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If you’ve heard Glenn Youngkin’s spiel previously, you already are aware that it’s a bunch of b.s., self-congratulatory rewriting of history, dishonesty, cringe-inducing nonsense, hard-right policies couched as “common sense” (which, obviously, they are not!), etc. So, unless you want to subject yourself to that yet again – and why would anyone who isn’t a masochist want to do that to themselves? LOL – you really don’t need to watch Youngkin’s entire interview yesterday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute. But the first few minutes of the interview actually were interesting and revealing, although perhaps not in the way that Youngkin intended. Check out the video, below, as well as highlights (with comments by me, where I feel like I have something to add – in bold/green/brackets):
- “Well, first of all, I would say that Virginia’s uh overall political profile has changed quite a bit over the last decade or 15 years. And it has moved from being purplish red to purplish blue. And one could argue today it’s pretty darn blue. [Maybe we should rename this website “Pretty Darn Blue Virginia?” – haha. But in all seriousness, Youngkin’s kinda right and kinda wrong about this. So if you go back 10-15 years, you’re talking about the 2011-2016 timeframe. But, in fact, Virginia elected Democratic governors in 2001, 2005 and 2013 – before 2016, obviously – as well as in 2017 and 2025 by landslides, with the one exception being Glenn Youngkin’s narrow election in 2021. Also, Virginia elected Democrat Jim Webb to the US Senate in 2006, Democrat Mark Warner to the US Senate in 2008, plus of course Democrat Tim Kaine to the US Senate in 2012. So this goes back more than 10-15 years. But yes, Virginia has been trending in a bluer and bluer direction for a while now, both at the statewide level and also in counties like Prince William, Loudoun, Henrico, Chesterfield, etc. ]
- “I think that’s just reflective of the state’s evolution with population in Northern Virginia. But also, you know, a reality that once one party begins to demonstrate repetitive wins, there’s a deflation that goes on in the other party and so engagement changes a lot too. And yet, for issues that Virginians care deeply about, it really is a purple state. [Sure, part of it is changes in Virginia’s population, also “deflation” of Republicans’ hopes – and fundraising abilities, etc. But Youngkin’s avoiding a lot of important stuff here. For one thing, Virginia keeps getting more diverse, and that’s happening in the entire “urban-suburban crescent” from Hampton Roads to Richmond to Northern Virginia – so it’s not just “population in Northern Virginia.” Second, what Youngkin’s REALLY avoiding is any look in the mirror, namely at the fact that HIS PARTY has gone faaaar right, that his party’s cult leader Donald Trump is WILDLY unpopular in Virginia, and that if the Republican Party were a normal, sane party today, with moderate Republicans, “country club Republicans,” etc. like they’re used to be, they might still be competitive in suburban/exurban jurisdictions today. But that’s not the case, as the party is MAGA/Trumpist all the way, and that is NOT what suburban/exurban – or urban – Virginia voters are looking for. But Youngkin doesn’t mention that, presumably because it would be deeply uncomfortable for him to do so, and obviously kill his prospects – such as they are, lol – for a political future in said MAGA/Trumpist Republican Party. And we can’t have that now, can we? Haha.]
- “But just to put it in context, since 2010 there’s roughly a statewide election almost every year, between governor’s races, senate races, and presidentials. Out of every four-year cycle, we usually have three statewides. And there’s been one Republican elected statewide during that time period. One over the course of the last 15 years, and I was fortunate enough to get hired by Virginians to be governor. We’ve had Democratic senators for quite a long time in Virginia, and the General Assembly has flip-flopped a bit. And that has really reflected again this pendulum that swings back and forth.” [So what’s interesting to me here is that Youngkin is pretty much unintentionally contradicting his own b.s. about how it was supposedly *his* brilliant campaign that was why he won in 2021. In fact, of course, Youngkin narrowly won in 2021 overwhelmingly because a Democrat was in the White House, and an unpopular one at that, while Virginia almost always goes opposite of the party in the White House. And just to demonstrate that I’m not just being a partisan hack with this analysis, I’d remind everyone that I’ve said the exact same thing about Abigail Spanberger’s win last November, which was HEAVILY the result of backlash against the wildly unpopular Trump in the White House – although of course Spanberger won in a landslide, against a very weak/flawed candidate, whereas Youngkin only won by 2 points over a former governor and MUCH stronger – albeit flawed – candidate in Terry McAuliffe. So anyway, what Youngkin’s admitting here is that Virginia largely just goes “thermostatically” against whichever party’s in the White House, so that it wasn’t just his supposedly brilliant – actually racist, dishonest, heavily funded, massive-failure-by-the-media – campaign. By the way, as a side note, it’s interesting how Youngkin in this interview doesn’t use the moronic, pejorative Democrat-as-an-adjective thing that Republicans love to do, and which Youngkin did while he was governor. Wonder what that’s all about.]
- And so, I think the other really interesting tidbit is that because Virginia’s gubernatorial race is one year after the presidential, so it’s offset. And the only two states that have a governor’s race one year after the presidential are New Jersey and, of course, Virginia…The governor of Virginia has represented the opposite party of the president for 13 out of 14 governor’s elections. And the one that it didn’t was Terry McAuliffe. And the reality is Terry McAuliffe won with less than 48% of the vote that year because there was a Libertarian candidate that ran that took 6% of the vote. So the state tends to be a very interesting barometer of national opinions…” [Basically, this is the same point Youngkin made in the previous bullet, but I’d just point out that it’s not clear what impact Libertarian Robert Sarvis had on that race, which Terry McAuliffe won by 2.5 points over the “extreme team” ticket of Ken Cuccinelli/EW Jackson/Mark Obenshain. Still, Youngkin’s main point here is sound – the governor of Virginia “has represented the opposite party of the president for 13 out of 14 governor’s election.” Which means, by the way, that if Democrats take back the White House in 2028, assuming we have free-and-fair elections and a democracy of course, the 2029 gubernatorial election in Virginia will almost certainly be competitive, especially given that the incoming Democratic president will likely inherit a complete clusterf*** from Trump and the Republicans, and voters will probably do what they always do, which is lose patience within a few months and then go sharply against the party in the White House…basically what always happens, because god forbid people should ever learn from their past disastrous mistakes. Sigh.]
