House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy on party's election sweeps
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., joins 'Life, Liberty & Levin'
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Sunday that Republicans proved unifying issues like education and crime prevention can be winning ideals in a country increasingly being divided by Democrats who continue to lurch further and further left into socialist governance.
McCarthy pointed chiefly to Virginia, Texas and New Jersey during his interview with Mark Levin on "Life, Liberty & Levin," telling the host that Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin found the pulse of the people while simultaneously rebuking the left's agenda.
"Every parent in every county and every corner of this country has a right to know what their children are being taught," McCarthy said as Levin pointed to media figures labeling Youngkin-friendly parents "racists" for opposing critical race theory.
"They have a right to have a say in that. Republicans respect the parents' rights and education. That's why we're coming out with a Parents Bill of Rights because this has been a wake-up call."
Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin holds a campaign event in Amherst, Va., October 28, 2021. (Fox News/Charles Creitz)
McCarthy said the Democrats' response to upset parents at school board meetings was to ask Attorney General Merrick Garland to "go after" them while Republicans instead chose to voice support for parental rights.
"This is what's bringing people together in suburban areas and metropolitans and in rural areas. This is part of the call of what we're finding through the grass roots that people respect other people's rights and the Republican Party continues to respect the parents' rights…" he said.
McCarthy pointed out a less-publicized race in San Antonio, Texas, where a Republican won a state legislative seat in a heavily Hispanic district where President Biden won by 14 points one year prior.
John Lujan defeated Democrat Frank Ramirez in Texas House District 118 on Tuesday while an Associated Press report showed Youngkin winning the Latino vote in the Old Dominion over Democrat Terence McAuliffe.
"Think of all the glass ceilings that Republicans broke in this last election [on Tuesday]. It wasn't just the election of the governor, the first woman minority woman elected to lieutenant governor, [but] you look at the race in Texas. This [seat] is 73 percent Hispanic," he said.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan Jr. headlines a fundraiser for Virginia GOP attorney general nominee Jason Miyares on Oct. 22, 2021 in Fairfax County, Virginia (Jason Miyares campaign)
"Republicans won this movement… so any Democrat that gets behind the socialist wing and they have a seat that Biden won by 16 points or less, they are now competitive," the Bakersfield lawmaker said.
"We can make a change, of course, in history and one year from now that we do not go down the path of socialism, that we wake up the rest of the nation as well. And I can't thank the grassroots enough for the work that they are doing because they are the ones who came out."
McCarthy also praised New Jersey State Sen.-elect Edward Durr, a furniture truck driver whose campaign spending was dwarfed by his opponent, incumbent Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-West Deptford.
Screenshot for Edward Durr's campaign ad, shot on an iPhone. (Ed Durr campaign)
Durr "knew what the people wanted," McCarthy said. "He drove a truck. He knew costs were rising, and he walked door to door and he engaged the people directly."
Durr's win sent shockwaves through New Jersey political circles, somewhat similar to how the election of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in 2018 stunned New York politicos who believed then-House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley would sail to reelection after 20 years representing his Queens district.
McCarthy added that much of the left-wing of the Democratic Party "doesn't even consider themselves Democrat."
He pointed to the fact Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, a registered independent who describes himself as a "democratic socialist," is the chairman of the Budget Committee and is in charge of crafting reconciliation legislation.
"They are the ones who are controlling the Democratic Party. They want to transform America," McCarthy said.
"This is what the wake-up call was on Tuesday. It was across the nation."
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