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Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin announced a new effort Monday to mobilize parents against his Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe. This comes after McAuliffe stated during the debate that parents should not be making the decisions on what is taught in Virginia’s schools.
“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” McAuliffe said.
McAuliffe has not backtracked from the statement and Youngkin continues to hit him for it.
“Terry McAuliffe showed us his heart when he said that ‘parents don’t matter.’ He immediately disqualified himself from office,” Youngkin said in a statement. “I believe that parents matter, and I’ll never put government bureaucrats or politicians between parents and their kids. As governor, I’ll empower parents and restore excellence and commonsense in education.”
Youngkin is trying to really take advantage of this situation by keeping it front and center on their platform. His campaign sent out a press release Monday with 23 different links showing people criticizing McAuliffe for the comments and they have been running an ad showing the moment from the debate for several days.
McAuliffe’s campaign touted the polls showing support for his policies in a statement. “A recent poll of Virginia voters showed parents support Terry over Glenn by nearly double digits because they know Terry is the only candidate who will keep their kids safe in schools and has a plan to invest in their education,” said Renzo Olivari, a spokesperson for McAuliffe. “If anti-vaccine advocate Glenn Youngkin had his way, our schools would be closing, children would be sick and quarantined, and our economy would be in the ditch. Terry McAuliffe is the only candidate with a real plan to end this pandemic, keep kids safe, and give every Virginia child a world-class education”
Election day is Nov 2.
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