After Virginia, GOP amplifies debate over race and education

By THOMAS BEAUMONT, AARON MORRISON and WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans plan to forcefully oppose race and diversity curricula in public schools as a core piece of their strategy in the 2022 midterm elections. The party is supercharging a message that helped catapult Republican Glenn Youngkin to a win in Virginia’s governor’s race. Democrats are already reckoning with how to counter that message. They insist it is race-baiting that won’t have much appeal beyond the GOP base. But they are still smarting from 2020’s congressional elections, when Republicans responded to demonstrations against institutional racism that swept the nation by branding Democrats as the party of the “defund the police” movement.