Here’s Why Everyone Is Suddenly Talking About The Virginia Governor As A Trump Challenger

Topline

Big money GOP donors are increasingly turning to Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin as a 2024 alternative to former President Donald Trump, according to a Washington Post opinion piece by journalist Robert Costa, as a cast of GOP candidates continue to slump in the polls and as Youngkin emerges in the national spotlight as a rumored 2024 candidate and occasional Trump antagonist.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin at George Mason University in May.

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Key Facts

Youngkin hasn’t formally thrown his hat in the ring and has shrugged off previous calls for him to run for president, but a group of GOP donors are strategizing behind the scenes to draft him in 2024, with meetings planned in the coming weeks, Costa reported in the Post.

A Harvard University graduate and former co-CEO of investment firm the Carlyle Group whose net worth Forbes estimated at $470 million in 2021, Youngkin entered Virginia politics in January 2021 when he announced his gubernatorial campaign.

He spent $5.5 million of his own money and ultimately defeated former Virginia Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe with 50.6% of the vote—a major win for Republicans that placed Youngkin in the national spotlight, one year after Trump lost Virginia by 10 points.

Youngkin, who cannot run for reelection immediately after his gubernatorial term ends in 2026, campaigned as a self-proclaimed “political outsider with proven business experience,” drawing parallels to Trump’s 2016 campaign and winning Trump’s endorsement.

Since winning the gubernatorial election, Youngkin has signed a slew of conservative bills, including a ban on school mask mandates, pushed for a 15-week abortion ban and issued guidelines on transgender students in schools limiting bathroom and locker room use based on students’ sex at birth, which has been decried by LGBTQ advocates.

Youngkin’s transgender policy, which also requires teachers to address students by their birth names, has drawn support from conservatives, with a lawsuit filed earlier this month by two mothers in Virginia Beach who argued a local school board failed to follow the policy and violated parents’ rights to “make basic decisions about the education and well-being of their children.”

Youngkin was also courted by former Fox chair Rupert Murdoch on at least two occasions this year, the Washington Post reported, as Murdoch’s relationship with Trump soured in the wake of the 2020 election, with Murdoch asking Youngkin to run for the White House.

News Peg

Republican donors will reportedly meet next month at a Virginia Beach hotel in a closed-door retreat nicknamed the Red Vest Retreat—a nod to his iconic red vest donned during his gubernatorial campaign—to support a Youngkin presidential campaign, CBS News election correspondent Robert Costa in a Washington Post op-ed published Thursday afternoon. Officially, the meeting will focus on a push for full GOP control of the Virginia General Assembly. One billionaire GOP donor, Thomas Peterffy—the world’s 54th richest person with a net worth of $28 billion—told Costa he has already donated “millions of dollars” to Youngkin’s political action committee, saying he believes Younkin “appears to be leaving the door open.”

What We Don’t Know

Whether Youngkin will enter the race. Despite the speculation, Youngkin has sidestepped the question, saying this week he was “humbled” by the rumors but wants to focus on Virginia, a point he has reiterated throughout the 2020 election cycle.

Tangent

A Youngkin presidential campaign would add the Virginia governor to a laundry list of GOP presidential hopefuls, though as of this week, no GOP candidate aside from Trump comes close to taking the lead in early primary polls, even as Trump faces four indictments and as he skips the first two GOP primary debates. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was previously favored by some top donors as a Trump alternative, but he has struggled in the polls and taken stances on Ukraine and business that alienated some former backers, causing heavyweights like billionaire Ken Griffin to back away. According to FiveThirtyEight’s weighted average, Trump is dominating the field with 54% of likely Republicans supporting him, over 13.8% for DeSantis and 6.3% for Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Contra

Trump went on a rant against Youngkin as rumors of a Youngkin presidential run began to circulate last year, taking credit for Youngkin’s rise to national prominence. Trump has taken a similar tack with a handful of other former allies, including DeSantis, a 2024 Trump rival whose rise he has repeatedly taken credit for. In a statement on Truth Social in November, Trump claimed he “got MAGA to Vote” for Youngkin,” arguing the governor would not have “come close to winning” otherwise and that he “knows that.”

Surprising Fact

Youngkin tip-toed around Trump’s baseless election fraud theories following Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in 2020. He declined to answer a question on whether he would have voted to certify Trump’s 2020 loss if he had been in Congress on January 6, 2021, before ultimately saying he would have, and doubted Democrats would cheat in the 2021 gubernatorial election, even after Trump speculated about voter fraud with no evidence.