The fight over forced masking in schools has been at the forefront of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s new tenure in Virginia. On his first day in office, Youngkin signed an executive order giving parents the right to opt out of district-level mandates. Since then, the battle has raged, with Democrats treating masking children as some kind of quasi-religious tenet that must be protected; data need not apply.

At times, they’ve seemed to gain the upper hand as well, with a recent court ruling putting a restraining order on the opt-out order going into effect. The question was always whether a pre-existing state law that required schools to follow CDC guidelines superseded Youngkin’s order.

Well, that debate is no more. The Virginia Senate just ensured that Youngkin will get the last laugh.

With bipartisan support, Va Senate approves Dem ⁦⁦@ChapPetersen⁩ floor amendment to R ⁦@Dunnavant4VA⁩ bill giving parents the right to choose if their kids wear masks. pic.twitter.com/xH2Bm8wgoj

— Laura Vozzella (@LVozzella) February 8, 2022

Democrat State Sen. Chap Peterson had already pledged to be the deciding vote on this issue, and it looks like he followed through on his end. Yet, his vote didn’t end up being decisive, as the final tally was a shocking 29-9 in favor of the amendment.

Of course, attention-seeking President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, who has tried to make herself the anti-Youngkin on Twitter, voted no. Ultimately, she ended up as part of a small minority. Lucas spent the last week trying to attack Youngkin over his team’s response to a high-school-aged political activist. Yet, when it came to an issue that mattered, she failed miserably.

So, how did we go from Democrats in Virginia almost universally opposing Youngkin’s order to voting to make it a reality via the legislative process? The answer is that they realized what time it was.

Virginia’s Democrat Senate Majority Leader tweeted this three days ago.

Today, he voted to end mask mandates in schools. pic.twitter.com/hkxCa5sb3a

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 8, 2022

Democrats have done their best to spin Youngkin’s early moves as disastrous, but when push came to shove, they voted the way the wind is blowing, and it’s blowing firmly in the direction of parental choice on masks.

Now, things move over to the Virginia House where the GOP actually holds a majority. Considering multiple Democrats are likely to cross over, the vote probably won’t be close there either. Regardless, the passage of the amendment is all but certain.

What this shows is that Twitter continues to not be real life. If you had just paid attention to the too-online leftists, including Louise Lucas, screaming on social media, you’d have thought Youngkin was having a rough go at it. But, he knew he had the ace up his sleeve, and now he chalks up another big victory. As to the Democrats in Virginia, they can expect a lot more losses to come.