Virginia was Terry McAuliffe’s to win. He had been governor once before, and the Democratic establishment was firmly behind him. But he made one crucial mistake. He alienated the one voter bloc he couldn’t afford to lose: parents.
McAuliffe lost the race a month ago when he declared on a debate stage that parents don’t have the right to tell schools and teachers what they should teach their children.
“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” McAuliffe said. “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision.”
From there, things got worse. Instead of just admitting his debate night comment was inappropriate and wrong, McAuliffe refused to back down. On at least seven separate occasions, he reiterated that he doesn’t want parents involved in the classroom and that he doesn’t think they should help government officials determine what should be taught in public schools.
Here are just a few examples.
During a September debate, he said, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” In a follow-up interview after the debate, he reiterated, “You don’t want parents coming in, in every different school district, saying this is what should be taught here and this is what should be taught there.”
Earlier this month, when asked if he still stood by his anti-parent screed, McAuliffe confirmed: “You do not want 25 parents picking books.”
By the time McAuliffe tried to turn things around, it was too late. The vast majority of voters with K-12 children were already on Republican Glenn Youngkin’s side because, for the first time, they realized just how big of a threat Democratic control of education is.
And it is a threat — because McAuliffe is far from the only Democratic politician who believes the state knows better than parents what should be taught in public school classrooms, especially if those parents oppose radical transgenderism and toxic racialism. That’s a common leftist belief. McAuliffe’s mistake was that he said it out loud.
