Both Meaghan Downey and Nicole Norman are graduate students at Northwestern Medill in the Politics, Policy and Foreign Affairs specialization
ONE OF THREE VIRGINA REPORTS TODAY: As one of the key swing states for the 2024 presidential election, the Commonwealth of Virginia rightfully received considerable national attention. Today, we present three news stories all written by Northwestern University students participating in the university’s Medill News Servic e. We are proud to be partnering with the Medill News Service to present reporting written and produced by Northwestern University graduate journalism students reporting from Washington, D.C.
VIRGINIA – In Fauquier County, Sandra Rodgers stood behind a folding table with a Republican party flag draped over the front. She handed out Republican sample ballots and copies of the U.S. Constitution to voters as they entered Marshall Middle School.
Her reasons for volunteering with and voting for Republicans in Tuesday’s legislative elections were one in the same.
“Virginia needs to be a little more conservative than it is now and we’re hoping to flip that Senate in order to make that happen,” Rodgers said.
For the first time since redistricting in 2021, Virginians voted within new district lines. Prior to the election, experts predicted it would be the most diverse General Assembly in the state’s history. However, in some districts like Senate District 31, some voters felt that the new lines put them in districts that do not represent their values.
Home to one of the most watched State Senate races, District 31’s contest between Democrat Russet Perry and Republican Juan Pablo Segura attracted national attention and at least $10,393,791 million spent. Republicans hoped the open seat in this new swing district would give them the majority they needed to control the state Senate.
“This is a very consequential election. It could change things here in Virginia very dramatically,” Leesburg’s Democratic Mayor Kelly Burk said Tuesday morning. “I want to make sure that the town continues to prosper and grow and we need the help of the Senate to do that.”
When the districts were redrawn, Senate District 31 came to include parts of Democratic-leaning Loudoun County and Republican-leaning Fauquier County. In the 2020 presidential election and 2021 governor’s race, Loudoun County voted for President Joe Biden and former Democratic Governor Terry McCauliffe. Fauquier County went red in these elections, voting for former President Donald Trump and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Loudon County makes up about 90% of Senate District 31. The voters in the district were aware of the new lines, but were primarily motivated to come to the polls by the issues at stake, like Youngkin’s proposed 15-week abortion ban.
Tine Beam, a voter who rode up to the poll on her bicycle, longed for the days when Virginia had a Democratic governor and Democrats were in the majority in both chambers of the legislature.
“Five years ago we [had] all Democratic and it went very well. And look at now and all the rights that are being taken away,” Beam said.
Experts complimented Virginia’s redistricting efforts, saying it resulted in a map that fairly represents the population and its party preferences. Not everyone is happy with the outcome. Only 10% of Senate District 31’s registered voters are from Republican-leaning Fauquier County.
Some Fauquier County voters, like Henry Skinker, expressed frustration over the state’s new electoral district boundaries.
“We are in a district right now that is just completely inundated by Loudoun County. They out-populate us by so much. We're really keen to act against that,” Skinker said.
But for Virginia voters who hoped to consolidate Republican control in the state Senate and House of Delegates, the GOP came up short Tuesday. Democrats retained their majority in the Senate, although they lost one seat in District 24, and successfully flipped the House.
Perry was one of five Democratic candidates for state Senate to defeat her Republican opponent in a competitive swing district. According to the Virginia Department of Elections’ unofficial results, Perry had a five-point lead over Segura with 52.52% of the vote.
The Democrats’ victory across the state presents a new barrier for Youngkin, who had hoped to pass more conservative policies, such as abortion restrictions and giving parents more control over teachers
“I’m a little disappointed,” Youngkin told reporters Wednesday morning when discussing Tuesday’s election results. “I think the number one lesson is that Virginia’s really purple.”
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.