Virginia&#8217;s most popular Republican is AWOL on the most ludicrous redistricting in the nation.
The Commonwealth of Virginia now stands exactly a month away from an April 21st vote that would approve the most partisan Democrat gerrymander in the nation, and Republicans are nowhere to be found.
Governor Abigail Spanberger (&#8220;Moderate&#8221; &#8211; The Wall Street Journal) rubber stamped the 10-1 redistricting attempt by octogenarian radical leftist Louise Lucas — who actually runs the Richmond legislature — sending a bizarrely shaped map to Virginia voters which amounts to a blatant power grab, allowing for five Democrat majority seats all based within a stone&#8217;s throw of Washington, D.C. to govern the entire state. With zero acknowledgement that Virginia&#8217;s electorate had a Republican governor just months ago, and a 6-5 Democrat majority in the current Congressional representation, it&#8217;s an obscene approach to destroying local representation that short-circuits districts approved by a bipartisan commission on a decade-long basis.
The question on the minds of conservative Virginians through all of this is clear: Where is Glenn Youngkin?
Youngkin, the most popular Republican politician in Virginia, criticized this attempt in its early days. But when Virginians tune in to March Madness, they aren&#8217;t seeing a single ad featuring the former governor. Instead, they&#8217;re barraged with Democrat ads featuring Donald Trump and decrying the current map (where they already have a majority) as racist, unfair, and corrupt.
The deluge is unending, and funded primarily from out of state Democratic entities.
The amount in question is upwards of <a href="https://x.com/apublictrust/status/2031813155807019222">$22 million</a> in ad spending — closer to $30 million according to some consultants — and one of its biggest funders is, you guessed it, George Soros to the tune of <a href="https://x.com/MSchmidtRVA/status/2034295507833454607">$5 million</a>.
By comparison, the Virginia Republican-aligned pushback in defense of the current map is essentially nonexistent. There is no major ad campaign pointing out the false narrative Democrats are advancing. With Youngkin apparently unwilling to expend significant political capital fighting this effort, only former Attorney General Jason Miyares has stepped into the breach — and unlike the former governor, he lacks the donor class connections to bring major resources to the fight.
What&#8217;s particularly maddening for conservatives in the Commonwealth is that even Democrats admit the April referendum is a close-run thing, well within the margin despite their recent sweep of the Old Dominion&#8217;s top three jobs. With a winnable situation sitting right in front of them, though, Republicans seem to be throwing up their hands — or hoping that the Virginia Courts will bail them out and render the map unacceptable. But this question won&#8217;t even be heard <a href="https://wtop.com/virginia/2026/03/virginias-redistricting-referendum-still-sparking-fierce-partisan-debate/">until after the vote</a>.
Glenn Youngkin seems to have a mindset that having had a successful four-year tenure as governor, his time engaged in partisan politics is at a comfortable lull. He&#8217;s happy to wait a couple of years and just run for president if he&#8217;s in the mood. But if this blatantly partisan Democrat redistricting wins in April, Republicans — and not just those in Virginia — should absolutely blame him for the loss, and for the ludicrously skewed gerrymander that will end up with five Democrat Congressmen representing most of the state while comfortably living within driving distance of the best country clubs in Northern Virginia.

Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate Winsome Earle-Sears Closing Campaign Rally

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Glenn Youngkin — He’s Just Not Around To Fight Gerrymanders

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Glenn Youngkin — He's Just Not Around To Fight Gerrymanders

Congress

Democrats

gerrymandering

Glenn Youngkin

Leftists

Virginia

Voting

Abigail Spanberger’s inauguration as the Old Dominion’s 75th governor on January 17 and the subsequent unveiling of her legislative agenda shared by her Democrat colleagues in the legislature have once again proven a very important point: You cannot take Democrats at their word when they claim to be moderate. Once they win, they will drop the mask.
During last year’s campaign for governor, Virginians were told again and again that Spanberger was a <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/abigail-spanberger-thinks-that-democrats-need-to-listen-more?utm_source=chatgpt.com">moderate</a>, a <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/the-new-democrat-divide-socialist-mamdani-v-security-moms-kn38qjgfk?utm_source=chatgpt.com">pragmatist</a>, a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/democrats-spanberger-sherrill-virginia-new-jersey-trump-5869ac164d05f00f4ca07d7919e3960b">bipartisan problem-solver</a> who would govern from the center and resist the ideological excesses of today’s Democrat Party.
The New Yorker ran <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/abigail-spanberger-thinks-that-democrats-need-to-listen-more?utm_source=chatgpt.com">an article</a> just two days before election day titled: 
<blockquote>Abigail Spanberger Thinks That Democrats Need to Listen More: The front-runner for Virginia governor has long made the case for moderation.</blockquote>
In an interview with The Times of London, a liberal pundit <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/the-new-democrat-divide-socialist-mamdani-v-security-moms-kn38qjgfk?utm_source=chatgpt.com">said this</a> about Spanberger:
<blockquote>“The last word you would use [about] Spanberger is populist,” says Colin Mortimer, founder and director of the Centre for New Liberalism. “She is a pragmatic, grounded, moderate Democrat who is hyper-focused on delivering results for Virginia.</blockquote>
Voters were assured that campaign slogans about “working across the aisle” and choosing “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/reel/791441170380360">pragmatism over partisanship</a>” meant something real, as Spanberger herself emphasized on the campaign trail and on election night.
Now that the election is over and governing has begun, Virginians can see the truth clearly: Spanberger’s promises of moderation should be thrown into the trash, where they belong.
The <a href="https://x.com/greg_price11/status/2013350008733487510">legislative agenda</a> now being advanced by <a href="https://vahousedems.org/2025/11/17/virginia-house-democratic-caucus-announce-first-bills-and-legislation-for-2026-session/">Democrats in the General Assembly</a> is not by any means a moderate agenda. It is not a centrist agenda. It is not a pragmatic agenda. It is a radical leftist agenda, clearly aligned with priorities laid out by Democrat leadership in Richmond.
<div id="attachment_1037217" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1037217" class="size-large wp-image-1037217" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2256776000-864x576.jpg" alt="RICHMOND, VIRGINIA - JANUARY 17: Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger speaks after being sworn into office at the Virginia State Capitol January 17, 2026 in Richmond, Virginia. Spanberger is the first woman elected to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s highest office. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2256776000-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2256776000-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2256776000-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2256776000.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Win McNamee/Getty Images</div>
Even though outgoing governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, left the new governor with a <a href="https://wydaily.com/latest/2025/07/31/virginia-closes-budget-year-with-a-nearly-2-7b-surplus/">$2.7 billion budget surplus</a>, Virginia’s Democrats want new and higher taxes on income, investments, landscaping equipment, food deliveries, and hotel stays.
Spanberger’s <a href="https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2026/january-releases/name-1111414-en.html">agenda</a> also includes new restrictions on free speech near abortion clinics, taxpayer-funded education for illegal aliens, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences, lowering the criminal penalties for robbery, and potentially eliminating Virginia’s right-to-work protections.
Spanberger also wants to change the way elections are administered in Virginia. She wants to <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/session-details/20261/committee-information/S08/dockets/20933">extend</a> the time absentee ballots can be received and counted after Election Day, extend the deadline for ballot curing, ban the hand counting of machine-readable paper ballots, allow people to cast votes electronically, and <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB965">add Virginia</a> to the National Popular Vote Compact, which destroys the Founders’ vision for the Electoral College.
This is not a bait-and-switch in theory; it is bait-and-switch in practice.
That should not surprise anyone who has been paying attention to how modern Democrats govern. It should matter to voters, however, who were explicitly told that this governor would be different.
The agenda now being pushed through the General Assembly reflects the same ideological commitments we have seen from Democrats nationwide: more government, more mandates, more power centralized in Richmond, and less deference to parents, taxpayers, and local communities. It reflects a belief that government knows best, and that, once the election is over, dissenting voices should be ignored.
This is the fundamental problem with the “moderate Democrat” brand. It exists entirely as a campaign tactic. Once power is secured, the mask comes off, the talking points fade, and the base demands results. And when the leftist base of today’s Democrat Party demands results, it demands policies that are anything but moderate – a reality <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5694763-progressive-populism-democratic-party/">even acknowledged by</a> some of the Democrat Party’s best strategic thinkers.
Virginia voters were told they were electing a governor who would check the excesses of her party. Instead, they are watching a governor who appears ready to sign off on those excesses.
To be clear, this is not about one bill or one issue. It is about an overall governing philosophy. Taken as a whole, the legislative package being rapidly advanced by Democrats in Richmond represents a sharp turn to the radical Left – on spending, on regulation, on social policy, and on the role of government in everyday life.
This is not what Virginians were promised.
Elections have consequences, and governors are entitled to advance their priorities. But voters are also entitled to honesty. If a candidate intends to govern as a reliable partner of radical leftist lawmakers, voters deserve to know that before Election Day, not the morning after the inaugural ball.
We should all take note and remember that when it comes to Democrat governance, moderation is just a campaign costume, discarded the moment the votes are counted.
* * *
Jenny Beth Martin is Honorary Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action and host of <a href="https://jennybethshow.com/">The Jenny Beth Show</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Abigail Spanberger Is Sworn In As First Female Virginia Governor

