On Wednesday, Chris Lu, a Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center, gave talks for several student organizations on Grounds, including one for the University Democrats (“UDems”), a group aimed at campaigns and education to promote progressive political causes. His credentials made him a fitting guest at the event, having previously served as White House Cabinet Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Labor in the Obama administration, before working as the US Ambassador to the United Nations for Management and Reform under the Biden administration.
The UDems are in the midst of a campaign to increase voter turnout and support Abigail Spanberger as the Democratic candidate for the Virginia gubernatorial race. After some brief remarks on the campaign from UDems leadership, Chris Lu was introduced to begin addressing the organization.
The first words he spoke set the tone of the conversation: “I am here both to inspire you and, honestly, to frighten you.” He then continued, “What happens in Virginia in this election cycle will set the course of American politics for the coming years.”
Lu clarified that he puts great importance on Virginia elections as a bellwether for national elections because of the “purplish” electorate of the state, frequently resulting in a mix of Republicans and Democrats holding state office at the same time. He explained that in 2017, the election of a Democrat, Ralph Northam, for governor was a key signal that the Republican victories of 2016 were on a downward trend.
Northam won by the greatest margin seen in a Virginia gubernatorial election in decades, which Lu says was the real indicator of a bigger shift nationally. Lu put forward a similar goal for 2025: “In a purplish state like Virginia, it’s not just about Spanberger winning, but how much she wins by.”
Moving past the gubernatorial race, Lu offered his perspective on working for the Obama and Biden administrations and opined that though policies may vary greatly between presidencies, recent actions by the Trump administration have swung too authoritarian to be acceptable in a democracy.
“I have worked in the House and Senate under Republican leadership. Policy swings back and forth, but right now we are seeing the erosion of democratic processes,” Lu warned, referencing particular events from the past week, including the dismissal of two US attorneys and the perceived threats of censorship that led to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show.
The event then opened up to a question-and-answer session. Lu began by asking a question of the audience, soliciting students’ opinions on what issues are most concerning for young people at the moment.
One student replied that young people are “fed up” with the Democratic leadership in general, largely viewing the party as slow or unwilling to put up a “real fight” against the current administration. Lu, who had introduced himself as unashamedly partisan in favor of the Democrats at this point in his career, agreed that top Democrats could be doing more, but also requested that young voters ought to “cut some of these candidates a little slack on appearing less progressive because there is a tricky messaging game right now.”
To illustrate the point, he referenced how well Zohran Mamdani is campaigning in the New York City mayoral race, lauding his messaging on social issues, while suggesting that the same kind of campaign strategy would not work in Virginia. Spanberger, he pointed out, won her seat as a US representative while being outspokenly anti-Trump, but her current message to voters is a relatively non-partisan one: fixing the high cost of living in the state, which she dubbed an “affordability crisis.”
The switch to spotlighting more moderate issues, Lu theorizes, is because the winning strategy in the coming years will simply be to look more reasonable than the other side, offering broad messaging that can apply to an entire “purplish” state. In his view, President Trump has become a liability to the Republicans among moderate voters. Lu cited Trump’s remarks at the United Nations the day prior as support for this assertion.
Trump addressed the UN General Assembly on Tuesday in a speech nearly four times longer than scheduled. Chris Lu took particular issue with one of Trump’s comments directed at the other world leaders: “Your countries are going to hell.” Lu referred to the speech as an “unhinged stream of consciousness” that would make Republicans who support him less and less palatable in turn.
One audience member questioned whether the American people were simply growing desensitized to more “absurd” language in political discourse. Lu acknowledged that political discourse is unlikely to improve any time soon, even lamenting that Michelle Obama’s mantra — “When they go low, we go high” — does not “seem to win elections anymore.” Nevertheless, he argued that this unfavorable outlook only strengthens the need for authentic conversations on moderate issues: “Talk about groceries, Medicaid cuts, layoffs in government. Spanberger talks about being a mother.”
In response to a related question on combating political apathy, Lu emphasized the need to keep talking about issues that get people emotionally invested and make them feel some sense of indignation. He highlighted Jim Ryan’s pressured resignation: “We are one of the finest public universities in the world, and they have so politicized it. It’s an amazingly resonant issue in Virginia.”
He additionally put forward gun violence as a perennial issue that voters cannot afford to be apathetic about: “The most emotional I ever saw Obama was after Sandy Hook. He was in tears, thinking about his own daughters. So many times we have thought it would be the last tragedy, but it just wasn’t.”
Finally, Lu closed out the talk with an appeal to view people on either side of the aisle first as humans rather than as political opponents. He offered reassurance to the audience that there is still an opportunity for Democrats to regain political standing by the midterms, suggesting that there is ever-growing regret amongst some groups of people who voted for Trump. On the question of whether such voters will be welcomed or rebuked by Democrats, Lu concluded, “All we can do is model good behavior … We know the way back, and the way back is winning elections.”
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