From The Daily Beast:
In an effort to court skeptical right-wing voters, investment firm exec turned Republican candidate for governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin has made banning critical race theory from public schools a cornerstone of his campaign.
But there are a couple of problems with Youngkin’s pledge. First, Virginia schools say CRT doesn’t appear in educational or training material. And second, just last year, Youngkin incentivized his employees to donate to organizations which champion the same social justice policies he now pledges to outlaw—and promised that his company would match those contributions.
Less than a week after the police murder of George Floyd, Youngkin’s company, sprawling private equity firm the Carlyle Group, put out a press release, signed by Youngkin and his co-CEO, Kewsong Lee, promising “a special match” offer to employees who donate up to $1,000 to any one of three social justice organizations: the Equal Justice Initiative, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the NAACP.
“Carlyle has grown and prospered by deliberately building a fabric of partnership with diversity of experiences and perspectives. We are global. We are multi-cultural,” Youngkin’s statement said. “In keeping with our deep commitment to our core values, we will continue to invest even more resources towards Diversity and Inclusion, not only at our firm, but in support of certain organizations focused on driving change in our world.”
Those groups are vocal advocates for racial and social justice. EJI and the NAACP more specifically support and promote the academic and legal lines of inquiry now broadly known as “critical race theory”—the right-wing bogeyman of the campaign cycle which has, in recent months, become a totem for the Youngkin campaign.
In reality, CRT is an academic and legal framework which examines how systemic racism became laced through the fabric of American history, how it has shaped institutions and the daily lives and perspectives of citizens, and how best to address those injustices.
But the theoretical framework, which originated at Harvard Law School in the 1970s, has become the target of a fierce right-wing movement predicated on what amounts to a politically charged caricature. Fox News has consistently run segments on critical race theory and former President Donald Trump has made the issue a foundation of his core subjects of aggrievement.
And on the 2021 campaign trail, Youngkin appears to have teleported himself to join those voices at the far-right fringe of the political spectrum. It’s part of his campaign’s broader effort to tap into the conservative outrage machine, which includes hot-button issues like vaccine mandates and election trutherism.
This showcases how big of fraud Youngkin really is, especially since he’s been trying to make education his big issue:
Republican Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday referred to education as the top issue in the state's election, saying parents are fired up about the public school system.
"I think it is, too," Youngkin told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt after Hewitt called education "the No. 1 issue in this race."
"By the way, parents, parents are absolutely angry about what’s happening in the public school systems," Youngkin continued. "And we’ve watched parents for the last 20 months see what’s happening in the classroom, because their kids have been at home, not in a classroom, on the computer, and that parents have been fighting for their kids’ rights.
"They’ve been fighting for them to get the schools open," he continued. "They’ve been fighting for them to teach their children how to think and stop teaching them what to think. They’ve been fighting to make sure the materials that are in their curriculum, in the library are appropriate."
Youngkin and his GOP allies in Virginia have leaned into education as a major issue throughout the campaign, citing coronavirus restrictions in the classroom and the debate over critical race theory and transgender rights in schools. The Republican nominee recently zeroed in on comments from his Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe, in which he said he does not believe parents should be telling teachers what to teach.
Also, check this out:
FYI:
Tuesday, Oct. 12 is the last day to make sure you’re registered to vote in the 2021 elections in Virginia.
To make sure you’re eligible you can:
- Register in-person: head to your local registrar’s office by 5 p.m.
- Register by mail: make sure to have your envelope postmarked by October 12
- Register online: head to the Virginia Department of Elections website. You have until 11:59 p.m. to apply.
Once you’re registered, you can vote early through Saturday, Oct. 30 at 5 p.m. at your local registration office. Election Day is November 2.
All Virginians can also request an absentee ballot by mail. The deadline is Oct. 22.
Mark your calendars:
Former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is set to hit the campaign trail with former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) in his bid for a second term as governor of the Old Dominion.