In Virginia, The Mask Comes Off The ‘Moderate’ Democrat

In Virginia, The Mask Comes Off The 'Moderate' Democrat

abigail spanberger

Elections

governor

Liberals

Opinion

Taxes

Voters

Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) tore into Virginia Attorney General-elect Jay Jones — who won Tuesday’s election despite the cloud of scandal that threatened to engulf him — on Wednesday, saying that he was no less concerned about Jones’ ability to carry out the duties of his office in an unbiased manner.
Youngkin mentioned the scandal that had followed Jones, stemming from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-the-virginia-way-dead-ag-jason-miyares-breaks-down-whats-really-at-stake-in-jay-jones-race">text messages</a> he’d sent three years earlier that advocated the assassination of then-state House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican, and suggested that Gilbert and his wife should have to watch one of their young children die.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
WATCH: Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin RIPS AG-elect Jay Jones:
&#8220;I am incredibly concerned about the Attorney General elect&#8217;s to do the job based on the text that he sent. They were abhorrent, and I think that they, once again, reiterate that you can&#8217;t come into this job, if… <a href="https://t.co/btyNg2qgtE">pic.twitter.com/btyNg2qgtE</a>
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1986090547740660208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“I am incredibly concerned about the Attorney General-elect’s ability to do the job based on the texts that he sent. They were abhorrent, and I think that they, once again, reiterate that you can’t come into this job if you are espousing death on a political enemy, the death of children, and the death of law enforcement,” Youngkin posted on X.
“And I believe, just as I&#8217;ve always believed that that disqualifies him for the job,” the governor continued. “The next administration&#8217;s going to have to figure out how to deal with that because they have law enforcement, that they&#8217;re going to need to make sure, feel good about doing the job. They&#8217;re going to have to make sure that parents with children feel safe.”
“And that’s going to be a challenge going forward. My position has not changed; that there is absolutely no excuse for what he wrote. None. And we live in a society today that I think has lost its way, at least some folks have, on their willingness to almost accept violence and political violence as a solution,” Youngkin concluded.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears lost her bid for the governor’s mansion on Tuesday, meaning that Youngkin will soon be replaced by Democrat <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/spanberger-still-sells-merchandise-with-jay-joness-name-despite-attempts-to-distance-campaigns">Abigail Spanberger</a>, who initially condemned Jones’ text messages, but stopped short of calling for him to step away from the race.

planecrash

Glenn Youngkin Rips Into Jay Jones After Election: ‘I Am Incredibly Concerned’

