Youngkin Makes Final Pitch in Virginia With Education Pledge
Youngkin Makes Final Pitch in Virginia With Education Pledge
(Bloomberg) -- Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate in Virginia’s gubernatorial election, used his final campaign rally before Tuesday’s election to reiterate attacks against his opponent Democrat, Terry McAuliffe, on education.
“We decide that we’re going to take the power of our children’s education,” he told a crowd of several thousand at a fairground in Loudoun County, a Washington suburb, on Monday night.
“This is a defining moment to the future of our commonwealth. A defining moment where we can stand up and say no to this progressive liberal agenda taking over.”
His audience responded with loud cheers when he promised to “end critical race theory,” although that is not taught in Virginia’s public schools.
Polls show the race between Youngkin, a former co-chief executive officer of Carlyle Group Inc. and McAuliffe, a former governor of the state, deadlocked. McAuliffe, who once held a lead over Youngkin, called in his party’s biggest names, including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama, among others to help his sputtering campaign.
Youngkin embarked on a 10-day, 50-stop bus tour throughout the commonwealth. If he were to win tomorrow’s election, he would be the first Republican to be elected as Virginia’s governor in more than a decade.
In the closing stretch of the campaign, Youngkin latched onto comments McAuliffe, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee, made in a Sept. 29 debate where he said that he doesn’t “think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” McAuliffe, after ignoring the attacks for several days, released a video where he affirmed his belief that parents should be involved in the education of their children.
His campaign has issued signs that read “Parents Matter” and “Parents for Youngkin.” A Washington Post-Schar poll released Friday found education has now become the top issue for likely Virginian voters, jumping from 15% saying it was their number one priority in September to 24% in October. Voters were split on who they trusted more on the issue with 47% saying McAuliffe and 46% Youngkin. His lead among independents grew from an 8 point margin advantage a month ago to an 18 point margin.
Democrats have sought to tie Youngkin to former President Donald Trump, who lost the state to Biden by 10 points in last year’s presidential election.
In a sarcastic reference to Youngkin’s trademark campaign outfit, Biden, at a rally with McAuliffe in Arlington last week, accused him of trying to avoid any association with Trump and reminded his audience of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. “Extremism can come in many forms,” Biden said. “It can come in the rage of a mob driven to assault the Capitol. It can come in a smile and a fleece vest.”
Though he was endorsed by Trump, and has thanked him for it, Youngkin has kept the former president at an arm’s length, avoiding rallying alongside him. Trump held a tele-rally for him on Monday.
Trump also called in to a pro-Youngkin rally last month in which the audience recited the Pledge of Allegiance to a flag said to have been from the Jan. 6 riot.
Youngkin, who was not involved in the planning of that event and did not attend, condemned the rally pledge as “weird and wrong” and said “the violence that occurred on Jan. 6 was sickening and wrong.”
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