Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin told Newsmax on Friday that momentum is shifting his way from his Democratic rival, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, in the race because he is part of "a movement, not a campaign."
McAuliffe "calls his friend [President] Joe Biden, and has Joe Biden send the FBI in to try to silence parents' voices in Virginia," Youngkin said on "The Chris Salcedo Show." "And parents just aren't having any part of it. This is a movement, not a campaign, and it is so exciting to be part of it."
Youngkin and McAuliffe are locked in one of two closely watched gubernatorial elections this year, in Virginia and New Jersey, which many political experts believe may serve as harbingers of the 2022 midterm elections in Congress.
Democrats hold a razor-thin majority in the House and are evenly split — 48 Democrats, 50 Republicans, and two independents who tend to vote with the Democrats — in the Senate.
Youngkin, who was trailing in the polls a few weeks ago, is leading McAuliffe by 8 percentage points, 53% to 45%, in a Fox News poll just a few days from the election.
Youngkin told Newsmax on Wednesday that "enthusiasm is enormous," noting he has received 150,000 individual donations at YoungkinForGovernor.com, he knocked on a million doors, and he plans to have spoken with 5 million Virginia voters by the time polls close Tuesday.
A key issue in the race is how parents in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Loudoun County are challenging the school board there regarding what is being taught in the classrooms, as well as allegations that the district covered up the alleged rape of a female high school student by a male student wearing a skirt in a girls' restroom.
"We've just seen Virginians come together," he said. "It's no longer Republicans against Democrats, and what we plan on doing is making sure that schools are teaching our children how to think, and not what to think, that in fact, we're engaging with parents and listening to them."
Youngkin said that when he is elected, he will begin a charter school initiative to give parents dissatisfied with their school district a choice of where their children can go.
He also said he would fund "a record amount" of money into the public school system to ensure students in the state get a high-quality education.
"We are getting ready as Virginians to get our commonwealth back moving in the right direction," he said.
He said that once elected, he would call for an investigation into the Loudoun County school district and hold to account those responsible for any attempted cover-up.
Youngkin added that the school district moved the student accused of rape "to another school while he was being prosecuted, and hid him in another school, and hid it from parents and hid it from students and hid it from the public."
"We're going to fully investigate this, and people will lose their job or people will resign," he said. "But we're going to make sure that this school board's held accountable."
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