2025 elections

Jay Jones

Politics

Republicans are blasting Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger for backing a policy that allows biological males to compete in women’s sports if they identify as transgender.
When asked on Tuesday by a local news outlet about her stance on transgender bathroom use in schools and sports participation, Spanberger responded by saying that she supported a policy in place before incumbent Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin took office, which determined sports participation on a case-by-case basis. Youngkin, who is not eligible to run for re-election this year, introduced model school policies stipulating that participation in sports should be based on sex, not gender identity. 
&#8220;So in Virginia, we previously, until very recently, had a process in place where on an individual, one-by-one basis, schools, parents, principals, coaches were making decisions based on fairness, competitiveness, and safety, where a child might be able or might not be able to play in a particular sport,” Spanberger <a href="https://wset.com/news/local/spanberger-addresses-stance-on-transgender-women-in-sports-and-bathrooms-democratic-party-virginia-gubernatorial-candidate-election-day-2025">told</a> WSET on Tuesday. “It was in place for ten years over that time. There were roughly 40 kids who went through the process. Some were denied the ability to play the sport they wanted to play. Some were approved.”
“I think that … the process that was in place for 10 years was one that was working. It was one that took individual circumstances and individual communities into account, and I think that is the process that Virginia should continue to utilize,” she added.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, a Republican facing off against Spanberger in November, ripped into her lengthy answer. 
“Abigail Spanberger just went full Kamala Harris to avoid a simple yes or no question,” Earle-Sears <a href="https://x.com/winwithwinsome/status/1970841008251588822">said</a>. “The answer is YES—Abigail supports men in girls’ sports, restrooms, and locker rooms.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Abigail Spanberger just went full Kamala Harris to avoid a simple yes or no question.
The answer is YES—Abigail supports men in girls’ sports, restrooms, and locker rooms. <a href="https://t.co/adkYiXZRaa">pic.twitter.com/adkYiXZRaa</a>
— Winsome Earle-Sears (@winwithwinsome) <a href="https://twitter.com/winwithwinsome/status/1970841008251588822?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Earle-Sears has run several ads <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WinsomeESears/videos/-this-is-the-ad-abigail-spanberger-does-not-want-you-to-see/1442429363653470/">targeting</a> Spanberger’s previous support for pro-transgender policies during her time in the House. 
“Spanberger wants boys to play sports and share locker rooms with little girls. And Spanberger will let children change genders without telling their parents,&#8221; one <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6ErAuV8hw">recent ad</a> says.
The Republican Governors Association also <a href="https://x.com/gopgovs/status/1970847801677639754?s=46">ripped</a> into Spanberger, saying that she doubled “down on her support for biological men in girls&#8217; sports, locker rooms, and bathrooms. Not only is this wrong, it&#8217;s putting Virginia girls at risk.”
&#8220;Abigail Spanberger was asked a yes-or-no question about protecting women’s sports and private spaces. Her response? Confusion, deflection, and word salad. Virginia cannot afford this INSANITY,&#8221; said the American Principles Project, a conservative advocacy group.
The issue of transgenderism in schools was one of the defining issues of the 2021 gubernatorial election in Virginia, where Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe. The issue came to a head after The Daily Wire reported that a male wearing a skirt had sexually assaulted a girl in a Loudoun County high school bathroom.

Early Voting Begins In Virginia Gubernatorial Race

Abigail Spanberger, Virginia Dem Gov Hopeful, Ripped For Weak ‘Kamala’ Answer On Trans Athletes

Democrat Gov Hopeful Blasted For Weak ‘Kamala’ Response On Transgender Athletes

Transgender

transgender athlete

Winsome Sears

WASHINGTON—A Virginia school district has been accused of pushing minor Hispanic students to abort their unborn babies — a move that Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy is warning may have violated federal law.
In a letter exclusively obtained by The Daily Wire, the Louisiana Republican calls on Fairfax County Public Schools to explain <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whistleblower-uncovers-secret-abortion-scandal-at-virginia-high-school-parents-deserve-better">whether it paid for the abortion</a> of a young girl&#8217;s baby, without her parents&#8217; knowledge or consent, and warns the district that &#8220;a school official pressuring minor students to obtain covert abortions using school funding is illegal and, if proven, requires concrete action by your school board to hold the perpetrators accountable.&#8221;
Fairfax County Public Schools did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Wire. However, in August, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid claimed that the district had only just learned about the allegations that week and stated that such behavior would never have been tolerated.
&#8220;We will see this investigation through with the utmost seriousness, taking swift and appropriate action once we have the facts,&#8221; Reid <a href="https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/governor-orders-criminal-probe-into-alleged-abortions-at-centreville-high-school/article_a1c3bc41-9b17-4ac1-8187-70eaa7de4ca3.html">said</a>. “It is my commitment to share the key findings of that investigation as soon as I am able.&#8221;
Cassidy, a physician who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, writes that in 2021, school officials arranged and paid to abort the baby of a young girl, a minor student, and &#8220;attempted to do the same for another student&#8221; without the consent of these girls&#8217; parents. The incident took place at Centreville High School, where school social worker Carolina Diaz allegedly pressured two girls to abort their babies and used school funds to pay for the abortions. A whistleblower teacher says that she brought her concerns to school administrators seven times without success.
&#8220;One 17-year-old girl ultimately had an abortion, while another student who was five months pregnant fled from the abortion clinic in fear after being pressured to have an abortion,&#8221; Cassidy wrote. &#8220;Both of these young girls allege that the school social worker, Carolina Diaz, pressured them into having abortions and told one of the girls that she &#8216;had no other choice.&#8217; On top of the already horrific situation of a school official pressuring minor students to obtain  abortions, it is alleged that school funds were used to pay for the abortion.&#8221;
The senator expresses deep concerns that Fairfax County Public Schools &#8220;seems to be concealing the fact that these allegations were brought to the school&#8217;s attention years ago but ignored by school officials.&#8221;
&#8220;Public reporting states that a Centreville High School teacher, Zenaida Perez, claims to have notified school officials about the abortions seven separate times since May 2022, only to be ignored and then retaliated against for blowing the whistle on this conduct,&#8221; wrote Cassidy. &#8220;However, in an email to Centreville High School staff and families on August 7, 2025, you claim that the school board  only learned about these allegations &#8216;earlier this week.'&#8221; 
Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin <a href="https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2025/august/name-1054950-en.html">directed state police to open a criminal investigation</a> into the allegations on August 13, noting that school funds may have been used to abort babies, including local, state, and federal funds.
&#8220;I am deeply concerned with the allegations that Fairfax County Public Schools officials arranged for minors to get abortions without parental consent and may have misused public funds to pay for them,&#8221; Youngkin said at the time. &#8220;I am directing the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation to open a full criminal investigation into the matter immediately.&#8221;
FCPS receives about $50 million a year in financial aid from the federal government, Cassidy noted, and the Hyde Amendment prohibits federal education funding from being used to fund abortions.
&#8220;As Chairman of the HELP Committee, I am determined to ensure that federal education funds are not being misused in violation of the law and parents’ rights to protect their children,&#8221; wrote Cassidy. &#8220;Given the seriousness of the allegations and the potential that federal funds were used by school officials to  pressure minor students into receiving covert abortions without parental consent, it is imperative  for the Committee to determine whether any federal funds were misused and whether the Hyde Amendment or other relevant laws were violated.&#8221; 
The senator called on FCPS to share, by October 6, their reporting requirements when school officials become aware that a student is pregnant. He also requested that the district share &#8220;what actions, if any, are taken in response to a school&#8217;s awareness of a student&#8217;s pregnancy.&#8221;
&#8220;In your response,&#8221; he notes, &#8220;please detail the reporting structure and provide any school-issued guidance or policy documents.&#8221; 
Sarah Zagorski, senior director of public relations and communication at Americans United for Life, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whistleblower-uncovers-secret-abortion-scandal-at-virginia-high-school-parents-deserve-better">argued to The Daily Wire in early September</a> that &#8220;parents deserve better&#8221; than the alleged treatment at the school. She mentioned a Fairfax County school board meeting where parents, educators, and community leaders asked questions about the alleged coerced abortions, questioning &#8220;whether these were isolated incidents or part of a broader pattern of overriding parental rights and disregarding state law.&#8221;
&#8220;The allegations are deeply troubling given both of the girls involved were underage. [Teacher and whistleblower Zenaida Perez] says that one student, who was five months pregnant and wanting to keep her baby, said she felt like she &#8216;had no choice.&#8217; The other girl told Perez she was terrified because her legal guardians did not know about her abortion.&#8221;
&#8220;Children need protection and parental guidance, especially when faced with an unplanned pregnancy, not forced secrecy by adults attempting to usurp fundamental rights of parents to make decisions regarding the well-being of their children,&#8221; wrote Zagorski. &#8220;Girls from marginalized communities, including Hispanic girls from Centreville High School, deserve better than betrayal from people they should trust and cover-ups by school bureaucrats.&#8221;

