Democrats may control the White House, but Republican campaigns built back better. The party won the offices of governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and a majority of the General Assembly in Virginia on Tuesday. They also came within one percent of taking the governor’s mansion in New Jersey. These are two states Joe Biden won by 10-points and 16-points respectively in 2020. Though some could brush these outcomes as a fluke, University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato believes this may be a sign of things to come. “This is a very high DEFCON rating for Democrats, that’s what this ...
Democrats are not only reeling from Terry McAuliffe’s loss to Virginia GOP Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin, but they stand to lose even more in the 2022 midterms. The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics Crystal Ball has downgraded Democratic senators in four key midterm races, and Director Larry Sabato told CNN on Wednesday that under the current conditions of President Joe Biden’s administration, Republicans will take control of the House and Senate after the midterm.
Also on Wednesday, University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato and his Crystal Ball elections prognosticator moved U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s reelection bid from “leans Democratic” to “toss-up.” The Virginia results, according to Sabato, show the political environment for Warnock’s reelection is getting worse. Other vulnerable senators in Arizona, Colorado and Nevada received the same analysis.
(Commentary by Mary Kate Clary, lecturer in politics and Senior fellow at the Miller Center) What I heard in the runup to the Nov. 2 elections was that students are increasingly worried about the job market and the economy they’ll be walking into upon graduation; they are concerned about rising crime rates in Charlottesville, where they attend college; and they wonder if they’ll be able to freely express their opinions – left or right – here at the university. So it was no surprise to me that exit polls of Virginia voters this week showed that the economy and education were voters’ top concern...
Democrats will face challenges because of geography and redistricting, said Jennifer Lawless, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. “But they can actually take a big lesson out of Tuesday and pass (the infrastructure and reconciliation) bills,” she told USA TODAY, pointing to Biden’s two pieces of legislation still being debated in Congress. “They need to demonstrate that unified control in Washington, in fact, does deliver to voters across the country,” she added. “They weren’t able to do that this time.”
Linwood Holton was followed by Mills Godwin, a longtime Democrat who won a nonconsecutive second term as governor in 1973 after switching his party affiliation during the campaign to Republican. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, worked on the 1973 campaign as a college student. He said Godwin waited until the Republican state convention before formally switching parties and accepting the GOP nomination. “He wanted to run as an independent,” Sabato said.
Anyone who is a Hallmark movie fanatic, like yours truly, is familiar with Roanoke native and University of Virginia grad Jen Lilley. The spirited and friendly actress stars in many of Hallmark’s most beloved films, think “Mingle All The Way”; “Winter Love Story”; “Love Unleashed”; “Paris, Wine & Romance”; and one of last year’s holiday favorites, “USS Christmas.”
Tim Brown is not your typical student. He served in the Navy for eight years before coming to the University of Virginia, but he’s here for the same reason as everyone else: To get an education. “We’re regular people,” said Brown. “We like to hang out, we like to have fun, we’re intellectually curious just like everyone else.” He’s one of about 65 student veterans currently studying at UVA, many of whom are using their GI Bill to go to school.
Legal experts have warned that a section of the Infrastructure Bill, which is due for a vote on Friday, amends a part of the tax code and makes a failure by businesses and individuals to report digital asset transactions a criminal offense. University of Virginia School of Law lecturer Abraham Sutherland said it is a separate provision to the controversial “broker” provision that attracted all the attention when the bill was in the Senate: “It’s bad for all users of digital assets, but it’s especially bad for decentralized finance. The statute would not ban DeFi outright. Instead, it imposes r...
“I believe that the [Jefferson School] proposal, in and of itself, is an important opportunity for us as a community in creating something,” Larycia Hawkins, a University of Virginia faculty member with a joint appointment in the politics and religious studies departments, told Council. “The opportunity to not only heal, but to re-narrate history, to create new and different kinds of memories in place of the lasting memory of oppression of the previous statues.”
Beyond developing new skills and positioning themselves for advancement, some students view business school as an opportunity for self-discovery, setting the stage for them “to figure out what they’re interested in doing next,” said Jeff Tang, senior director of the Career Development Center at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. “An MBA is a Swiss-army knife tool that solves a number of issues for people, and I think that’s why it remains so popular,” said Tang. “Obviously, earning potential is a top consideration –– the return on investment has to justify the cost of an e...
Can kids 5-11 get a flu shot and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine at the same time? Here’s what doctors say
When it comes to flu shots and the COVID-19 vaccine, “the simple answer is they can be administered at the same time or shortly before or after one another,” according to Dr. Debbie-Ann Shirley, a pediatrician heading the University of Virginia’s Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease.
The 34th Annual Virginia Film Festival made a successful and important return this year, drawing thousands of film fans to its remarkably diverse program of films that spanned award-season favorites, fascinating documentaries, outstanding special guests and panelists, engaging short films, dynamic parties, and sparked the kinds of conversations that kept audience members in their seats long after the final credits rolled.
Area sponsors for this year’s event include UVA Health, UVA Encompass Health Rehabilitation and Crutchfield.
Recent findings from a study by UVA professor Bob Pianta and his colleagues make a similar point: High-quality early child care increases children’s readiness for school and narrows the so-called achievement gap by half.
Doctors at UVA Health saw a 15% increase in eating disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Sara Stephens says the increase is among people under the age of 30.
A treatment researched by a University of Virginia lab is proving effective in treating severe cases of COVID-19. It’s inexpensive and one local scientist said it could save lives. Fluvoxamine, a generic antidepressant, is being prescribed for people recently diagnosed with severe COVID-19. Dr. Alban Gaultier, a scientist at UVA, helped conduct the research and said it’s effective in preventing COVID-19 from worsening in high-risk patients
We all heard countless ads and talking points for months during the Virginia gubernatorial race about parents, education and “Critical Race Theory.” Now, political analysts are talking about the role it played in the race and will play moving forward. That dialogue happened at the UVA Center for Politics’ annual American Democracy Conference.
(Commentary I’ve been thinking about the risk and reward of faith in technology recently because of a new book by Peter Norton, a UVA associate professor of history. Norton detailed decades of unfulfilled promises by carmakers and tech companies that some invention was just around the corner to free us from the worst aspects of our car dependency.
The Brooklyn Public Library has long considered how to help its patrons return books before they ever become overdue. In 2017, the library partnered with a UVA behavioral science lab to help people bring their books back on time without shame or financial stigma, as well as increase patron engagement and reduce barriers to accessing the library.