Lauren Appell: McAuliffe looks desperate in Virginia, pushes the panic button in tight race

With all eyes on Virginia’s gubernatorial race, Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe, once thought to be a sure thing in the bright blue commonwealth – which voted for President Biden by 54% – is pushing the panic button in the final weeks of his campaign. 

A lot can change in a year, and you can almost smell the fear and desperation in the air. After all, Virginia is supposed to be the magic eight ball for the 2022 midterm elections, and it’s not looking very magical right now for the Democrats. 

Like President Biden, McAuliffe has allowed himself to be held hostage by the ultra-left wing of his party – choosing to stand with extremists who want to defund police and the teachers unions who want to silence parents.  

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He actually bragged on Twitter that he was PROUD to be endorsed by the New Virginia Majority, an extreme defund the police group, and when pushed he dug his heels in refusing to renounce their endorsement.  

McAuliffe, just like Biden, is incapable of uniting his own party on anything but being divided. Imagine him trying to unite all of Virginia – like Biden is "uniting" the country. No thanks. 

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In these last weeks he’s rolling out the red carpet for the Who’s Who of the Democrat Party. Nothing reeks of desperation more than an 11th-hour revolving door of big names and pretty faces in the hopes you can distract from the fact that you’re beholden to the extreme left-wing fringe of your party.  

He’s stood with Jill Biden, Stacey Abrams, and he’ll stand with Barack Obama next week and likely President Biden before Election Day. Yet, he refuses to stand with parents or law enforcement in Virginia, the state he wants to govern. 

While he’s promising a visit from Biden, it was just earlier this month that the one-time governor already started shifting blame in a seemingly desperate attempt to absolve himself from any personal responsibility in what was never supposed to be a tight race. He wanted to make sure everyone knew it would be Biden’s fault if it turns out he’s not two-time Terry after all come Nov. 2, saying, "As you know, the president is unpopular today, unfortunately, here in Virginia, so we’ve got to plow through." 

But now after throwing him under the bus, he claims the president, who has a dismal approval rating of 45% in Virginia, will come back to the commonwealth to help him plow through. 

All aboard the sinking ship.  

And speaking of sinking ships, it was McAuliffe who may have torpedoed his own campaign. During the final gubernatorial debate, he arrogantly lectured Virginia’s moms and dads saying, "I don’t think parents should be telling schools what to teach." 

Did the veteran politician read the teleprompter wrong?   

Let’s try again. 

McAuliffe's lame attempt at trying to convince us he didn’t really say what he really said sounds an awful lot like the Biden equivalent to "C’mon man."

When later given the chance to clarify the context of his comments, he doubled down and made sure we understood the context with another lecture: "Listen, we have a Board of Education working with the local school boards to determine the curriculum for our schools. You don’t want parents coming in in every different school jurisdiction saying this is what should be taught here, and this is what should be taught there." 

Roger that. Parents sit down, shut up and stay in your lane.  

But now, scared, desperate and scrambling for a mop to clean up his mess, he says his words are being taken out of context. Hmmm … more likely it’s the bottom of the ninth – with less than a month to go to the election – and he just realized he may be striking out with parents. In a recent poll, 57% of Virginia parents said they want a say in what their kids are taught. 

McAuliffe may have been shocked to learn that means even some Democrat parents believe their lane includes their kids. He’s quickly figuring out those parents, whose votes he could typically count on, might not be so motivated to get out and vote for a candidate actively working against them. And this election is all about getting your people to the polls.  

Enter the pivot. 

His lame attempt at trying to convince us he didn’t really say what he really said sounds an awful lot like the Biden equivalent to "C’mon man." These people truly think we’re stupid. 

It’s important to remember that, in addition to saying parents should have no say in what’s taught in schools, in the debate McAuliffe also said, "I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions." 

This should raise alarm bells for every parent in Virginia, as he made this statement after it was a parent who found pornographic books containing sexually explicit material, including pedophilia, in Fairfax County school libraries. 

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His campaign is clearly flailing. Surprise, most people don’t hate the police and they don’t think government is the answer and parents are the problem. Even in McAuliffe’s own party, common sense moderate Democrats don’t subscribe to the anti-parent, anti-police extremes held by the fringe groups to whom he’s indebted.  

McAuliffe chose his side, and it’s not with the people of Virginia. The cleanup at Virginia Democrat headquarters is going to need a bigger mop. 

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