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  • The Atlantic

    The Trump Suburban Squirm

    Democratic candidates in this fall’s elections are doing their best to make sure that the former president is still on the ballot.
    by Edward-Isaac Dovere Sep 07, 2021 7 minutes
    Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty; Ron Antonelli / Bloomberg / Getty; Win McNamee / Getty; Paul Spella / The Atlantic

    Turn down Republican-base enthusiasm by baiting candidates into distancing themselves from Donald Trump. Turn off swing voters by reminding them of candidates’ connections to the former president. The hot move for Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey this fall isn’t the Nae Nae or the Electric Slide. It’s the Trump suburban squirm.

    Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chair and Virginia governor who’s now campaigning for a second term, knows that the former president is about as popular as the Delta variant in blue Virginia suburbs. He wants Trump to make an appearance for his Republican opponent, Glenn Youngkin, like Joe Biden did for McAuliffe in July. At that rally, you would have been forgiven for thinking that Trump himself would be on the gubernatorial ballot in Virginia this year. “I ran against Donald Trump and so is Terry—and I whipped Donald Trump in Virginia and so will Terry,” Biden said with a grin. McAuliffe likes to say that he’ll pay for Trump’s gas if the former president decides to come to Virginia. Trump hasn’t accepted McAuliffe’s invitation yet.

    The suburbs have always been competitive political territory, but they have taken on a different significance with . Last December, a top Democratic operative laid

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