MARCO ISLAND, FL – EXCLUSIVE – After some high-profile battles with President Biden’s administration the previous three years, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin says that President-elect Trump’s decisive election victory earlier this month means he now has “a pal within the White Home.”
Youngkin, the favored Virginia governor who’s getting into his last yr in workplace, argued in an unique Fox Information Digital interview that “as a governor who’s been driving pro-business and powerful schooling and secure communities and decrease tax charges, we now have somebody within the White Home who believes in all of that.”
“I sit up for us having the wind at our backs versus in our face,” Youngkin stated as he spoke Tuesday on the sidelines of the Republican Governors Affiliation annual winter assembly, which is being held this yr at a southwestern Florida waterfront resort.
And pointing to his last yr steering Virginia, Youngkin stated “I can’t wait to see what we’re going to do having the wind at our again from the Trump administration.”
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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes fingers with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin throughout a rally at Greenbrier Farms on June 28, 2024 in Chesapeake, Virginia. (Photograph by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos) (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos)
There was loads of hypothesis relating to Youngkin probably serving in a high place within the second Trump administration, however the governor in a current name with the president-elect made it clear he intends to complete out his time period.
However he does not sound like he is ruling out serving within the Trump administration after he finally ends up in Richmond in a yr.
“I instructed the president after I known as him and instructed him that I needed to complete my time period, that I might be out there to assist him at any time whereas I’m governor and afterwards,” Youngkin stated.
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Youngkin energized Republicans nationwide three years in the past, because the first-time candidate who hailed from the celebration’s enterprise wing edged out former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe to develop into the primary GOP candidate in a dozen years to win a gubernatorial election within the one-time swing state that had trended in the direction of the Democrats over the earlier decade.
The governor immediately grew to become a Republican rock star and hypothesis stirred a couple of potential 2024 White Home run.
However Youngkin and his celebration suffered a setback a yr in the past in legislative elections that grabbed outsized nationwide consideration, as Democrats retained management of the Virginia state Senate and flipped the Home of Delegates.
Whereas Youngkin wasn’t on the poll, he had loads driving on the outcomes, after investing loads of political capital on behalf of Republican legislative candidates. The outcomes additionally meant Youngkin would not have a free hand throughout his last two years in workplace to push by means of a conservative agenda.
Youngkin returned to the marketing campaign path this yr in Virginia and a few key battleground states, to assist marketing campaign on behalf of Republicans up and down the poll.
And he spoke at a big rally Trump held in conservative southwest Virginia the weekend earlier than Election Day.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks earlier than Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a marketing campaign rally in Salem Va., Saturday, Nov 2, 2024. (AP Photograph/Steve Helber)
Whereas Vice President Kamala Harris carried the Commonwealth within the White Home race, her margin over Trump was 4.5 factors narrower than President Biden’s victory within the state 4 years earlier, as Trump and Republicans over carried out expectations.
The outcomes seem to have given Youngkin extra clout forward of his last legislative session. Democrats who over the previous yr have been united in opposition to the governor’s proposed tax cuts, could now be receptive to negotiating.
Requested if the Democrats are actually able to play ball, Youngkin stated “I’m hoping they’re. I feel that the popularity that Virginians need to hold extra of their hard-earned cash has actually engaged everybody in a dialogue on find out how to present tax reduction.”
He argued the election outcomes “demonstrated document job progress which has created surplus after surplus after surplus is pushed by pro-business requirements.”
And he emphasised that “we’re going to return again with a giant tax package deal once more, and we’re going to ensure we’re standing sturdy for schooling and powerful for public security.”
“I’m optimistic,” he added, however acknowledged that “will probably be a standard legislative course of. We’ve a legislative – we’re a one seat minority within the Home and the Senate – so we have now to go to work to get issues completed.”
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia rallies on behalf of GOP legislative candidates forward of the state’s carefully watched elections, in Norfolk, Virginia on Nov. 2, 2023 (Fox Information – Paul Steinhauser)
All political eyes shall be on Virginia in 2025, because the Commonwealth and New Jersey are the one two states to carry gubernatorial elections within the yr after a presidential election.
However Virginia governors, by regulation, are prevented from working for re-election to a second straight time period.
That does not imply Youngkin will disappear from the marketing campaign path in 2025. He says it is simply the other.
VIRGINIA’S YOUNGKIN ENDORSES HIS LT. GOVERNOR TO SUCCEED HIM
“You’re going to see me lots,” he touted. “We’ve obtained a really aggressive agenda for being governor within the final 14 months. However a part of that agenda that I’ve is to make it possible for we have now [Lt. Gov.] Winsome Sears as our subsequent governor. [Virginia Attorney General] Jason Miyares again as our lawyer basic and an excellent lieutenant governor who we’ll choose at our primaries.”
Youngkin predicted that “Virginians are going to clarify that they need to hold doing extra of what we’re doing that’s proving document job progress and alternative and nice outcomes in faculties and secure communities.”
The 2025 Virginia gubernatorial showdown is shaping up as a contest between Sears and Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer. The winner will make historical past because the state’s first ever feminine governor. And Sears, if she wins, will even make historical past because the nation’s first Black feminine elected governor.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears speaks to the group throughout a rally held to announce she’s going to search her celebration’s nomination for Virginia governor in 2025 at Chick’s Oyster Bar in Virginia Seaside, Va., on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (Kristen Zeis/For The Washington Publish by way of Getty Photos)
Youngkin pushed again when requested if Sears, who served within the Marine Corps and made historical past as the primary lady in Virginia to carry statewide workplace, is just too conservative for voters.
“In no way,” the governor rapidly responded. “And Winsome is a commonsense conservative chief. We’ve been companions actually from day one. We campaigned collectively. We have been elected collectively. We’ve ruled collectively. And I sit up for seeing Virginians embrace her as the following governor of Virginia.”
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As for his personal political future, Youngkin was much less revealing about any future runs for elective workplace.
Requested a couple of potential however unlikely run for the Senate in 2026 in opposition to longtime Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Waner, or a future White Home marketing campaign, Youngkin rapidly pivoted to his day job as governor.
“I’ve an enormous yr and some months forward of me and that’s the place my focus is, and I want to complete sturdy, so Virginia can actually proceed to soar. And that’s what I’m going to spend my time on.”
After that, he stated “we’ll see what’s subsequent.”
Dealing with a follow-up query, Youngkin stayed on script, saying “we’ll see what occurs down the street, however proper now my sights are set on ending sturdy.”
