GOP is playing 3-dimensional chess while Democrats are still paying checkers: analysis

Republicans unlocked a new way to win back suburban white women in Virginia's high-profile gubernatorial race.

The state swung by 13 points from last year's loss by Donald Trump to Tuesday's win by Glenn Youngkin, who whipped up a 37-point shift among white women who didn't attend college with hysteria over anti-racism lessons in school, reported NBC News.

"That white non-college woman is very sobering," said Democratic consultant Scott Kozar, who worked on the state's lieutenant governor and House of Delegate races.

Democrats won over women voters in Virginia in the previous two cycles, but Youngkin performed even better than Trump with GOP base voters and rural voters, while closing the gap in the suburbs by cloaking concerns about "critical race theory" in schools in the banner of "parents rights."

"Glenn Youngkin tapped into, in terms of concerns about education at the local level, he touched a nerve, and I think those of us on the Democratic side have to sit back and think about how we address that," said Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy plans to introduce a "parents bill of rights" soon in Congress to seize on the issue that propelled Youngkin to victory, while Democrats must address the issue head on.

"Republicans now see a way to energize and tribalize electorates with suburban voters, that they're absolutely going to use again in the midterms," said Cornell Belcher, a former pollster for Barack Obama. "That energizes their base, and Democrats are energizing their base by saying, what, 'I'm going to build more roads'? It's checkers and chess."