In recent months, political tensions around heated national issues like racism, transgender rights and mask mandates have spilled into local conversations around education in the region. Yet the rapidly changing demographics in Northern Virginia have also led to growing pains for the region. And it seems that Youngkin has had a lot of success with using education as a wedge issue.”įor Jews in the greater Washington, D.C., area, the center of regional Jewish life has shifted in recent years from Maryland’s Montgomery County to Northern Virginia, and Fairfax County in particular.ĭata from the 2020 Census confirmed that the region is growing, and getting more diverse Fairfax County is now the second most diverse in the state. “Having said that, I think that Jewish parents, in many respects, are no different than a lot of other suburban parents. I think it’s important to take that reality check,” said Franklin Siegel. That’s what every single poll has continued to show. “My gut instinct is that the Jewish community continues to be solidly Democratic voters. Youngkin’s campaign is hoping that winning independents and converting even a relatively small number of disillusioned suburban parents can catapult him to the governor’s mansion, which has not been occupied by a Republican in eight years. A poll released by Fox News on Thursday showed Youngkin ahead of McAuliffe. But some recent polls have given McAuliffe only a one-point advantage over Youngkin, a remarkable turn of events for Republicans after Biden defeated Trump in Virginia by 10 points last year. In Virginia, like in the rest of the country, Jewish voters are overwhelmingly Democrats. (A recent Youngkin ad featured a Republican activist who had pushed to have Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved removed from the reading list of her son, then a high school senior who went on to intern in the Trump White House.) Youngkin, meanwhile, is arguing that he will defend the rights of parents in the face of critical race theory and other policies pushed by progressives. Trump is reportedly planning a virtual rally for Youngkin on Monday night, although Youngkin said that Trump will not be joining the campaign in person. McAuliffe has opted to make his closing argument about the former president, calling Youngkin an “ extremist” and tying his “ politics of hate and divisiveness” to Trump. Governor Hala Ayala, and Dorothy McAuliffe. Also pictured (L-R) are Democratic candidate for Attorney General Mark Herring, Democratic candidate for Lt. Terry McAuliffe (2nd R) at Virginia Highlands Park on Octoin Arlington, Virginia. President Joe Biden (C) campaigns with Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Virginia Gov. Youngkin’s focus on education draws a contrast with McAuliffe, who “has been running much like a nationalized campaign, bringing in national political figures to campaign for him and trying to tie Glenn Youngkin to Donald Trump,” Rozell added. He’s hit a chord here,” said Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. “He holds these rallies on education issues out in Loudoun County. “But in reality, there is a significant backlash in Virginia to these changing demographics, which is why you’re seeing these culture wars being instigated as part of the campaigns across the Commonwealth.”Īll of this has come together in the final weeks of the gubernatorial campaign, with Youngkin seizing on a comment by McAuliffe in a recent debate: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” McAuliffe said last month - a sentence that has now been blasted to airwaves all around the state in Youngkin TV ads as an example of McAuliffe’s supposed lack of support for parents. Then they started referring to it as solidly blue,” said Guila Franklin Siegel, associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. Much of the divisiveness is being fueled by an increasingly diverse electorate in Northern Virginia that is calling for greater equity, and is coming to define the final days of a race that is being seen as a bellwether for 2022 and even 2024. Pocketbook issues have taken a back seat. Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who once occupied the Governor’s Mansion in Richmond, are having to step through minefields on charged issues like critical race theory, parents’ roles in what their children are taught in school, transgender rights and even school calendars. Demographic changes that have altered the makeup - and the politics - of the Old Dominion have touched off emotional, and sometimes violent, battles in America’s culture wars. In the closing days of a dead-heat race for governor, Virginia is looking less like a blue state than a black-and-blue one.
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