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Virginia School May Have Illegally Pushed Minor Students To Have Abortions, Senator Warns

Abortion

bill Cassidy

Fairfax County

Parents, educators and community leaders recently attended a Fairfax County School Board meeting in Virginia to ask questions about an <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/virginia-school-system-investigating-claims-staff-arranged-students-abortions-without-parental-consent">alleged coerced abortion case</a> involving two Hispanic minors at Centreville High School.
Centreville High School has a <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia/districts/fairfax-county-public-schools/centreville-high-school-20462__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!z-3bjZRUUFzVpcjUUXeCnOmT5iO0fbyCiy8sK0gxSSxuJkQ3-e2SK8nKwzsT-qgLY1fjiIEr7WbqqhMTXRP5j4yv$">minority enrollment</a> of 69%, and 32% of its students are economically disadvantaged. For pregnancy matters, the school’s policy states that students are encouraged to discuss their concerns with their parents.
The whistleblower at the school, Zenaida Perez, is an English as a Second Language (ESL) Teacher and is originally from Cuba. She immigrated to the United States in 1990 and holds a master’s degree in ESL.
Perez claims that, beginning in 2022, she discovered a social worker was arranging and paying for minor girls to obtain abortions without parental knowledge or consent, which is required in the state of Virginia.
She reportedly brought her concerns to school administrators seven times. But instead of district officials addressing these allegations, Perez says she experienced bullying from administrators and attempts from the school to <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/governor-orders-criminal-probe-into-alleged-abortions-at-centreville-high-school/article_a1c3bc41-9b17-4ac1-8187-70eaa7de4ca3.html__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!z-3bjZRUUFzVpcjUUXeCnOmT5iO0fbyCiy8sK0gxSSxuJkQ3-e2SK8nKwzsT-qgLY1fjiIEr7WbqqhMTXUI6JXVn$">undermine her integrity</a> by falsely accusing her of handing out pregnancy tests to students.
The allegations are deeply troubling given both of the girls involved were underage. Perez says that one student, who was five months pregnant and wanting to keep her baby, said she felt like she “had no choice.” The other girl told Perez she was terrified because her legal guardians did not know about her abortion.
Worried parents in attendance at the school board meeting questioned whether these were isolated incidents or part of a broader pattern of overriding parental rights and disregarding state law.
Most Americans <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/16/democrats-gop-parental-notification-abortion-laws-00097245__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!z-3bjZRUUFzVpcjUUXeCnOmT5iO0fbyCiy8sK0gxSSxuJkQ3-e2SK8nKwzsT-qgLY1fjiIEr7WbqqhMTXYCxdjTu$">support</a> parental consent for abortion as they recognize that life-and-death decisions should not be made without parental guidance. In Troxel v. Granville, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the fundamental rights of “parents in the care, custody, and control of their children,” and 36 states require parental involvement in abortion-related decisions for minors.
Despite the guarantee of parental rights, Virginia is attempting to strip them from the abortion equation by passing <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20251/HJ1">House Joint Resolution 1</a>, a constitutional amendment that enshrines intentionally broad &#8220;reproductive freedom&#8221; as a right in the state constitution.
The Centreville High School case also underscores over a half-century of abuse by so-called &#8220;reproductive health care&#8221; advocates targeting minority communities for abortion.
Sadly, abortion peddlers know impoverished minority girls are abortion-vulnerable due to the broader inequalities they face, like racial prejudice, economic disparities, and access to authentic health care. They are also unlikely to resist coercion, especially when it comes from authority figures like school officials.
Their struggles are not just statistics to me, because I lived them. I grew up in the middle of the same kind of hardship after my mother’s <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://aul.org/author/sarah-zagorskiaul-org/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!z-3bjZRUUFzVpcjUUXeCnOmT5iO0fbyCiy8sK0gxSSxuJkQ3-e2SK8nKwzsT-qgLY1fjiIEr7WbqqhMTXYscX0kk$">attempted abortion</a> with me. She had come to the U.S. from Honduras, already struggling to raise seven children she couldn’t provide for, trapped in an abusive home. She too believed she had no other choice.
She did defy coercion from her abortion physician in the end, but this kind of resistance is rare. Victims are often threatened, manipulated, and face real barriers like lack of money, absence of support, or fear for their safety.
I am thankful that the Governor Glenn Youngkin has directed the state police to open a criminal investigation into the case. Parental rights should not be usurped, and school employees have no right to hide secret abortions from parents.
Children need protection and parental guidance, especially when faced with an unplanned pregnancy, not forced secrecy by adults attempting to usurp fundamental rights of parents to make decisions regarding the wellbeing of their children.
Girls from marginalized communities, including Hispanic girls from Centreville High School, deserve better than betrayal from people they should trust and cover-ups by school bureaucrats.
* * *
<a href="https://aul.org/author/sarah-zagorskiaul-org/">Sarah Zagorski</a> is the Senior Director of Public Relations and Communication at Americans United for Life.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

High School Students Walking in a Hallway

Whistleblower Uncovers Secret Abortion Scandal At Virginia High School. Parents Deserve Better.

