A shockwave in Virginia gubernatorial election scares Democrats

Democrats were devastated by a blowout in the suburbs, writes Eric Garcia

Election 2021 Virginia Governor (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Democrats are likely in a state of shock not just by the fact that Republican Glenn Youngkin won in Virginia but by how resoundingly he thumped former Democratic Gov Terry McAuliffe on Tuesday evening.

Mr Youngkin, a businessman and former co-chief executive at the Carlyle Group, made significant inroads in the suburbs of Northern Virginia, which essentially serve as an extension of Washington, DC and where Joe Biden won resoundingly just last year.

In Loudoun County, Republicans zeroed in heavily on opposing the teaching of “critical race theory”, a niche legal thought that has since become a catch-all for Republicans to describe most teaching about racial inequalities.