grew up with, some of whom went back generations on or near the same piece of property. The lake communities around our once-isolated mountain home had now developed their own New York City borough characteristics, thanks to residents of the city who fled but brought everything, including the accents and the neighborhoods, with them to their new home. It might be 56 miles away, but you walk into one of them and you’d swear you were in the Bronx, or Brooklyn, or Queens. It’s that Balkanized.

They brought their voting patterns, too.

Sussex did, as the evening waned, shift into a rose hue, but it was over for Ciattarelli by then.

I did read a quote that made perfect sense, all things considered. What it said was, ‘Why are Republicans surprised when they lose in places they’ve all left?’ 

Well, hang on – that’s right. It’s not happy, wokesters exiting New Jersey. It’s the GOP voting base, which is how there’s still an 850,000 Democrat voter advantage. Anecdottally, since 2018, New Jersey has topped the list for out-moves – not California. Seven years in a row, more people have left NJ than any other state.

If one goes strictly by the census, NJ is consistently in the bottom five.

New Jersey citizens continue to vote with their feet and move to other states.  That was true for FY2024, when a net 35,554 left, and it was true from 2020 to 2024, when a net 192,209 left.  In both cases, New Jersey had the 4th-worst outmigration among the 50 states.  Only international immigration kept New Jersey’s population from shrinking, but because they tend to bring in less wealth than the citizens who are leaving, New Jersey is consistently bleeding wealth. 

For both time-periods, the same five states were in the bottom five: California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.  Note that all are “blue” states, with big governments, powerful government unions, high taxes, and high costs of living.  The same five states were in the top five as well: Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennesee.  All are “red” states, with smaller governments, less powerful government unions, lower taxes, and lower costs of living. The numbers speak volumes about the relative attractiveness of state governance models: American citizens want less government, lower taxes, and lower costs of living.

Voters who want ‘less government, lower taxes, and lower costs of living’ had already voted with their feet or, for those left behind, for Ciattarelli.

The rest of them voted for Mikie Sherrill. And now they’ve got her.

Virginia was always going to be an uphill climb. Terrific and competent as Winsome Earle-Sears is as a person and a Lt. Gov., Virginia became ever more blue while she and Glenn Youngkin held the top spots. It was unfortunate that her campaign foundered and was perceived as ineffectual from the outset. 

3.3M Democrats in Virginia willingly blew the doors off voting records for a slate of candidates that was so repulsive it blows the minds.

…Tuesday’s turnout, plus early and mail-in voting, checked in a 3,377,129, according to the Virginia Department of Elections website, a number that isn’t final and could still go higher.

“I think people were both inspired by Abigail Spanberger, and wanted to send a message to Donald Trump,” Sen. Creigh Deeds told Cville Right Now on Wednesday. “And the message reflected broad disappointment and anger.”

Tuesday’s turnout was far more than the last non-presidential election – in 2023 – when 2,544,881 voters cast ballots. It’s also about 100,00 more voters than the last governor’s election, when Glenn Youngkin topped Terry McAuliffe in 2021.

Turnout that year was 3,276,572 2021.

‘Inspired’ by Abigail Spanberger? Oh, dear God.

And who they put in office, and who now has control of the House of Delegates, is going to change that state irreparably for the worse.

…The large turnout statewide helped Democrats sweep statewide races for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, with Abigail Spanberger, Ghazala Hashmi and Jay Jones winning those posts.

It also carried the party to decisive control of the Virginia House of Delegates, moving what had been a narrow margin with 51 seats, to a controlling hold on at least 64 seats.

But hey! It was already blue, and the shutdown didn’t help. It allowed all those furloughed workers a chance to tantrum and blame the wrong party, which they would have done in any event.

Had Earle-Sears been closer to Trump, I still don’t think there would have been much of a difference in the outcome. 

Virginia has had its share of outflow, too. It’s also had it’s share of inflow, and not the type that wears red hats.

As a VA voter explained when responding to the classic, ‘Oh, they were cheating!’ cry, he said, yeah, they were, But not with voting machines.

DEMOGRAPHICS ARE DESTINY

Na. The “cheating” is when me and my gf are the only 2 people in the whole Fairfax County Virginia dmv who speak English because everyone else is fresh off the boat or over the border and a guaranteed democrat voter.

Policy really doesnt matter. “Good ideas” arent convincing… https://t.co/mTeRB0Vl93 pic.twitter.com/3FyfdD8LAL

— Alex Rosen (@iFightForKids) November 5, 2025

…because everyone else is fresh off the boat or over the border and a guaranteed democrat voter.  

Policy really doesnt matter. “Good ideas” arent convincing any of these people to vote R. Demographics are destiny.

And if you listen to the once smiling candidate who is now mayor-elect of the largest city in the country, you see where that is illustrated more clearly than anywhere.

The beaming, affable, charming Mamdani, friend to all, was missing last night after victory was assured, when he was busy marking his territory and telling folks exactly who the city and his win were ‘for.’

‘New YORKERS’? https://t.co/TYgR4w4IsU

— tree hugging sister 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) November 5, 2025

In one of those boroughs, I can’t remember which, there are now 160 languages spoken.

160

That has nothing to do with Donald Trump, although it will if they see him as a threat to what’s going on in that new fiefdom.

And they do.

🚨 UPDATE: Incoming NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has CHALLENGED President Trump on deportations

“Hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get any of us, you will have to get through ALL of us.”

Get in the way of a federal agent and get arrested. pic.twitter.com/4Rs1kHRDTG

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 5, 2025

Nah.

Last night was a continuing progressive march, and Democrats were voting in Democratic bastions for ever more radical Democrats, if you can even call them that anymore.

I don’t see it as a loss for Republicans.

It’s a huge loss for American ideals and values that psychos, sociopaths, and religious isms are okay now.

Wait ’til they actually have power.

It’s going to be frightening, but we didn’t do it, and Trump didn’t make them do it.

Their loss.

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