Cardinal News reported on reactions from Virginia Republicans– including Congressman Cline– to the results of last week’s Democratic sweep in the midterm Congressional elections.
Virginia was not immune to the casualties.
The commonwealth’s Republican congressional delegation will shrink from five members to three in the coming year after Democrats Shannon Taylor and former Congresswoman Elaine Luria ousted incumbent Reps. Rob Wittman and Jen Kiggans in the 1st and 2nd districts, respectively.
Rep. John McGuire in the 5th District saw his margin of victory shrink from 15 percentage points in 2024 to 2 points in 2026, as he narrowly wrested his second term in office from the hands of his Democratic challenger, former Congressman Tom Perriello.
Incumbent Republican Rep. Ben Cline in the 6th District saw his margin shrink from 28 percentage points in 2024 to just under 11 points in 2026 as he faced a challenge from Democratic candidate Beth Macy. And in the 9th District, Virginia’s most conservative, incumbent Rep. Morgan Griffith saw his comfortable margin of 45 percentage points in 2024 decrease to just under 32 points as he faced a challenge from Democratic candidate Joy Powers.
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Cline, of Botetourt County, agreed that there is a lot of frustration among voters regarding the price of gas and goods.
“The fact that we are going through rough economic times right now means we have to focus like a laser beam on making America competitive,” he said in a phone interview Monday.
That effort would mean bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. and making the country more energy independent by increasing the country’s refining capacity.
Cline said he could only speak for the 6th District when asked if he thought Trump’s actions influenced Republican losses across the country.
“[Voters] are very concerned about the price of things, whether it’s at the pump or on the shelves, and they want their member of Congress to focus on those issues for them, and so that’s what I’m doing,” he said.
Notice that Cline dodged the question about the influence of Trump’s actions on the elections. And after Beth Macy won nearly 45 percent of the vote, he should not pretend to speak for the whole Sixth District about this or anything else.
Rather than “focus on those issues” during the past two years, Cline has dutifully gone along with Donald Trump as he recklessly imposed sweeping tariffs and started a war that drove up “the price of things.”
If the election results were a wakeup call for some Republicans, Cline seems to be sleeping through it.
