Democrats say they must prevent Republicans from becoming the ‘party of parents’ in 2022

The issue of how much say parents should have in their children's lives, particularly at school, was front and centre during the Virginia gubernatorial race, where both candidates attempted to prove that they knew what was best. Winner Glenn Youngkin backed parents' right to be involved in their kids' education, while the loser, Terry McAuliffe, was widely slammed for not sharing that view.

Obama's former deputy campaign manager said in an interview on MSNBC that Democrats need to make sure that Republicans don't become the "party of parents."

"We need to be the party of parents, and we are," she continued, "We need to own that agenda, we cannot let it go, and it's not just about critical race theory. It's coming out of COVID, it's parental frustration, it's parents being involved in their kids' schooling."

In September, Democrat contender Terry McAuliffe went after parents, saying he doesn't think they should be "telling schools what they should teach." He then waffled when addressing critical race theory, denying that it’s being taught in Virginia, while also calling it a "racist dog whistle."

Following Youngkin's victory, Sen. Ted Cruz said in an interview that some of the things that moved Virginians to vote Republican were "the teaching of critical race theory, the Loudoun County School Board covering up the violent rape of a teenage girl, and then the arrogance of the Democrats saying parents have no control over that."

"Even worse," he continued, was "Joe Biden's Attorney General, calling those parents domestic terrorists. I think that directly led to the result last night."

Prior to receiving the results of the gubernatorial election, Democrats were out suggesting that the race could be seen as an indication of which direction the country is going as 2022 approaches.

After Republican Glenn Youngkin was elected, Democrats began discussing how they could turn things around in 2022.