Back when the anti-CRT crusade was catching fire last spring, I said I couldn’t wait to see what happens when Black History Month rolls around. That’s because I found that most of the anti-CRT culture warriors I asked couldn’t really define what CRT is. They only knew that it was “bad,” didn’t belong in our schools and maybe cited a conservative website or cable TV commentator to back up their point.

Then voters in Virginia turned Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s early lead into a stunning loss to Republican Glenn Youngkin in the race for governor. A central issue in the contest was CRT and how children are being educated. , I realized — as McAuliffe did, too late — that whether anti-CRT individuals could define CRT accurately didn’t matter. The issue that grabbed their hearts and won their votes was simply how well their children were being educated — or not.

There’s a lesson there for Democrats. What voters know matters less than how you make them feel. McAuliffe’s effort to paint the mild-mannered Youngkin as another Donald Trump failed miserably. As election analysts say, McAuliffe had a messaging problem. Future Democratic candidates take note.