It’s a tried-and-true rule in politics that "if you’re explaining, you’re losing." As the Virginia governor’s race comes down to the wire, Democrat Terry McAuliffe has been stuck doing a lot of explaining.
The outcry started after a debate with Republican challenger Glenn Youngkin when McAuliffe revealed that he doesn’t believe parents should be in charge of their children’s education. McAuliffe’s stunning admission was no gaffe — it’s a belief he’s repeated at least seven other times since.
Voters throughout the Old Dominion have taken notice. Parents who hadn’t previously considered themselves political are now outraged and speaking out.
It goes without saying that the parents who fund Virginia’s public schools have every right to have a say in what those schools teach. That’s news to McAuliffe, who believes government bureaucrats — not parents — know best and should have complete control.
McAuliffe casually dismisses parents worried about radical curriculum making its way into the classroom, even smearing them as "racist."
But parents here in Virginia have every reason to be worried about what goes on in their kids’ schools.
A Fairfax County mother recently discovered her kids’ public school library included books containing sexually explicit material and even descriptions of pedophilia. Meanwhile, state officials are quietly moving to eliminate advanced diplomas in favor of far-left ideology.
And then there is the heartbreaking revelation that the Loudoun County School Board covered up an incident of a student sexually assaulting a classmate. These examples and others just reinforce that parents need to be more involved in their children’s education, not shut out. For McAuliffe and Democrats they’re nothing more than "phony culture wars" and "fake outrage."
With Virginians increasingly trusting Youngkin on education, McAuliffe has since tried walking back his controversial comments, claiming he was taken "out of context." His desperate attempts at damage control won’t work. Virginians aren’t going to be fooled by such nakedly political tactics from someone who learned everything he knows from the Clinton family.
McAuliffe’s brazen disregard for parents’ concerns has Democrats panicking in a state Joe Biden carried by ten points in 2020. Along with his disqualifying stance on education, there’s another reason McAuliffe has failed to excite Virginians about his candidacy — his track record.
The sequel is always worse than the original, and nothing about McAuliffe’s first term as governor should inspire confidence about the possibility of a second anyway. Under McAuliffe’s failed leadership, violent crime went up 10%. The rape rate increased every single year and at one point the murder rate went up 43%.
That McAuliffe says he’s "proud" to accept endorsements from prominent "Defund the Police" groups just goes to show his anti-public safety agenda is wrong for Virginia.
McAuliffe was no better on education. As governor, he was responsible for lowering academic standards across the state. McAuliffe even vetoed a school choice bill that would have allowed students to transfer out of poorly performing schools, proving he’s just another politician in the pocket of powerful special interests.
Finally, McAuliffe is woefully out of touch when it comes to the economy.
While Republican-run states are leading economic recoveries and getting people back to work, Democrat-led states are lagging far behind.
Virginia is no different. Virginia currently ranks 41st out of 50 states in jobs recovered since the onset of the pandemic, a record McAuliffe thinks is a success story.
And with Virginians already feeling the pinch of rising prices thanks to Democrats’ socialist policies, McAuliffe wants to saddle them with even higher taxes and big-government policies that will cost the average Virginia family an extra $5,400.
Fortunately for Virginians fed up with Democrats’ failures and looking for fresh new leadership, they have a better alternative. Glenn Youngkin is a political outsider with over 30 years of real-world experience and business acumen which he will use to get Virginia’s stalled economy moving again.
Youngkin will get to work cutting taxes to the tune of nearly $1,500 for an average family of four. In particular, his pledge to end Virginia’s regressive grocery tax will bring real relief to families paying drastically more on household staples every time they go to the store.
Youngkin also Backs the Blue. He’s earned the endorsement of law enforcement groups and sheriffs across the commonwealth who know he will fight for safe communities.
With less than a week until Election Day, the race is a dead heat. However, the momentum behind Youngkin’s campaign and Republicans running up and down the ballot is unmistakable. Youngkin is drawing overflow crowds from Virginians of all political stripes ready for real change.
If Republicans across the Commonwealth show up to vote on Nov. 2, we can end single-party Democrat rule in Richmond and return to Republican leadership and commonsense, conservative solutions that work.
Tommy Hicks Jr. is Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee.
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