Glenn Youngkin wasn’t just a loser Tuesday night. No, he was an apocalyptic loser.

Youngkin has built his entire career on and earned his right-wing stardom through his attacks on public education and the safety of students. He may call it something else, but the game is unmistakable: kids will learn only what hardcore conservatives deem appropriate. Some might call this “propaganda” or perhaps “indoctrination”–of course, Republicans claim the opposite, that the left is pushing their abhorrent ideals (like that people should be treated equally or something evil like that–the horror!) on innocent and unsuspecting children and parents, but that’s just standard fare right-wing playbook: anything they want to get away with, they accuse their opponents of doing.

In general, this strategy has worked well for them, much to the chagrin of, you know, decent human beings. But on Tuesday night, voters showed they aren’t going to fall for it. After a tumultuous and chaotic election cycle, Youngkin lost control of the House and failed to win the Senate, effectively blocking his right-wing agenda and delivering an emphatic “absolutely-the-f*ck-not”.

Now, it’s not like each vote comes with a certification from the voter stating “I reject Glenn Youngkin and his Republican cronies wholesale and kindly ask them to go away”, so any claims to know what an election was about or what voters were specifically saying are mere speculation, but boy do we want to speculate.

You could make the case that progressives control the House and Senate now because they successfully wedged abortion. We’ve even written about that very thing. But elections can be about more than one thing, and this time around, it was about a broad rejection of the right-wing’s restrictive, controlling agenda, and Youngkin’s attacks on the health and security of public schools and their students certainly fall under that category. Besides, that’s pretty much what Youngkin is known for, and he’s made it pretty clear that he likes that. But a defeat at the state level means that Republicans won’t get their way with public education, and we are positively giddy. 

The work is far from over, but we have earned a damn victory lap, and we’re happy to take it. To everyone who turned out to vote, regardless of what that individual vote was about for you, thank you for doing your civic duty and delivering Republicans the defeat they so richly deserved. We’ll see you in 2024 for round two.