Would Clinton have lost Virginia to a "normal" Republican?

[uti2]

Rubio voted for the government shutdown alongside Ted Cruz.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/20/sen-marco-rubio-defends-vote-against-short-term-de/


This would limit his appeal in NoVA. As for Cruz's "establishment" issues, they wouldn't be too difficult for Cruz to overcome, all he'd have to do is appoint an establishment VP, someone like Romney or Jeb. But overall, both should have similar electability here.

[uti2]

It would be closer and if Kaine was still her running mate he would come in much handier in helping her win the state. But more likely than not she wins it.

Interesting note on Kaine.  Kaine was a pretty moderate pick for Hillary that seemed to reinforce her campaign strategy of building somewhat of a "grand coalition" against Trump.  In a race with a more "traditional" GOP nominee, I bet Hillary goes with a more "traditional" Democratic Veep - someone like Sherrod Brown or Ron Kind, maybe. 

For Rubio in particular, she had Julian Castro on hand for the job. For the normal Republicans like Jeb/Walker/Christie - Kaine was the default choice. She went with the default pick.

She may have picked a Brown or Bernie if she needed a game-changer - which is what she may have done against Kasich.

[uti2]

Rubio voted for the government shutdown alongside Ted Cruz.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/20/sen-marco-rubio-defends-vote-against-short-term-de/


This would limit his appeal in NoVA. As for Cruz's "establishment" issues, they wouldn't be too difficult for Cruz to overcome, all he'd have to do is appoint an establishment VP, someone like Romney or Jeb. But overall, both should have similar electability here.

Nobody would care about that. Rubio appears more sane than Cruz.

Like he did at the NRA town hall, with the "Buy into my Agenda" line? His policies are very similar to Cruz, he just sticks to a tight script, which can get banal in the face of direct confrontation.

Remember, Dukakis was the "sane" alternative to Bush, and was up double digits, until Bush started hammering him on his policies.

[uti2]

If 'normal Republican' means Rubio-esque characters then yes most likely.

Cruz - no way.  But then you could argue he's not a normal Republican.

Cruz and Rubio have the same positions on social issues and they both supported the Government Shutdown in 2013, they are extremely similar. Same goes for Ben Sasse, Mike Lee, Tim Scott and that whole group. The only exception in this group on any issue is Lee, who tends to be more libertarian/dovish on Foreign Policy and votes accordingly on FP issues.