Youngkin seeks to reverse Virginia GOP's Trump-era carnage

Less than 12 hours after Glenn Youngkin locked up the GOP nomination for Virginia governor on Monday night, former President Donald Trump barreled into 2021’s most competitive statewide election.

"Glenn is pro-Business, pro-Second Amendment, pro-Veterans, pro-America, he knows how to make Virginia's economy rip-roaring, and he has my Complete and Total Endorsement!" Trump wrote in a statement Tuesday morning that was circulated by his political action committee.

Trump’s endorsement came after Youngkin emerged from a contentious nominating battle seeking to lock down the Republican base. But unlike states like Arkansas or South Carolina — red states where Trump has already made endorsements in a 2022 gubernatorial race — the former president’s support in Virginia carries more risks than benefits.

Trump’s presidency ushered in an era of defeats for Virginia Republicans: a Democratic sweep of statewide elections in 2017, the loss of three swing congressional seats in 2018 and, finally, Democrats flipping both state legislative chambers in 2019, giving Democrats complete control of Richmond for the first time since 1994.

Youngkin and his Republican opponents embraced key parts of Trump’s legacy as they courted the support of GOP activists in last week’s “unassembled convention.” But the next six months before the general election will test Youngkin’s ability to create enough distance between himself and Trump in a fast-changing state that has repeatedly rejected the modern GOP. It’s an early trial run for whether Republicans can claw back territory they lost in the 2022 midterms.

Republicans argue that Youngkin can successfully thread the Trump needle — supporting some of his policies but subtracting the caustic and bombastic persona of the former president.

“He doesn’t have that personality … He’s a typical suburban dad. And a very faith-based Christian,” said Ron Wright, a Republican state central committee member and a co-chair of the Northern Virginia Republican Business Forum. “And I think that he’s a good retail politician.”

Youngkin, who had never run for office before, pitched himself as an “outsider” businessman who has what it takes to run a state that hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2009.

At a post-primary launch event Tuesday afternoon in Richmond, Youngkin leaned on his Christian faith and business record, and he promised to lead the state’s post-pandemic opening. Notably, he did not mention Trump’s endorsement — nor did his campaign acknowledge it in its press releases or on its Twitter accounts, where it trumpeted the support of other Republican figures, like RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

He did, however, address the Trump endorsement in a local news interview published later Tuesday night. "I'm totally honored, and I appreciate it this morning," he told WVEC-TV, the CBS affiliate in Hampton Roads, saying it reflects the party coming together.

Despite Tuesday's relative silence, Youngkin did seek to align himself with some of Trump’s policies throughout the primary. One of his earliest moves in the race was creating an “election integrity task force” — an echo of Trump’s repeated false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him — and Youngkin wouldn’t explicitly say that President Joe Biden fairly won his election. He pledged to push for a voter ID requirement for Virginia's elections in his post-nomination speech.

He has also praised the former president’s economic record and ran a campaign ad that featured Trump praising Youngkin during the former president’s trade battles with China. Youngkin also barnstormed the state with conservative Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the closing days of the primary.

Democrats won’t pick their nominee until a state-run primary in four weeks, but the GOP is already targeting former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the favorite in the June 8 race. At Tuesday's event, Youngkin took repeated shots at “the McAuliffe political dynasty,” attacking the former governor on a litany of issues. And Trump, in his endorsement of Youngkin, alluded to the 1990s Clinton-era scandals, calling McAuliffe, a former DNC chairman, “the Clintons’ bagman in more ways than one.”

But Democrats are eager to tie Trump’s legacy — and his endorsement — around Youngkin’s campaign while their own nominating process still plays out.

“Glenn Youngkin is the epitome of a pro-Trump Republican, who has demonstrated complete allegiance to the former president’s most dangerous conspiracy theories. Where Trump leads, Glenn follows,” state Democratic Party chair Susan Swecker said on a call with reporters on Tuesday.

The challenge for Republicans in the state is being able to shake Trump’s unpopularity, given how rapidly suburbs have moved away from them during Trump’s presidency. Republicans hope they can claw back some support in the suburbs — first in Virginia, then in other states in 2022 — with Trump off the ticket and out of office.