Education

High School

Hispanics

Parental Rights in Education

Parenting

Pro-Life Movement

Teenagers

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that a Civil War monument removed under the Biden administration from Arlington National Cemetery will be restored to its original location. 
The monument, known as the Reconciliation Monument or the Confederate Memorial, was removed by the Pentagon in December 2023 under President Joe Biden because of its links to the Confederacy. First erected in 1914, the monument sat in a section of the cemetery where around 400 Confederate soldiers were buried. 
“I’m proud to announce that Moses Ezekiel’s beautiful and historic sculpture — often referred to as ‘The Reconciliation Monument’ — will be rightfully be returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site,” Hegseth announced on X. “It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history—we honor it.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I’m proud to announce that Moses Ezekiel’s beautiful and historic sculpture — often referred to as “The Reconciliation Monument” — will be rightfully be returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site.
It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike…
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecDef/status/1952851480643359156?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The news was first reported by The Blaze. 
In 1906, Secretary of War and future president William Howard Taft <a href="https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Monuments-and-Memorials/Confederate-Memorial">approved</a> plans to construct a memorial near the Confederate graves. The monument was created by prominent Jewish American sculptor Moses Ezekiel, who fought for Virginia during the Civil War. 
Featured on the monument are 14 shields referencing the 11 official Confederate states, and the border states of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. There are also figures of southern soldiers and civilians alongside mythical gods. 
The monument references Isaiah 2:4, a passage in the Bible that talks about turning swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, a powerful message for a nation recovering from the trauma of war and the deaths of 600,000 Americans. Many presidents, including Barack Obama, have sent flowers to the monument on Memorial Day.
After the removal by the Biden administration, the monument was moved to a Defense Department storage facility in Virginia. 
“At the request of Moses Ezekiel’s family and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Moses Ezekiel&#8217;s sculpture will be returned to Arlington National Cemetery,” Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/exclusive-moses-ezekiels-historic-sculpture-finally-set-for-installation-in-arlington-cemetery-by-the-southern-graves-it-once-marked">told</a> the Blaze’s Beltway Brief, “where he is buried and where his legacy as a renowned American artist and decorated veteran can be honored.”
Youngkin added that the monument would be refurbished and would be back on display in Arlington by 2027.
The announcement from Hegseth came after the National Park Service <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nama/learn/news/pike.htm">said</a> Monday that it would be returning the statue of former Confederate General Albert Pike to Washington, D.C. The statue was torn down during a riot in June 2020 and never went back on display.

US-CEMETERY-CONFEDERATE-MEMORIAL

Hegseth Returning Civil War Memorial Removed By Biden To Arlington National Cemetery

American Civil War

American History

Confederacy

Department of Defense

Pete Hegseth

A Virginia school district official conspired to “skirt” restrictions on transgender ideology in schools, prompting a Title IX &#8220;expert&#8221; to praise her &#8220;clever&#8221; workaround, emails shared with The Daily Wire reveal.
On January 22, 2025, Leah Bressler, Montgomery County Public Schools&#8217; Title IX compliance officer, corresponded with the Association of Title IX Administrators about ways to respond to Trump&#8217;s expected executive actions on transgender ideology. In the email exchange, obtained by Speech First and shared with The Daily Wire, Bressler proposed altering the district&#8217;s code of conduct in a way to keep its current “gender identity protections” in place. 
In response, Brett Sokolow, the chair of the advisory board for the Association of Title IX Administrators, said that he didn’t know if Bressler’s proposal would successfully “skirt” executive action, but that it may be worth it to “go down fighting.” 
The exchange, with the subject line “Implications of EO,” occurred two days after Trump’s inauguration. 
“This is just a brainstorm&#8230;.What if the system just moved to a code of conduct that provided the Title IX framework to any allegation for any reason that violated the Davis standard?&#8221; Bressler wrote. &#8220;With support services, monitoring, documentation as required in Title IX — but open the gate to entire conduct policy? Our jurisdiction has protections in our policy manual for gender identity &#8211; if the policies applied to everything equally across the board- couldn&#8217;t the system maintain the protections?”
The Davis Standard refers to federal guidelines that stipulate schools can only be held liable for sexual harassment and violations of Title IX if they have knowledge of, and are indifferent to, sexual harassment.
In response, Sokolow said that Bressler may have come up with a “clever” way to get past Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s (R) Department of Education, which holds that Title IX allows schools to restrict bathroom use by sex. 
“This is too state-specific for me to really be able to opine on, Leah. It&#8217;s clever, but I have no idea if it would work to skirt the limitations that VA is enacting. My suspicion is that state legislatures will punish cleverness, in the long run (see Texas). Meaning, that if school officials like you find legit ways to work around the state limitations, the state will learn from this and respond by tightening its limitations,” Sokolow replied. 
“This might be a viable strategy for you, or at least a good delaying tactic, but I don&#8217;t think it has legs in the long term. I think if it walks like a Title IX duck, it&#8217;s not going to matter what container we place it in. But, fight the good fight. I&#8217;m just giving you thoughts on whether your idea is a winner&#8230;but it might be good to go down fighting,” he added. 
That email came two days after Trump signed an executive order on “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism,” which rescinded the Biden administration&#8217;s application of Title IX to gender identity. He later signed an executive order that directed federal funding away from schools that push gender ideology on students. 
Current Montgomery County Public Schools <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/mcps/Board.nsf/goto?open&amp;id=BX9PB26040F9#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policies</a> stipulate that students are allowed to use the bathroom or locker room of their choice based on their gender identity, meaning that males are allowed into female restrooms and changing areas.
When asked by The Daily Wire if it consults on bypassing federal regulations, the Association of Title IX Administrators said that it does “not provide legal advice.” 
“ATIXA often discusses with members the challenges of competing and unclear federal, state, and court standards, and we encourage our members to explore the contours of these challenges fully to best assess how their schools, districts, and institutions should respond to a dynamic legal environment related to sex discrimination,” the organization said. 
A similar dynamic has played out across the country as liberal school officials have resisted Trump’s efforts to purge leftist ideology from federally funded schools and empower parents concerned about political indoctrination.  
Speech First Acting Executive Director Nicole Neily called for Congress to step into the fight over Title IX.
&#8220;It&#8217;s appalling — albeit unsurprising — that Title IX administrators seem to be determined to circumvent the very laws they&#8217;re supposed to be enforcing,” Neily said. “America&#8217;s girls are little more than collateral damage in these activists&#8217; larger political war, which is why it&#8217;s imperative that Congress steps in to provide certainty and clarity and end these games.&#8221;

President-Elect Trump Meets With Republican Governors At Mar-A-Lago

‘Go Down Fighting’: Emails Reveal School Official Plotting To ‘Skirt’ Trump Trans Guidance

