How Conservatives Won Virginia

Conservative Republicans Glenn Youngkin, Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares defeated Virginia’s deeply entrenched Far Left Democrat machine candidates by relentlessly pursuing three fundamentals of 21st century politics.

Branding the Democrats as Far Left: Losing Virginia Republican Establishment candidates of the recent past, such as Ed Gillespie, tried to “nice guy” their way into office. This is always a strategy for failure as the Democrats would hammer them with false charges of racism, sexism and wanting to push Granny over the cliff.

This is a message CHQ Chairman Richard A. Viguerie has been preaching to politically deaf Republicans for years. Youngkin and his Republican team relentlessly worked to brand the Democrats, and were not deterred when the Left-leaning media criticized them or attempted to knock them off message by “fact checking” their branding. Among the elements they were able to make stick as part of the Democrat brand were:

Democrats Will…

…cut the police budget significantly (which will cause crime to increase) and spend the

money on programs to “re-educate the police.”

…put the Teachers Unions in total control of what children (including Pre-K and K) are

taught, including what they see, hear, and read. McAuliffe believes parents have no

say or right to know what happens in a classroom.

…force Critical Race Theory (CRT) to be taught in all public schools, and to all Virginia

employees, as well as anyone receiving state money. CRT teaches that the greatest

country in the history of the world—America—is a racist country, whites are racists,

and minorities are victims of white racism, which will divide Americans.

…continue to support President Biden’s policy of allowing/encouraging millions of

foreigners to illegally enter America, and many will become citizens of Virginia,

entitled to vote and benefit from all welfare programs.

…abolish Virginia Right to Work laws, which will then allow Union bosses to force

people to join a Union and pay dues or be fired.

… to legalize partial-birth abortions, eliminate parental consent for minors to get

abortions, and any other restrictions on abortion until birth and beyond.

…greatly restrict your 2nd Amendment rights and some radical, Democrat socialists want

to confiscate all privately owned guns.

…increase government spending and debt for future generations to pay.

…significantly increase rules and regulations for small businesses. Thereby killing

hundreds of thousands of Virginia jobs.

… continue following the Cancel Culture demands of the radical, anti-American

Democrats.

By relentlessly hammering McAuliffe and the Democrats on these points Democrats were forced to disavow them, and alienate parts of their Far-Left coalition, or embrace them as part of their brand – they embraced them and lost.

Embracing Organic Grassroots Movements: In the past Virginia’s Republican establishment candidates were openly derisory of organic grassroots movements, such as the Tea Party and the MAGA movement. It wasn't that long ago that Virginia's leading Republican officeholder, House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, actually ran against the Tea Party and was defeated in the primary. Youngkin took a different path and embraced their issues and their leaders.

Youngkin didn’t shy away from the culture issues and effectively communicated to these suburban Moms and small businesspeople that he was one of them. The result was that the Loudoun schools parents, anti-CRT groups and anti-COVID mandate organizers around the Commonwealth worked tirelessly for Youngkin.

Youngkin particularly benefited from the efforts of grassroots organizers, such as voter registration and get-out-the-vote happy warrior Scott Pressler, who trained hundreds, if not thousands of activists in how to register voters and how to organize an effective door knocking campaign.

And hundreds more, including:

Ian Prior, a Loudoun County parent and former Justice Department public affairs director who founded the group Fight for Schools.

Stacy Langton, Maria Sherwell and Harry Jackson, Fairfax County parents who objected to pornographic homosexual literature in the school library at her child's school.

Bridget Kalivretenos of Frederick County who protested the School Board's mask mandate.

Virginians for Safe Communities (VSC) President Sean Kennedy workiing to recall Soros-backed Commonwealth’s Attorneys Steve Descano (Fairfax), Buta Biberaj (Loudoun), and Parisa Dehghani-Tafti (Arlington & Falls Church City).

Asra Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and a parent in Fairfax County, Virginia, who organized opposition to the teaching of Critical Race Theory in Fairfax public schools.

The result was, as Mr. Viguerie explained in his book TAKEOVER, low propensity voters or people who had heretofore not been politically involved could thus be activated to work for and vote Glenn Youngkin:

It is important to recognize that there are a relatively small number of people in your community who are interested in politics and will join and work in a political campaign or committee.

However, almost everyone you know is interested in one, two, or three local issues. Maybe it is schools, taxes, overregulation of land use and property rights, immigration, crime and public safety, or something else. By getting your family, friends, neighbors, church members, and others in your circle of influence involved in dealing with one of these causes, at some point you can help them see that the problem is caused by, or made worse by, the heavy hand of government.

That is a proven way to get people to become politically active, including becoming educated and informed by focusing on a single issue of personal importance to them.

Not only that, but for each new organization that is started, new leadership positions open up; a president; vice president; secretary; treasurer; membership, media relations, and Internet coordinators; and a fund-raising chairman are needed for every organization. It greatly expands the leadership inventory of the conservative movement when new organizations are formed and people become leaders by assuming leadership duties and fulfilling the responsibilities of those jobs…

In the past Virginia’s establishment Republican candidates ran the other way when they saw a grassroots movement, and they lost. Glenn Youngkin embraced this season’s grassroots movement, and won.

Focusing on Election Integrity: The Youngkin campaign understood from the get-go that vote fraud is a central element of Democrat campaigns and that election integrity and ballot security are not something that only happens on Election Day.

The Youngkin campaign began their ballot security operation by engaging with national experts on election integrity, such as attorneys Cleta Mitchell, J. Christian Adams and others, and worked tirelessly to protect the integrity of the election.

“I think we need to make sure that people trust these voting machines,” Youngkin said at an event hosted by a Richmond civics group, reported by POLITICO. “I grew up in a world where you have an audit every year, in businesses you have an audit. So let's just audit the voting machines, publish it so everybody can see it.”

By making election integrity an issue Youngkin connected with a key group of Trump supporters who were unintimidated and willing to do whatever it took to make sure there was no election stealing fraud – including being trained as poll workers and poll watchers.

They weren’t scrambling on Election Day when Democrats tried to bar Republicans from voting if they didn’t have a mask; within minutes of the first report they could put out an alert confirming that was against the law. There were observers focused on ballot drop boxes in Fairfax County and elsewhere and there was no possibility trained Republican election officials and poll watchers were going to leave vote counting locations to facilitate any mysterious 3:00 a.m. ballot drops, or be distracted by Election Night watermain breaks.

Glenn Youngkin’s win obviously benefited from other factors – effective conservative running mates in Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares and Joe Biden’s implosion being two of the most salient, but the three that clinched the win and can be replicated by any candidate in any campaign in 2022 and 2024 were branding the opponent, connecting with grassroots activists and their issues and having an effective and professional ballot security and election integrity operation.

George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie's ConservativeHQ.com and is a veteran of over 300 political campaigns, including every Republican presidential campaign from 1976 to 2004. A member of American MENSA, he served on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle, and as a staff member or advance representative for some of America’s most recognized conservative political figures, including Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin and Jack Kemp.

• Democrats

• 2021 elections

• Glenn Youngkin

• Winsome Sears

• Terry McAuliffe

• Far left Democrats

• Education

• critical race theory

• teachers unions

• illegal immigration

• abortion laws

• Second Amendment

• COVID mandates

• Elections integrity