DEMOCRATS' DEEPEST FEARS. Democratic strategists are still trying to figure out why a top party figure, Terry McAuliffe, lost the race for governor of Virginia. McAuliffe did all the right things from the 2021 Democratic playbook. He tried to portray his opponent, Republican Glenn Youngkin, as a far-right anti-vaxxer. He tried to portray Youngkin as a racist. And most of all, he tried to portray Youngkin as the living, breathing incarnation of Donald Trump. But it didn't work. So now, Democratic pollsters are doing some basic research. Why did voters reject McAuliffe? What, specifically, did he do wrong? Recently, a Democratic firm, ALG Research, which served as the top pollster for President Joe Biden's campaign, asked those questions in focus groups in the Northern Virginia suburbs and in Richmond. Some of the answers they found are deeply troubling for Democrats all across the country. Two lessons stand out:
The first is that Democrats lost the education issue, long a party strength. And they did not lose it, as much of the press coverage implied, because of critical race theory. They lost it because of the party's support — dictated by teachers unions — of shutting down schools during the COVID pandemic.
In a new report , ALG's Brian Stryker.........
