Youngkin: Victory shows winning GOP path on education

PHOENIX — Incoming Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Wednesday his victory in a strongly Democratic state showed a winning path for Republicans to talk about education, an issue for which he said the GOP has “historically been a bit on our heels.” Youngkin spoke at the Republican Governors Association annual meeting in Phoenix, where governors, donors and strategists were riding high on his victory in a state Democratic President Joe Biden won by 10 points just one year ago. A newcomer to politics, Youngkin won by tapping into culture war fights over school curricula, emphasizing parental rights to make decisions about their children’s education with the slogan, “parents matter.” “The polls kept telling us that education was the seventh or eighth or ninth most important issue,” Youngkin said. “Let me tell you, it is the top issue right now, and Republicans across the country can own this topic.” He said Republicans can win by pushing for “strong schools that teach our children how to excel, not watering down the curriculum, a school where parents have a say in what their children are being taught.” Youngkin’s victory set off alarm bells for Democrats, who were already facing the historically daunting challenge of running in a midterm election with their party in control of the White House. Doug Ducey of Arizona, who oversees the party’s efforts to elect Republican governors as chairman of the RGA, cast election integrity as important but just “one among a number of issues.” Arizona, which Biden narrowly won, was the epicenter of Trump’s push to cast doubt on the 2020 vote count when a group of his supporters, working on behalf of state Senate Republicans, led an unprecedented partisan review of the ballots and vote-counting machines in Maricopa County.