Donald Trump

Title IX

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill into law on Friday to limit the social media use of minors under the age of 16 to one hour per day.
The Consumer Data Protection Act, supported by both Republican and Democrat state lawmakers, will require social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, to limit minors&#8217; time on such platforms.
Platforms will use &#8220;neutral age screen mechanisms&#8221; to determine the age of users and then limit their screen-time accordingly, Wavy.com <a href="https://www.wavy.com/news/politics/virginia-politics/is-time-up-for-youth-on-tiktok-gov-youngkin-seems-to-think-so/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Parents, per the law, will be required to give &#8220;verifiable&#8221; consent if they want their child&#8217;s time on such apps increased or decreased.
The Consumer Data Protection Act will take effect next year, on January 1, 2026.
Youngkin has long voiced his concerns about children&#8217;s exposure to social media. In November, for example, the governor <a href="https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2024/november/name-1036768-en.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> an executive order addressing the &#8220;youth mental health crisis driven by the effects of unrestricted cell phone use and addictive social media platforms.&#8221;
“While social media and the internet have brought many positives to our society, there is a growing consensus that social media is having severe — severe and persistent — negative impacts on our kids,” the governor <a href="https://www.wavy.com/news/politics/virginia-politics/is-time-up-for-youth-on-tiktok-gov-youngkin-seems-to-think-so/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> back in 2023.
“Children spend on average nearly five hours daily on social media; recent studies have suggested that children who spend more than a few hours per day on social media have double the risk of poor mental health,” Youngkin&#8217;s website said at the time. “Through budget proposals, legislation and executive action the youth mental health strategy will address critical components and harmful aspects of social media on our youth.”
Notably, Youngkin actually wanted the Consumer Data Protection Act to go further, restricting social media use daily to one hour for all those under 18 years old. The bill, though, landed at age 16.
The issues with social media have also been recognized by the federal government. In 2023, Biden-era U.S. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/surgeon-general" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Surgeon General</a> Vivek Murthy issued an <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/health" target="_blank" rel="noopener">advisory</a> warning that <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social media</a> use among minors can severely damage <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mental-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mental health</a>.
“The most common question parents ask me is, ‘is social media safe for my kids.’ The answer is that we don’t have enough evidence to say it’s safe, and in fact, there is growing evidence that social media use is associated with harm to young people’s mental health,” Murthy said.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-surgeon-general-issues-advisory-about-kids-use-of-social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. Surgeon General Issues Advisory About Kids’ Use Of Social Media</a>

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin

GOP Gov Signs Law That Would Set Daily Time Limit For Kids On Social Media

Big Tech

Mental Health

Social Media

President Donald Trump announced Monday the members of his FEMA review council, which he tasked with returning power to state-level emergency managers.
Trump, who has been very critical of FEMA&#8217;s handling of recent natural disasters, signed an executive order in January aimed at bringing serious reform to the agency. In previous interviews, Trump has floated the idea of getting rid of FEMA all together, and handing back responsibility to the states to handle their own emergencies with federal funding.
&#8220;I am proud to announce the formation of the FEMA Review Council, comprised of Top Experts in their fields, who are Highly Respected by their peers,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://x.com/TrumpDailyPosts/status/1916943942156734688">posted</a> on Truth Social. &#8220;I know that the new Members will work hard to fix a terribly broken System, and return power to State Emergency Managers, who will help, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN. Congratulations to all!&#8221;
Members of the task force include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, RNC Chair Michael Whatley, and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
&#8220;As a proud son of Western North Carolina, I have seen first-hand the incredible work of the Trump Administration to help the region recover from Hurricane Helene and look forward to working with these great leaders to bring much-needed reforms to federal emergency response across the country,&#8221; Whatley <a href="https://x.com/ChairmanWhatley/status/1917045935286182331" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in response to the news.
In his executive order, Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/council-to-assess-the-federal-emergency-management-agency/">said</a> the council will assess “the existing ability of FEMA to capably and impartially address disasters occurring within the United States and shall advise the President on all recommended changes related to FEMA to best serve the national interest.”
The executive order stipulates that the council develop proposals to improve FEMA, survey states and other stakeholders impacted by natural disasters, and produce a comprehensive report on the agency and how disaster relief was handled before its creation.
His executive order also referenced the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-fema-official-ordered-relief-workers-to-skip-houses-with-trump-signs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">story</a> broken by The Daily Wire, revealing that a FEMA supervisor in Florida had ordered FEMA response workers to skip the homes of people with Trump signs or flags in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.
“There are serious concerns of political bias in FEMA,” Trump wrote in the executive order. “Indeed, at least one former FEMA responder has stated that FEMA managers directed her to avoid homes of individuals supporting the campaign of Donald J. Trump for President.”

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Attend Hurricane Briefing at FEMA

Trump Rolls Out FEMA Taskforce To Fix ‘Terribly Broken’ Emergency System

FEMA

Greg Abbott

Kristi Noem

Michael Whatley

Natural Disaster

U.S.

Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a six-part series by pollster Brent Buchanan on the politics of the American South. Last week, Buchanan explored the shifting priorities of minority voters in the South — and why Democrats shouldn’t take those voters for granted. This week, he breaks down the unique features, and critical importance, of the Southern suburbs.
We hope you enjoy.
—
Few things embody American culture and consumerism better than the suburbs.
Both a subject of generational aspiration and comedic ridicule, America’s suburbs remain a bridge to a nostalgic past and the ideal archetype of the “American Dream,” where home ownership, good schools, and safe neighborhoods still represent the opportunity of upward mobility and a prosperous future.
It&#8217;s fitting, then, with backyard barbecue season approaching, that, in part three of this series, we examine why the suburbs in America’s South have been politically stagnant.
While many of the country’s suburbs are rapidly shifting, voting behavior and partisanship in Southern suburbs are remarkably stable. This “stuck in neutral” dynamic is shaping the political battlegrounds of tomorrow — and it’s not necessarily a disadvantage for Republicans. If Democrats keep choosing the 20 percent side of 80/20 issues — like men in women’s sports, deporting illegals, or prioritizing the rights of nefarious illegal immigrants over crime victims — they’ll lose votes to Republicans or drive their own voters to stay home in the 2026 midterm elections.
That would be good news for Republicans. But our analysis of the South suggests its suburbs are much more hardened than its northern or western counterparts. Too often, mostly on Election Night, pundits and analysts rush to describe the country’s suburbs as hotly contested areas with high concentrations of swing voters.
While this is true for suburban pockets elsewhere in America, it is not the case in the South.
“As we mentioned in part one of this series, when we described the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-rise-of-the-south-is-not-what-you-think-why-it-holds-the-keys-to-political-control" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sweet Tea Suburbs</a>, their inelasticity reflects a unique dynamic that poses a significant challenge for Republicans,” says Nicholas Valdiviez, Cygnal’s Sampling Lead for this exclusive Daily Wire project. “The GOP could seek to strengthen its performance in other areas to offset suburban stagnation, or they could try to crack through some of these areas, though the payoff would be incremental and likely extend beyond 2026.”
<h3>The Faux South: A Case Study in Suburban Inelasticity</h3>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-911457" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-The-Faux-South-1.png" alt="" width="690" height="535" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-The-Faux-South-1.png 690w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-The-Faux-South-1-300x233.png 300w" sizes=" (max-width: 690px) 100vw, 690px" /></div>
The word faux is not used as a negative slight toward any of the great people or communities of this region, nor to detract from their “southernness.” In fact, as an important descriptor for this far-reaching analysis of America’s South, the term illustrates the region’s distinct and historically vital role as a sprawling gateway to the southern heartlands shaped more by commerce and trade routes than agriculture, combined with its geographical position along the borderlands of our nation’s capital.
Voters here, especially in Virginia, will tell you they are absolutely Southern — with the exception of those hard-left-leaning folks living in the DC-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) nexus along the Potomac River. Surrounding the ineffectual machinations of DC, the Faux South covers all of Maryland, most of West Virginia through the Alleghany Mountains, throughout middle and southeastern Virginia, extending down to coastal and near-inland North Carolina.
From 2016 to 2020, the Faux South saw the largest surge in Democratic turnout in the Southern United States — a 48% increase — but Republican turnout also jumped by 27%, marking the biggest regional year-over-year turnout shift in the last 16 years. At face value, that would signal some tailwinds for Republicans as the Faux South mixes most frequently with the Trumpian Highlands, another southern transitionary region. But it is the presence of the Sweet Tea Suburbs that serves as a sort of counteractive ingredient to such tailwinds.
Examining Virginia and North Carolina as the dominant states of the Faux South, we measured a strong voter disenfranchisement for elected officials at all levels, more than any other region in the South. Even our latest National Voter Trends (NVT) <a href="https://www.cygn.al/poll-democrats-continue-to-struggle-as-trump-maintains-strong-approval-even-in-light-of-tariffs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll</a> bears this out: voters in this region had high mistrust of their elected officials from local positions like mayor and city council up to their Member of Congress. The Faux South’s approval of their congressional representatives falls nearly four standard deviations below the average (18-point approval vs. the average of 29%, or the high of 36%). Even approval of their state legislators is 10 points below the average, and five points below the average of mayors and/or village presidents.
While the numbers are net positive in our latest NVT and across all regions in the South, they&#8217;re markedly lower here than in the other regions. And despite surges in turnout, this sentiment influences how voters in the Faux South differ from the other regions’ more rightward leanings, making them more likely to disengage altogether or maintain the status quo.
Yet, as entrenched as this region can be, there are some silver linings for Republicans. Since Virginia governors are limited to two nonconsecutive terms, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears shows the most <a href="https://www.cygn.al/virginia-governor-race-poll-sears-positioned-for-strong-showing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promising </a>signs to galvanize a broad base of support and carry on the progress of widely popular outgoing Governor Glenn Youngkin. How the battles for Republican control of state legislative seats, particularly in suburban districts, with Sears atop the ticket, will indicate how well Republicans have begun to crack the Faux South.
North Carolina is a tougher story for Republicans. Though the state saw a shift rightward from 2020 to 2024, the tension lies in this portion of the Faux South’s proximity to the Sweet Tea Suburbs. The &#8220;Research Triangle,&#8221; the area between Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, is central to scattered pockets of Sweet Tea Suburbs, which we described earlier as nearly immovable (split in 2020 and only R+3 in 2024), upper middle-class neighborhoods with high economic mobility. The confluence of these regions, combined with large areas of Trumpian Highlands in the western parts of the state, makes North Carolina more resistant to significant Republican gains.
<h3>Influence of Cities</h3>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-911459" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-part-III-four-cities-652x576.png" alt="" width="652" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-part-III-four-cities-652x576.png 652w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-part-III-four-cities-300x265.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-part-III-four-cities-768x678.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-part-III-four-cities.png 798w" sizes=" (max-width: 652px) 100vw, 652px" /></div>
The overall trend remains one of inelasticity, with only a modest Republican recovery and little evidence of the dramatic swings seen elsewhere. But the hardening of the South&#8217;s suburbs is also heavily influenced by the region&#8217;s cities. Some are burgeoning hubs of economic revitalization, while others are still stuck in neutral themselves and struggle to keep pace with the South’s rising political prominence.
The most salient point to describe the odd relationship between Southern cities and suburbs is that voters in the ‘burbs tend to be more woke and believe in Leftist virtue signaling as a way to prove their solidarity with the more economically-stratified and depressed conditions of largely-minority city dwellers. &#8220;Normies,&#8221; as Ben Shapiro might call them, chalk this up to the same old political pandering we’ve seen from highly educated suburbanite Democrats. But the political symbiosis of Southern cities and many of their surrounding suburbs has created a concrete structure for social and political acceptance of the status quo.
Compounding this disjointed interdependency is the high rate of disenfranchisement among city dwellers, especially among minority voters, who tend to view these strongholds of Democratic leadership as a matter of course — years of broken and empty promises have led less to an embrace of Republicans and more to full-on disengagement. Contrast this with cities like Chicago, where more minority communities are starting to push back against entrenched and corrupt Democratic leadership.
What makes so many of the South’s suburbs hardened to political swings, especially in Republicans’ favor, is this symbiotic relationship with many of its cities.
In recent elections, we saw the opposite happen in northern states like Ohio, where suburbs like those outside Columbus and Cleveland helped turn that state from a closely-watched swing state in presidential election years to a reliably red state. Southern cities like Memphis, meanwhile, mix heavily with the Big Sky South and Soulful South, keeping it politically stagnant and resistant to major partisan shifts.
We see something similar in Huntsville, where explosive population and economic growth have made the area more influential within Alabama. With a heavy dose of Trumpian Highlands to mix with, the surrounding suburbs continue to reflect consistent voting patterns year after year.
Similarly, Birmingham and Charleston’s suburbs have not experienced significant partisan shifts. Even as their urban cores evolve, their suburbs have not experienced significant political swings, despite some of the prevailing Soulful South trends we noted in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-end-of-democratic-assumptions-how-minority-voters-are-reshaping-southern-politics?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Brent+Buchanan&amp;category=News+and+Analysis&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=The+End+of+Democratic+Assumptions%3A+How+Minority+Voters+Are+Reshaping+Southern+Politics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">part two</a> of this series.
This persistent inelasticity underscores how deeply-rooted disenfranchisement and longstanding racial and cultural undercurrents keep these Southern cities and their surrounding suburbs in a perpetual state of tension, making them the most resistant to the nationwide political and generational realignment that has accelerated in the Trump era.
For Republicans, the challenge is to find incremental gains in both the suburbs and cities or look beyond these gridlocked areas for more growth in regions like the Big Hat Bloc or among the Republican Resettlers. In those two regions, <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2023/12/07/hispanics-in-the-rio-grande-valley-are-now-swing-voters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hispanic populations</a> in particular are ripe for additional Republican gains.
For Democrats, the risk of alienating moderate voters or encouraging disengagement is more real than ever. If they continue to champion positions out of step with the suburban mainstream, Republicans can capitalize. This gives credence to the strategy of letting your opponents make unforced errors.
As the South continues to grow in population and political influence, the lesson is clear: state lines and national narratives rarely capture the true dynamics at play. The inelasticity of Southern suburbs is less a sign of stagnation than a testament to the encroaching fallout from the national political realignment.
COMING UP NEXT: All eyes are on Georgia and North Carolina ahead of the 2026 midterms. As two of the most prominent Democratic holdouts in the South, parts four and five of this series will delve into the extent of their influence and whether they’ll remain regional hegemons or embrace the coming red wave of longstanding conservative control.

