OPINION:
Virginia sent shockwaves across America last week. Glenn Youngkin’s win in the governor’s race along with Republican victories up and down the ballot marked a stunning repudiation of Joe Biden and Democrats’ failed agenda. Republicans’ huge wins in a state Joe Biden carried by 10 points last year makes one thing clear: The red wave is here.
The Virginia results should be a wake-up call to every single Democrat in America. Voters in Virginia recognized the damage Mr. Biden’s radical policies have done in such a short time – and then completely rejected the far-left’s failed vision.
In the days leading up to the election, I was out knocking on doors and talking to voters in Norfolk, one of Virginia’s most reliably blue areas. Even in a Democrat stronghold, it was clear that Virginians were fed up with the far-left’s failures.
Fed up with unconstitutional mandates forcing workers to choose between their jobs and their freedoms. Fed up with Democrats standing with Defund the Police activists making our communities less safe. And fed up with socialist spending sprees that have caused skyrocketing prices on everything from gas to groceries to furniture. On Tuesday, Virginians finally got to say: “Enough is enough.”
Virginians made another statement in this election – one that is going to be heard all across America.
Over the past year, Virginia became ground zero for the national debate over education. Parents saw how Democrats kept children out of the classroom and tried to indoctrinate them with a radical curriculum like Marxist-rooted Critical Race Theory. And then they started speaking up.
In the midst of this parent-led pushback, Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe had the audacity to say that parents shouldn’t be involved in their own kids’ education. His stunning comments laid bare Democrats’ belief that government bureaucrats – not parents – should be in complete control when it comes to education, along with everything else.
Mr. McAuliffe’s comments were bad enough. Even worse was the Biden Justice Department’s directive to investigate and intimidate concerned parents, only confirming Americans’ worst suspicions about how far Democrats are willing to go in pursuit of power.
By electing Mr. Youngkin, Virginians sent a loud and clear message that parents’ voices still matter. Virginians stood up for parents everywhere by affirming that parents have every right to have a say in what their kids are taught in school. And they rejected the woke politics Democrats are pushing on our children, a twisted ideology attempting to teach them to view everything through a divisive lens of race.
Right before the election, Kamala Harris said, “what happens Virginia will in large part determine what happens in 2022.” For once, Ms. Harris was right. What happened in Virginia this week isn’t going to be an outlier – it’s just the start of a Republican resurgence nationwide.
Virginia’s rejection of Democrats like Mr. McAuliffe proved the backlash to Mr. Biden’s failed socialist agenda is real. If Republicans can win in deep-blue Virginia, imagine how our candidates will do in competitive battleground states across the country.
With one year to go until the midterm elections, Republicans are ready to build on our victories in Virginia. The red wave is here, and it is only going to continue to grow as we head into 2022 and beyond.
• Tommy Hicks Jr. is co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.