Abrams will campaign with McAuliffe on Sunday, where the two will attend three churches in Norfolk, Va., and take part in a "Souls to the Polls" event in the city. McAuliffe and Abrams are then slated to host a grassroots event in Northern Virginia in the afternoon.
The Georgia Democrat's visit comes as polls show the governor's race, viewed as a bellwether for next year's midterm elections, in a dead heat. A Christopher Newport University poll released last week showed McAuliffe leading Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin by 4 points, within the survey's 4.2 percentage point margin of error. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race as a "toss-up."
Abrams is seen as a major asset by those in her party, especially when it comes to turning out Black voters. Abrams was largely credited with helping flip Georgia blue in the 2020 presidential and Senate races.
Speaking of Stacey Abrams, I received this e-mail today from Stacey Abrams’ organization, Fair Fight:
Only THREE WEEKS remain until Election Day and Virginia Democrats urgently need your help to keep Virginia blue! In 2017, Republicans took control of the House by a single vote. Can you sign up today to help voters who need to fix their mail ballot so that it can count—all from the comfort of your couch?
The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and the entire House of Delegates are on the ballot.That's why we need you to make sure if someone has their mail ballot rejected, they get the chance to fix it right away.
This year, House races will be razor thin, and the Governor’s race is a toss-up— with an anti-voting, anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist on the ballot.
At a time when our democracy hangs in the balance as GOP-controlled states push hundreds of anti-voter bills and try to sabotage our elections, Virginia achieved incredible victories under unified Democratic control—like expanding Medicaid and enacting an omnibus pro-voter law.
Now, the Virginia Democrats need your help to defend the majority, protect that progress, and send a strong message to the country: 2020 was just the beginning—we're still fired up and ready to go!
Can we count on you to join these opportunities from the Virginia Democrats?
Cure Absentee Ballots! We need to make sure every eligible vote cast for Democrats is counted. Join a Ballot Cure Phone Bank — held every Tuesday at 6PM, Thursday at 4PM, and Saturday at 12PM EST. Once you are trained, you can make calls on your own time! Sign up at TinyURL.com/VACureCalls.
Ready for more ways to get involved?
Become a Super Volunteer! Do you have at least 5 hours to give each week between now and Election Day? Are you ready to take your volunteering to the next level? Become a Voter Protection Super Volunteer—many roles are available and most can be done from the comfort of your home! Sign up at TinyURL.com/VAVoterProSuperVols.
Recruit Poll Observers! Virginia Democrats want to make sure there are enough poll observers at all the polling locations that we need. Help build their poll observer team from the comfort of your home by going to TinyURL.com/VARecruitingCalls—and share the link with a friend!
And Be a Poll Observer! Are you able to volunteer in person in Virginia during Early Voting (September 17-October 30) or on Election Day (November 2)? Be a poll observer! Poll observers are the eyes and ears on the ground, responding to the needs of voters and ensuring that every eligible Democratic voter is able to successfully cast a ballot. Full and half-day shifts are available. Reserve your spot and sign up for online training by going to TinyURL.com/VAPollObservingSignup.
Thanks, and let’s get it done!
Team Fair Fight Action
Click here to sign up for Cure Phone Bank.
Click here to sign up to volunteer.
Click here to sign up to recruit poll observers.
Click here to sign up to be a poll observer.
The big names are coming:
First lady Jill Biden will stump for Terry McAuliffe (D) in Richmond on Friday, as the former Virginia governor campaigns for a second term.
The first lady’s appearance on the campaign trail, announced by the White House on Monday, comes as polls show that McAuliffe and Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin are neck-in-neck less than a month before Election Day.
A poll released last week by Emerson College and Nexstar Media Group found that the race is in dead heat among likely Virginia voters: McAuliffe secured 49 percent support, while Youngkin has 48 percent.
One percent of voters said they are planning to vote for someone else, and 2 percent said they are still undecided.
