Terry McAuliffe is a loyal Clinton man. He served faithfully as a foot soldier to a political dynasty that held enormous influence over the Democratic Party.
McAuliffe, the 2021 Democratic nominee for Virginia governor, cut his teeth doing the former first family’s bidding, asking always “How high?” when told to jump.
On Tuesday, with his stunning defeat at the hands of Republican Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, McAuliffe revealed not only the limits of his political influence but also that of the Clinton brand, which has suffered so badly since 2016 one can’t help but ask: Is it worth anything now?
It’s a big fall from the 1990s, when Bill Clinton held the White House. It’s a big fall from 2008, when a significant portion of the Democratic Party and its base believed then-Sen. Hillary Clinton was the natural choice for the presidential nomination, and from 2016, when the Democratic Party tipped the scales decisively in Hillary Clinton’s favor.
But now? McAuliffe could not even get over the finish line in Virginia, where a Republican has not won a statewide race since 2009. His connections to the Clinton family meant nothing.
The Virginia gubernatorial race is reminiscent of what happened to Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, whom the Clintons rewarded in 2009 for her years of loyal service by practically bequeathing her a Senate seat previously held by Hillary Clinton. Gillibrand was supposed to be a continuation of a political dynasty that brought the Democratic Party so much success and victory in the 1990s. Gillibrand even ran for president in 2020.
No one cared when Gillibrand dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary long before even the Iowa caucuses.
Even the Democratic Party didn’t care. During the 2020 Democratic National Convention, a small-time TikTok celebrity best known for lip-syncing then-President Donald Trump got a total of 90 seconds of screen time. In comparison, Gillibrand got only 17 seconds. Remember, the senator, the successor of Hillary Clinton, had just come off a presidential campaign.
In fact, it’s something of a joke in newsrooms now that Gillibrand is even a senator — the joke being that we keep forgetting she exists.
Meanwhile, the once-powerful Clinton Foundation, a mega money-laundering operation, has seen its donations dry up since 2016, back when it raised roughly $63 million from donors all too happy to gain access to the Clinton family’s power and influence. Following the presidential election, when then-Republican nominee Donald Trump won a surprise victory, the Clinton Foundation saw its revenue plunge. By 2020, it was down 50% to $30 million.
Then, of course, there’s Hillary Clinton herself, who lost an extremely winnable presidential election to a former game show host. She lost a winnable election despite enjoying every conceivable advantage. Clinton had more money. She had a deep-rooted network of loyal donors. She had popular support in the U.S. press. She had the backing of a unified political party. She had the enthusiastic backing of two popular U.S. presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and she had endorsements from what seemed like every major pop culture figure both at home and abroad. Yet, for all her power and influence, she couldn’t manage it.
On Tuesday, with McAuliffe’s defeat, which comes on the heels of the decline of the Clinton Foundation, the 2016 election, and the back-benching of Gillibrand, one has to ask: Does the Clinton brand mean anything anymore?