“There are a lot of people across the state, and suburbs especially, that had no issue with President Trump in the sense of his policies and the things he was trying to do,” said Steve Knotts, the chair of the Fairfax County Republican Party. “It was always a personality thing … I think Glenn’s going to have a tremendous opportunity to win those independents over, which is really what wins the state.”

In a February poll from The Wason Center at Christopher Newport University, a majority of Virginia voters said that Trump was “definitely worse than most” of the past several presidents. Among Virginia Republicans, 37 percent said he was “one of the best,” and an additional 41 percent listed him as “better than most.”

In addition, 68 percent of Virginians surveyed said that they believed Biden won the election legitimately. But just 27 percent of Virginia Republicans agreed, with over 60 percent echoing Trump’s lies that Biden did not win legitimately.

Republicans also hope to be able to ride rural enthusiasm to make up for any lost ground in the suburbs, powered by a blowback to one-party control in the state capitol.

“The people of central Virginia are looking for the return of conservative government,” state Sen. Steve Newman, a longtime legislator from the Lynchburg area who supported Youngkin in the primary. “I believe Glenn will do very, very well in the western part of the state, and certainly the rural part of the state.”

Youngkin is quickly working to consolidate support among Republicans after a contentious primary process that was marked by significant infighting over how their candidate would be nominated. Ultimately, the party landed on a so-called “unassembled convention,” with roughly 30,000 pre-registered Republicans voting at nearly 40 sites across the country on Saturday.

He tweeted on Monday that he had reached out to all of his vanquished primary opponents. Pete Snyder, an activist and donor in Virginia politics whom Youngkin beat in the sixth and final round of convention voting, immediately said that the nominee has his “100% support.” Snyder, fourth-place finisher Kirk Cox and fifth-place finisher Sergio de la Peña all attended Youngkin’s Tuesday rally. Controversial state Sen. Amanda Chase, who finished in third and called herself “Trump in heels,” was not at the rally, but Youngkin said he spoke to her by phone while she was on a vacation with her husband.

Wright, the state party central committee member, also argues that Youngkin is well-positioned to unite the party. “A lot of the House of Delegates candidates are super happy,” he said, referring to the state legislature’s lower chamber, which Democrats flipped in 2019. “It’s not like they’re going to be running away from the top of the ticket. They're going to be trying to follow Glenn Youngkin as much as possible.”

Out of the top Republican gubernatorial contenders, Youngkin — a former chief executive at the private-equity firm Carlyle Group who played college basketball at Rice University — had the lowest public profile before running. (The first-time candidate does not yet even have a Wikipedia page, with it currently redirecting to the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election entry.)

Supporters of Youngkin argue that his lack of a political record, combined with his ability and eagerness to self-fund a campaign — he loaned his campaign $5.5 million through the end of March — are one of his biggest assets and make him a formidable general election candidate.

“Here’s somebody with no legislative record, no real major public service record. They’ll still use all the usual tripe negativity, but I don’t think it’s going to stick,” said George Allen, the former governor and senator. “Because of that, and because of his financial capabilities, he’s the Democrat apparatchik’s worst nightmare.”

McAuliffe — who was prevented by law from running for a second term in 2017, when now-Gov. Ralph Northam won with McAuliffe’s support — spent Tuesday gladly tying Youngkin to Trump.

“I've defeated extremists like Glenn before, and I've got the big bold policies and broad, diverse coalition to do it again,” McAuliffe said in a statement following Trump weighing in, and his campaign also released a digital ad highlighting the endorsement.

And it points to the awkward Trump dance for Youngkin.

When asked about McAuliffe calling him a “Trump loyalist” by Fox News Channel during an interview on Tuesday morning, Youngkin demurred. He did not raise Trump’s endorsement of his bid, which was made public minutes before the interview, and instead attacked McAuliffe: “All you get from Terry McAuliffe is division. That's not what we'll do in our campaign.”

Nick Niedzwiadek contributed to this report.