Gov. Youngkin’s Disastrous First Week in Office 

From the Democratic Party of Virginia:

Gov. Youngkin’s Disastrous First Week in Office 

Richmond, VA — In his State of the Commonwealth, Gov. Glenn Youngkin admitted that he does not have any previous experience in government or governing, and it showed this week.

Gov. Youngkin spent his first week in office admitting that ‘critical race theory,’ is not taught in Virginia’s schools, threatening to defund schools that didn’t comply with his illegal executive order and using Virginia’s children as political pawns to appease the extreme, far-right of the Republican Party.

His first official appearance was on Fox News, where he was forced to admit that ‘critical race theory,’ the central issue of his campaign, is not being taught in Virginia’s schools.

He then threatened to withhold funding from school divisions that refused to comply with his illegal executive order lifting mask mandates in schools after divisions from Arlington to Albemarle rejected his dangerous executive order. In addition to school divisions, parents and advocacy organizations are standing up against his order. Parents from Chesapeake filed suit against the governor for failing to put the health and safety of Virginia’s children before his own politics, and the Virginia PTA and the Virginia Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics also hammered Gov. Youngkin on his failure to protect Virginia’s children.

Gov. Youngkin promised to be the “education governor” who promised to keep our schools open and an advocate for “parents’ rights”, but his initial actions make it clear he has failed on both promises. His actions put our schools at risk of closing and he has ignored the pleas of parents in every corner of the Commonwealth who are focused on keeping their children safe.

Additionally, Gov. Youngkin had to walk back his ill-conceived executive order removing Virginia from RGGI, and Democrats defeated his anti-democracy voter ID legislation based on ‘election integrity’ lies.

This week has been nothing short of a disaster. It’s clear that his administration is woefully unprepared to handle the next four weeks of the legislative session, let alone the next four years of governance. Gov. Youngkin showed Virginians he isn’t some mild-mannered, vest-wearing moderate from northern Virginia and that he is a Republican who governs from the far-right.