Neat line of suburban houses in Fairfax, Virginia

Beyond The Swing: Why Southern Suburbs Refuse To Budge 

2026 Midterms

Suburbs

Washington D.C.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin used his veto power to send a bill back to the Democrat-controlled legislature with a clever change.
The legislature last month passed a bill introduced by State Delegate Laura Jane Cohen (D-Fairfax), a far-left former school board member, requiring schools to text and email parents each school year, admonishing them to lock up any guns they own. Youngkin added a provision that would require schools to also communicate with parents before transitioning a child to a different gender.
Democrats previously voted down a similar bill, but now they will have to vote whether to accept or reject the edit, potentially putting them on the record in an election year that they oppose parental involvement in the most intimate aspect of their child’s life. Virginia holds elections in odd-numbered years, and Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost the election to Youngkin in 2019 after saying he didn’t believe parents should play a role in what goes on in schools.
Youngkin sailed to victory after lashing out at Loudoun County Public Schools for covering up a rape by a “genderfluid” boy in order to pass a transgender bathroom policy. 
<a href="https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1046364.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cohen’s bill</a> required school boards to “require the notification of the parent of each student enrolled in the local school division, to be sent by email and, if applicable, SMS text message within 30 calendar days succeeding the first day of each school year, of (i) the importance of securely storing any prescription drug, as defined in § 54.1-3401, present in the household and (ii) the parent&#8217;s responsibility, in accordance with § 18.2-56.2, to safely store any firearm present in the household.”
Instead of vetoing it, Youngkin continued with the theme of parental communication, <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20251/HB1678/text/HB1678AG" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adding a requirement</a> that:
<blockquote>Local school boards shall develop protocols by which each public elementary or secondary school principal or his designee shall, as soon as practicable, (i) inform at least one parent of a minor student enrolled in such school if such minor requests that any school employee participate while at school in (a) social affirmation of the minor student&#8217;s gender incongruence or (b) the transition of such minor to a felt or stated gender different from the minor student&#8217;s biological sex and (ii) request and receive permission from at least one parent of a minor student enrolled at such school prior to the implementation at such school of any plan concerning any gender incongruence experienced by such minor, including any counseling of such minor at school that includes a provision for parental participation.</blockquote>
Cohen called the amendment “garbage,” telling <a href="https://www.wvtf.org/news/2025-03-28/youngkin-adds-controversial-amendment-to-parental-notification-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RadioIQ,</a> “For some people, teachers are the only ones they can talk to in their lives.&#8221;
As this reporter&#8217;s book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Race-Bottom-Uncovering-Destroying-Education/dp/0063056720/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Race to the Bottom</a> found, Cohen has a child who has severe cognitive disabilities and who believes she is transgender. She ran for the Fairfax County School Board in 2019 to displace a Republican who had tried to stop the board from rushing through a transgender policy in spite of public comment indicating widespread opposition. Cohen was elected with assistance from Moms Demand Action, a national anti-gun group funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
On Wednesday, the legislature will hold a floor debate on the provision requiring parental permission for gender transition, and Democrats will have to vote on whether they think schools should transition a child’s gender while keeping it secret from their parents.
Democrats have only slim majorities in each chamber, so Youngkin&#8217;s proposal would become law if even a few Democrats support it. The Daily Wire asked three vulnerable House Democrats — Joshua Cole (Fredericksburg), Josh Thomas (Gainesville), and Michael Feggans (Virginia Beach) — their positions, and none replied.
In 2023, Republicans introduced a similar bill called <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-republican-moves-to-ban-calling-misgendering-child-abuse-after-girl-is-kept-from-her-parents-for-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sage’s Law</a>, named after a girl from rural Virginia who was secretly gender-transitioned by her high school, setting in motion her being sex trafficked to Baltimore, where the FBI found her locked in the home of a convicted sex offender. A Baltimore court refused to return her to Virginia after a school counselor allegedly speculated that Sage&#8217;s mother might not accept her new gender. Instead, she was placed in a foster home for Baltimore’s most troubled boys, and was abused again.
Despite the heartbreaking story, Democrats voted down Sage’s Law last session. It was re-introduced this year, but denied a hearing, at which the story would have been told. (Read about Sage’s horror story <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maryland-refused-to-give-back-a-virginia-runaway-because-her-parents-misgendered-her-then-she-was-sex-trafficked-mother-says">here</a>.)
Sage’s mother later filed a lawsuit against the Appomattox County Public Schools, alleging its counselors summoned Sage to discuss her gender eight times during the first 12 days of the 2021-22 school year. It also alleged that the counselors were providing major psychiatric care they were not qualified or authorized to perform.

Virginia Governor Glenn (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Youngkin Edits Far-Left Legislator’s Gun Bill, Making It Prohibit Secret Gender Transitions For Kids

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