WILDWOOD, Florida — Christopher Rufo, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and Critical Race Theory (CRT) critic who blew the lid off the prevalence of CRT training in the federal government, told Breitbart News on Wednesday that the fight has shifted to a nationwide battle, as seen with Glenn Youngkin’s (R) victory in Virginia, noting that it is both a bipartisan and multiracial movement with support from Republicans, independents, and “even many Biden-supporting Democrats.”
Rufo spoke at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) press conference on Wednesday, where the governor announced an aggressive legislative proposal, the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act (Stop W.O.K.E Act), to combat CRT in places of employment and schools. Rufo told Breitbart News that he is optimistic about where the anti-CRT movement is going from here.
He noted that Trump took “immediate and unprecedented” action against CRT last year, banning it from the federal government following Rufo’s reports revealing that federal workers were subjected to seminars on “white privilege” and topics such as “microaggressions.”
“On the first day in office, Biden passed 17 executive orders, one of which was reversing the Trump CRT order. So at the federal level, Trump really laid down a marker. He set the precedent. He gave a model policy, and now the power has shifted. We see a revival of policy activity and entrepreneurship at the state level,” Rufo said, explaining that DeSantis has “really become the key leader in the conservative movement” on tackling CRT, laying out an “ambitious legislative agenda.”
“He’s assembled a whole team on policy to actually take action, and he’s really leading the way. He’s providing a model for all other states that can now look to see what’s happening in Florida as the ideal policy, as the way to move forward, and so this even today is, I think, a historic moment in this fight against Critical Race Theory,” he said. “This parent movement that has now found a new champion in Governor DeSantis.”
Awareness of CRT, Rufo told Breitbart News, has risen dramatically over the last year. Prior to his reporting and Trump’s action, “public awareness was about zero.”
Jack Knudsen / Breitbart News“Fast forward a year, 18 months, you now have about three-quarters of American adults, 175 million-odd people, they know about Critical Race Theory, and among those who have an opinion about it, they oppose it 2-1,” he said, noting they have successfully drummed up awareness in the last year from 0 to 175 million with no major institutional backing, budget, or infrastructure.
And again, the fight is shifting, he observed, noting Youngkin’s victory in Virginia’s governor’s race, where CRT took center stage, and moderates and “Biden-voting Democrats” rejected that vision for the state.
Rufo said the second phase of the fight is on, with people crafting policy to take it on, predicting a “flurry of legislative action” in 25 states over the next six months on this issue.
CRT, he said, “motivates conservatives” but also “gets about three-quarters of independents, the key swing voters and key swing demographic.”
“But you’re also looking at getting 20-25 percent of left liberals or Democratic voters that are kind of saying — they’re kind of old-style Democrats” who believe CRT is “regressive,” he explained.
“So you have a huge bipartisan coalition,” he said, noting it is also a “multiracial coalition,” citing polling from the Manhattan Institute.
“It’s got every major racial demographic. It’s got broad bipartisan support. This is an issue that wins. And that’s what we’re seeing,” he added. “We’ve seen win after win after win in state after state after state.”
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