Glenn Youngkin Continued to Fail as Governor in 2024: Here Are 11 of His Biggest Failures (the Caps/Wizards arena deal, numerous bad vetoes, not becoming Trump’s VP, etc.)

By almost any metric, Glenn Youngkin has been a failure as governor of Virginia – and as a politician. Unless, that is, you consider NOT working with the legislature to get laws passed, vetoing a bunch of great legislation, endorsing/campaigning for extreme candidates (Kari Lake, Tudor Dixon, Paul LePage, Hung Cao, Yesli Vega, etc, etc.) and watching as many of them lost, making major announcements that were either absurd or went nowhere, not getting picked as Trump’s running mate or as a member of Trump’s upcoming administration despite kissing Trump’s butt relentlessly, etc. as being a successful governor. Not.

Anyway, here are just a few of Youngkin’s biggest policy and political failures in 2024.

1. Despite relentlessly kissing up to Trump, in the end Trump went with JD Vance and NOT Glenn Youngkin for his running mate. And, at least to date, Youngkin hasn’t even been picked for a position in the next Trump administration. So Youngkin sold his soul for…???
2. Despite campaigning for Trump, and despite Virginia Republicans constantly claiming that Virginia was “in play,” in the end Virginia went by 6 points to Kamala Harris – similar to Obama’s 6-point win in 2008, Clinton’s 5-point win in 2016, etc.
3. Of course, it needs to be said that endorsing Trump was a massive moral abdication by Youngkin, wildly irresponsible and disgraceful. That’s compounded by the relentless stream of lies that Youngkin spewed on right-wing media about Trump, Biden, etc. Appalling.
4. Youngkin’s vetoes – for absolutely no good reason – of legislation that would have raised the minimum wage to $13.50/hour, created a retail cannabis market, regulate untraceable “ghost guns,” prohibit firearms in any facility that provides mental health or developmental services, including hospitals and ERs,” prohibit devices that convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic weapons, close the “boyfriend loophole” that puts “victims of sexual and domestic abuse in grave danger,” “protecting abortion providers from extradition to hostile states for providing LEGAL abortion care in VA,” etc, etc. were completely inexcusable and unforgivable.
5. The collapse of Youngkin’s grand ambition for a new Washington Capitals/Wizards arena in Alexandria  demonstrated that Youngkin, along with his absurd campaign to trash the bipartisan budget deal as “backwards” (which it definitely wasn’t!) and threaten to veto it in part because the legislature wouldn’t go along with his arena deal, demonstrated that Youngkin  is “not very smart when it comes to politics,” thinks he’s “king,” etc.
6. As Del. Paul Krizek said in March, regarding the failed arena deal in Alexandria, “I don’t think [Youngkin] understands the dynamics of the way the General Assembly works; he’s probably not used to having a board of directors of 140 delegates and senators…I think he’s going about this all the wrong way…from the very get-go, from the beginning…he has not been very good at…not been adroit at any kind of negotiation.”
7. Even the Washington Post’s sycophantic, stenographic coverage of Glenn Youngkin couldn’t hide the fact that “Youngkin has struggled to translate that business acumen into political success — or even economic development success, with the demise…of his much-touted plan to bring the Washington Wizards and Capitals to Alexandria,” and that  the “plan’s failure wipes out a significant legacy-making opportunity for a novice politician who burst onto the scene in 2021 and drew national attention as a fresh Republican face.” As Virginia political analyst Robert Holsworth put it in that WaPo article, Youngkin is “a total lame duck right now,” having “shown tremendous political inexperience.”
8. For many reasons, the Virginia League of Conservation Voters gave Youngkin a failing grade for 2024. Why? Because Youngkin’s “put polluters in charge, undermined our democracy, and taken away critical tools to protect Virginians from pollution. The end result is an environment that’s less clean and more communities left in harm’s way.” That includes “polluter appointments to the State Air Pollution Control Board and Environmental Justice Advisory Council”; “Joining the pro-fossil fuel “Governors’ Coalition for Energy Choice” and criticizing unprecedented federal investments in climate action and clean energy programs”; his “Administration’s back-door repeal of Virginia’s Advanced Clean Cars Standards”; etc.
9. On November 20, a judge ruled that “Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s attempt to pull Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is unlawful,” given that “the only body with the authority to repeal the RGGI regulation would be the General Assembly.”
10. Youngkin’s also hell-bent on making sure that vehicles in Virginia can emit as much pollution as possible. Also, environmental groups correctly pointed out that “the governor’s move is an illegal overreach of his powers, one that attempts to circumvent a law he finds distasteful but that his party has so far failed to undo in the legislature.” And, of course, Youngkin doesn’t mention the fact that “Federal law gives states the option of choosing either federal or California standards to limit vehicle emissions but prohibits them from crafting other legal frameworks.” Instead, Youngkin just engages in cheap demagoguery, lies and fear mongering on this – as he does on everything, pretty much.
11. Youngkin’s announcement that nuclear fusion is supposedly coming to Virginia is simply laughable – for a bunch of reasons, including the ones discussed here.

This list could go on and on, but you get the idea. Also, note that 2024 wasn’t an isolated situation, as Youngkin’s failures this year came on top of his many serious failures in 2022 and 2023, including his absurd “tip line” to harass teachers, the total fiasco of his administration’s draft history standards document, his failure to get a 15-week abortion limit in Virginia (and the political backlash that played a major role in his party losing the 2023 elections for House of Delegates, along with their majority), etc, etc.

And yet if you listen to Youngkin’s b.s. narrative, you’d think that he basically SAVED Virginia from the supposed DISASTER he inherited when he took office, blah blah blah. Youngkin also has a tendency of taking credit (falsely) for things he had NOTHING TO DO WITH, such as the fact that the U.S. economy recovered strongly from the COVID pandemic (thanks Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats), that Virginia was flush with cash from one-time COVID relief money and a booming national economy, that Virginia was named the best state for business (again, that had nothing to do with Youngkin), etc.

In the end, Youngkin will go down in history as having among the fewest accomplishments of any Virginia governor in decades. The good news is, we’re now just over 1 year away from him not being governor anymore – hopefully EVER. And he certainly won’t ever be president, so that’s cool as well…