Republican Glenn Youngkin's upset victory in the Virginia governor race is likely to embolden and energize Republicans ahead of next year's crucial midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake.
In edging out Democrat Terry McAuliffe, Youngkin may have provided a model for Republican candidates in 2022, while Democrats must now fret over President Joe Biden's sagging approval ratings and stalled agenda in Congress.Biden and his Democrats have had a rough year. The spread of COVID-19 and pockets of resistance to vaccines continue. The military pullout from Afghanistan was widely viewed as chaotic and mismanaged.
Youngkin capitalized on those troubles, running up the score in rural Virginia and squeezing McAuliffe’s margins in some critical suburban areas. But the losses by McAuliffe and other down-ballot Democrats in a state Biden won by 10 percentage points a year ago - along with a closer-than-expected New Jersey governor's race - left no doubt that Democrats are now in a weaker political position.
The Republican seized on tensions between parents and school boards over policies for COVID school closures and safety protocols, gender issues and the teaching of so-called “critical race theory” – a term misused to describe antiracism curricula that Youngkin claimed was evidence that school districts were drifting too far leftward.
“Youngkin’s massive overperformance was tied to the issues of schools - and an uprising from parents, who became overnight homeschoolers,” said Doug Heye, who worked as a top aide to Eric Cantor, a former Republican congressman from Virginia.Even with the long shadow Trump continues to cast over the Republican Party, Youngkin expertly showed how to keep his distance from the divisive former president without incurring his wrath.
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