Brit Hume: ‘Unpopularity of Donald Trump’ ‘Won This Race for Ralph Northam’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Fox News Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume reacted to Democrat Ralph Northam’s victory in the Virginia Governor’s race by stating that President Trump’s unpopularity is why Northam won.

Hume began by pointing out that Virginia’s economy is “largely recession-proof” due to the fact that a lot of it depends on government spending. He added, “It looks like the political gravity, the unpopularity of Donald Trump, and the…fact this is an off-year election with a first term in office [president], has won this race for Ralph Northam. It would have been a shocker if he hadn’t won, but it appears now that he has, an important win for Democrats in Virginia.”

Hume further stated, “Trump stirs passions, and the people who are for him are passionate, and the people who are against him are passionate. In the state of Virginia — remember, he lost Virginia, that’s the only southern state he lost, really. So, you think about that, this is not — Virginia isn’t really Trump country and an aroused electorate in Virginia is going to be bad news for a Republican running in the age of Trump.”

He also said that Republican Ed Gillespie is a “mainstream Republican” but did make Confederate statues and MS-13 key issues and “pretty much” aligned with Trump’s agenda. Hume continued, “On the issues, there was not much daylight between him and Donald Trump. He didn’t personally embrace Trump. But — and the thing that a lot of people forget here, Tucker, is that when you look at the Republican Party and what it has basically stood for over the last quarter of a century and more, it has been basically the agenda that Trump has embraced as president. … And the question tonight is whether Trump drags them — drags the party down, or whether they don’t get — or whether members of the party don’t get close enough to him to get the updraft. I don’t think there’s a very good case for an updraft tonight.”

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