What does Tuesday's sweep mean for Democrats in 2018? Nothing.

Democrats won in New Jersey and Virginia? Big whoop.

Virginia Governor-elect Ralph Northam
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

It would be a mistake to assign much significance to Democrat Ralph Northam's victory over Republican Ed Gillespie in the Virginia gubernatorial race on Tuesday.

For one thing, Northam's triumph was not so much a repudiation of President Trump as it was a sign-off on business as usual in the Old Dominion. Gillespie, the one-time lobbyist and chair of the Republican National Committee inexplicably chosen to represent the GOP, is an almost painfully anodyne representative of the consultant class, not a populist — much less a sinister racist villain, despite what Northam's backers tried to suggest in an ad that could have been an outtake from the new season of Stranger Things.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.