ReportingThe November 2 ballot pits Joe Biden’s party figure, Terry McAuliffe, against a Republican newcomer from finance, Glenn Youngkin, who disputes him for moderate voters, far from the excesses of Donald Trump.
The shadows of the hotels, sad decrepit concrete cubes, stretch over the beach in Virginia Beach as soon as the sun goes down. Only an imposing bronze statue of Neptune offers a little fantasy to the walk, taken by storm in summer by tourists.
Located on the edge of the Atlantic, in the south-eastern state of Virginia, this seaside resort nearly five hours’ drive from Washington is popular for the sea air. But, on this October 16, Glenn Youngkin hardly has time to take advantage of it. The Republican candidate for governor is just passing through. He has two weeks left to defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe, in a close ballot, nationwide. On the one hand, Joe Biden is looking for proof of support for his ongoing reforms. On the other hand, the Republicans are watching the fate of their local candidate, who is careful to distance himself from Donald Trump, in a state favorable to the Democrats.
On this Saturday, Glenn Youngkin is the featured guest of a veterans association at the city’s convention center. An important electoral segment: Virginia has nearly 670,000 former soldiers, for a population of 8.6 million inhabitants. The room is packed. We distributed stickers and balloons, signs and T-shirts. No one wears a mask.
Roy Sanchez, 42, came very early, with his daughter Anya, just over 18. They left Hawaii and just moved to town. Roy works for an army accounting department, after having served abroad, notably in Afghanistan. “Our military withdrawal was horrible, without any method or plan”, he said bitterly.
Roy Sanchez speaks without excess. Growing up in Arizona, he is concerned about migration issues on the Mexican border. “You need a big wall, but also a big door, for legal immigration. “ But the first topic he mentions, to justify his support for Glenn Youngkin, is education. “Parents must be given the right to decide what is taught in school, so that children do not hear just one side of the story. ”
Denunciation of the Critical Race Theory
The Republican candidate has chosen a strategy rooted in everyday life to appeal beyond his narrow party base, by focusing on classrooms, which have become a field of ideological confrontation.
During a televised debate at the end of September, his rival, Terry McAuliffe, rejected the idea of parental influence in the school curriculum. In response, Glenn Youngkin took up this subject to denounce the Critical Race Theory (CRT), an approach emphasizing institutionalized racism in American history. The CRT has become an obsession with the conservative American right, which accuses the left of an enterprise of division and“Indoctrination”, even if it means neglecting any elementary awareness among young people of discrimination.
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