https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/what-happened-last-night-in-virginia?token=
It’s the day after Election Day, and Democrats are casting about—as they did in 2016, as they have so many times before—for an explanation for what just happened. How did they manage to lose the Virginia governor’s race to a first-time candidate? How is it possible that the New Jersey governor’s race is still too close to call? How did the moderates trounce the progressives in local elections in Seattle? And how did the whole defund the police movement go down in flames in Minneapolis?
Progressive elites’ answer is predictable and telling: Republicans duped voters into voting against their best interests by distracting them with fake culture-war red meat—like Critical Race Theory in Virginia schools—that have nothing to do with whether they can get a job, see a doctor or send their kids to college.
Consider Republican Glenn Youngkin’s defeat of Democrat and former governor Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial election. Youngkin started the race six points behind McAuliffe in a state that went to Joe Biden by 10 points. So how did McAuliffe squander such a wide lead?
As Zaid Jilani notes, the shift started in earnest in September, and it centered around schools. Answering a debate question about legislation that would warn parents about sexually explicit material in their children’s curriculum, McAuliffe said: “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision. I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
These comments instantly became the touchstone of the campaign, the reason that voters gave reporters again and again for turning out for Youngkin. His campaign, along with conservative media, was able to tie McAuliffe’s comments to a host of other school-related issues—a sexual assault in a school bathroom in Loudon County; the question of whether Critical Race Theory belongs in K-12 schools; the endless COVID-19 school closures—and ultimately sway enough Democratic voters Youngkin’s way to give him a victory. A few days before the election, Youngkin led by 15 points among voters with school-age kids.