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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is staying mum on a potential 2024 presidential run as speculation stirs that the first-term chief executive could be exactly what Republicans need to win back suburban voters.
Youngkin was asked by Fox News Digital if he was open to a 2024 White House run during an interview in McLean, Virginia, after a rally in support of GOP House candidates.
“I am focused on 2022 [on] delivering in the commonwealth on the promises made,” said the governor. “Foremost, I’m focused on Virginia. We’re going to help candidates win in Virginia and across the nation this year.”
“2024 is a long way off,” Youngkin added. “We’re focused right now in 2022.”
VIRGINIA VOTERS ON WHY THEY SWITCHED PARTIES TO BACK GLENN YOUNGKIN: ‘DEMOCRATS WEREN’T LISTENING’
Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks at a rally for GOP House candidates in McLean, Virginia, on Aug. 20, 2022.
(Fox News Digital/Haris Alic)
Youngkin, who has garnered a national profile despite being in office less than nine months, won Virginia’s governorship in an upset last year. The first-time candidate and former Northern Virginia businessman bested a popular former governor in a state that many political observers believed was trending blue.
The victory was made possible by Youngkin’s emphasis on kitchen table issues, like education and the economy, while downplaying more controversial social issues and avoiding focus on former President Donald Trump. The end result was that Youngkin improved on Trump’s 2020 margins in suburban and exurban Northern Virginia, without seeing a drop in turnout among rural voters that make up the GOP base.
Increasingly, fellow Republicans have begun looking at Youngkin as a model for how to win back governorships in purple and blue states.
VIRGINIA GOV. YOUNGKIN STIRS SPECULATION OF 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RUN WITH MIDWEST FORAY
Hispanic supporters of Glenn Youngkin react as Fox News declares him the winner in the governor’s race during an election night party in Chantilly, Virginia, Nov. 3, 2021.
(Reuters Elizabeth Frantz TPX Images of the Day)
“Since last November, every [Republican National Committee] meeting I attend, a state party chairman, usually at least half a dozen during a meeting, pull me over and say: ‘Tell me what happened in Virginia, how did you do it?” said Rich Anderson, the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia. “They all ask if [they can get] Gov. Youngkin to their state to assist gubernatorial candidates.”
Youngkin, for his part, seems obliged to help Republicans in key races. Not only is Youngkin endorsing and campaigning for House candidates in Virginia, but he’s also campaigning for GOP gubernatorial candidates in places like Michigan and Nebraska.
“Republican governors were so good to us last year,” said Youngkin. “We have seen Republican governors outperform Democrat governors everywhere. So I want to help Republican governors when I think we have a very unique approach – which is these kitchen table, common sense solutions.”
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin talks midterms, potential White House run with Fox News Digital on Aug. 20, 2022.
(Fox News Digital/Haris Alic)
To aid the effort, Youngkin has started both a state and national political action committee. One of those PACs has already raised more than $2.6 million, thanks to Youngkin’s judicious courting of national mega donors.
Such initiatives have only intensified talk that the governor, who is term-limited from seeking re-election because of Virginia’s constitution, has higher ambitions. And although Youngkin has not addressed such speculation, his intermingling of state and national issues has supporters hopeful.
On Saturday, for instance, Youngkin told Fox News Digital that Attorney General Merrick Garland had exposed himself as more committed to politics than justice when asked about the Justice Departments’ recent raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
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“What we’ve seen from Attorney General Garland over the course of his entire term, is that he’s political,” said Youngkin. “It has been an inconsistent application of his authority with parents in Loudoun County being investigated and then the failure to enforce the law to protect our Supreme Court justices here in Virginia, and now the raid on Mar-a-Lago.”
“All it does is re-emphasize this inconsistency and a lack of faith in the attorney general of the United States Office,” he added. “Transparency is the key and we’re all calling for transparency.”
