Virginia parents manipulated into CRT astroturf campaign by right-wing billionaire Kochs and the Federalist Society

The campaign against "critical race theory" was started by conservative activist Ian Prior and now right-wing billionaires have adopted the idea as a legitimate wedge issue to perpetuate a race debate and enrage their supporters to vote Republican.

The Daily Beast revealed the anti-CRT movement has been propelled by Fox News personalities while it was the billionaire Koch family who invested in the astroturf campaign against it.

The report found "eight recently created anti-CRT groups which operate at local levels across the country but bear ties to ideological right-wing aristocrats and political operatives. Their backers include former officials in Donald Trump's administration, an executive at a notorious D.C. lobbying firm, as well as Koch entities and The Federalist Society."

The issue isn't taught outside of law schools, but it has become a catch-all for teaching history that triggers white families to feel uncomfortable.

The 2021 elections in Virginia saw conservatives adopt the fake scandal to generate rage at school board meetings, launch city council measures and ban the teaching of Dr. Marthin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks in public schools.

Prior, who spurred the campaign, previously worked as the "press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Justice Department official during the Trump administration, communications director for the Karl Rove super PAC American Crossroads, and now, a GOP operative behind two organizations that have inflamed attacks on so-called critical race theory in Virginia's public schools."

The groups are "Fight for Schools," which works at the state level to go after education in the Democratic stronghold of Loudoun County, Virginia. One protest at the end of June turned violent, with two parents being arrested. It's unclear if those two parents are aware they were manipulated by Republican campaign operatives.

"The candidate [now Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin] turned to Prior's group for fundraising and voter outreach efforts, and state election disclosures show that the organization raised hundreds of thousands of dollars during the campaign," said the Beast.

The children appearing on Fox News to talk about their schools are actually Prior's children. They've been on Fox at least 15 times, according to an analysis by Media Matters. The so-called "Loudoun County parent" and a "father" who went "from concerned parent, like many of you, to legal activist," is a long-time Republican operative, and always has been.

His Virginia group also scored funding from 1776 Action, which the Beast described as "a dark money nonprofit led by former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson." They were working with groups like The Heritage Foundation.

Another group, pretending to be run by parents and families, the Parents Against Critical Theory, is another astroturfed group that has "incorporation documents with the state of Virginia show Prior as its signatory."

Read the full report by the Daily Beast.