To help keep Virginia Blue:
Former President Barack Obama will campaign for Terry McAuliffe and Virginia Democrats ahead of the November elections, the gubernatorial nominee announced on Tuesday.
"The stakes are so huge," McAuliffe said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "If people don't understand, they come out in presidential years, but they have to come out in this off year because literally their lives depend on it."
McAuliffe said Obama was campaigning for him on Saturday, but his campaign later clarified in a statement that the event will be held next Saturday on October 23.
McAuliffe and Virginia Democrats have grown more concerned in recent weeks that their party's base voters are not as focused on the race as they need to win, raising fears that a low turnout election with a more conservative electorate could lead Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin to victory next month.
It’s understandable why all eyes are on Virginia:
If Republican
Glenn Youngkin triumphs in a margin-of-error tussle in the commonwealth, already alarmed Democrats would tip into full-on panic about next year's midterms, when their party faces a historical disadvantage as the party in the White House. The devastating blow would swell doubts about Biden's own political authority and capacity to drive
an endangered agenda through Congress with a spending and debt cliff looming in December. And Youngkin, a wealthy former private equity executive, would trigger an inquest among Democrats over whether tarring GOP candidates with the polarizing aura of Donald Trump -- as McAuliffe has done incessantly -- will be quite so potent when they're
not running in deep blue states like California and when the ex-President is not on the ballot.
On CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, the once and possible future Virginia governor tried to explain why the race is so close in a state where Biden thrashed Trump by 10 points only 11 months ago.
"This is an off-off-year. If you look at the history of Virginia, it's not a presidential year turnout. Turnouts go from like 70 percent down to somewhere in the 40s," said McAuliffe, who won a close gubernatorial election in 2013, a year that followed a Democratic White House win. "Listen, we're going to win this race because I'm right on the issues," McAuliffe told Dana Bash.
Pundits sometimes over-interpret individual races, trying to extrapolate from them the results of future elections elsewhere while ignoring their idiosyncrasies. But a Democratic defeat in what has become a reliably blue state over the last decade would be impossible to ignore and would cause political headaches for Democrats that reach beyond the Biden presidency. Republicans have struggled in recent years to balance the increasingly populist and nationalist leanings of the pro-Trump base with a need to appeal to highly educated, affluent voters in the suburbs. The task is especially hard in the Northern Virginia suburbs around Washington, DC, which teem with federal workers and highly educated and affluent voters. But if Youngkin can thread the needle, the wider political world will take note.
"Every gubernatorial election in Virginia is seen as a leading political indicator. How the parties do in Virginia's governor's race, the year after a presidential election, is seen as a harbinger of how the parties will do in the midterm elections," said Stephen Farnsworth, a professor of political science at University of Mary Washington in Virginia.
90 for 90 provides a really good thread regarding which districts in Virginia went to Biden and which ones went to Trump:
By the way, this woman deserves a shout out:
Mike Pence told her, “I love your heart.”
Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio confided in her that Donald J. Trump would soon announce he was running again for president in 2024.
Glenn Youngkin, the Republican nominee for governor of Virginia, revealed to her that he could not publicly press his anti-abortion agenda for fear of losing independent voters.
All of them made these comments to Lauren Windsor, a liberal activist who has turned a hidden camera, a Tennessee drawl and a knack for disarming her targets with words of sympathetic conservatism into a loaded political weapon.
Posing as a true believer — in Mr. Trump or a stolen 2020 election — Ms. Windsor approaches Republican leaders at party gatherings and tries to coax them into revealing things that they might wish to keep in the G.O.P. family.
Early voting in Virginia has already started. Click here to register to vote, look up your voting info, find your polling place or ballot drop-off location.
Democracy and Health are on the ballot this year and we need to be ready to keep Virginia Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with McAuliffe and his fellow Virginia Democrats campaigns:
Virginia Democratic Party
Terry McAuliffe
Hala Ayala
Mark Herring
