RICHMOND – Donald Trump and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) to appear in public They will meet this week for the first time as the former president campaigns in Virginia, a blue-leaning state that has twice rejected Trump but could be in play this year.
With a rally scheduled for Friday afternoon in Chesapeake, Trump will signal an apparent shift in his relationship with both the governor and ordinary voters in Virginia, where Two recent polls show the race for president is tied.
Trump and the governor have clashed with each other since Youngkin entered politics three years ago, with relations particularly strained when Youngkin aggressively flirted with a presidential bid of his own. But now they both see the advantages of closing their arms. The couple met privately for the first time just two weeks ago.
Youngkin opted out of previous opportunities to meet. When Trump headlined a rally in Richmond on the eve of the Super Tuesday primary in March, Youngkin He said he had a conflict and showed up Instead, at the University of Virginia-Duke basketball game in Durham, North Carolina, Youngkin, citing another conflict, skipped a rally organized on behalf of his own campaign in October 2021, which Trump called for telephone and headed by his former White House advisor, Stephen K. Bannon. .
Trump has fared poorly in the polls in Virginia, losing by five points in 2016 and twice as much in 2020. He dragged the state Republican Party with him while in the White House as Democrats gained full control of the state government. in 2019 for the first time in a generation. Trump didn’t seriously oppose Virginia four years ago; His only campaign appearance, in Newport News, was aimed at reaching voters in the next swing state, North Carolina, a media market that Friday’s rally will also reach.
But that was before Biden’s popularity plummeted and recent polls suggested the Old Dominion presidential race was tied. Earlier this month, the Cook Political Report changed virginia of “solid” Democrat” to “probably Democrat.” (Though Cook also found that the state was still at “low risk” of tilting toward Trump.)
Although independent political analysts and even Republican strategists do not rate Virginia as a top-tier swing state, Trump and Youngkin have declared that the Commonwealth is up for grabs. What’s more, Youngkin’s allies credit the governor with making Virginia competitive with his “common-sense conservative” policies on education, public safety and cost of living.
“The fact that we’re even talking about it as competitive … two words: Glenn Youngkin,” said Zack Roday, a Republican strategist who has worked for Youngkin in the past. He said the Virginia Republican Party was in a “pretty dark” situation before the governor unseated Virginia in 2021. “We had no seats, we had no victories, we had no hope.”
Youngkin suggested in a recent interview with KeynoteUSA that his record, like Trump’s, has opened the door for Republicans in a state that has not elected anyone for president since George W. Bush in 2004.
Voters “want Trump to return to the White House because he built a strong America. And that is exactly what we have seen in Virginia over the course of the last two years.” Youngkin told Fox’s Sean Hannity 10th of June. “Common sense conservative policies work. “We have unleashed a tremendous economy in Virginia and I think they want to see it on a national level.”
The idea that Trump could boost his chances by campaigning in Virginia or sneaking up on Youngkin drew ridicule from the Biden campaign and other Democrats, who point out that Biden has opened six campaign offices in the state, while the Trump campaign It does not have a visible playing field.
“Virginians have rejected Trump every time he has run here, and his MAGA allies were soundly defeated last year after they campaigned on his agenda to ban abortion throughout the Commonwealth,” said Jake Rubenstein, state director of the Biden campaign, in a written statement. “We are mobilizing voters in every corner of Virginia and hope to beat Trump for a third time in November.”
“Every time Donald Trump opens his mouth on Virginia soil, he’s just widening our margin,” said Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, one of two state representatives on the Biden-Harris campaign’s national campaign advisory board.
Youngkin, a political newcomer and private equity boss who poured $20 million of his personal fortune into his gubernatorial campaign, transformed Virginia from seemingly solidly blue a year into Biden’s term. The victory attracted national attention, given its off-year timing and the political fame of Youngkin’s Democratic rival, former governor and Clinton friend Terry McAuliffe.
But Youngkin has yet to replicate that electoral magic, despite consistently healthy job approval ratings. Most of the gubernatorial and congressional candidates he championed across the country in 2022 lost. A year later, in his own state, Democrats won full control of the General Assembly in elections that Youngkin had called a midterm referendum on his governorship.
Virginia House Speaker Don L. Scott Jr. (D-Portsmouth) questioned how Youngkin could pave Trump’s way in a state that just rejected the governor’s proposal. aggressive push in the November legislative elections.
“Virginia is a competitive state but … regardless of what you smoke, you need to realize that we haven’t legalized it in Virginia yet,” he said.
Roday, who led Youngkin’s 2023 legislative effort, acknowledged those losses but noted that results in key races were close and that Democrats have razor-thin margins in both the House and Senate.
“Of course, we didn’t win,” he said. “Virginia has been on a knife edge and that is the Youngkin effect. … It’s not about whether Youngkin gets the win, but the fact that Virginia is on the board. “That’s what Youngkin has done.”
Roday is among Republican strategists who stop short of saying Virginia is fully in play, but say it could get there. “A confluence of things has to happen for (Virginia to gain) a status similar to North Carolina, where it’s in the top seven or six (swing states), but it’s competitive,” he said.
Youngkin supporter Henry Barbour, a Republican national committeeman from Mississippi and nephew of that state’s former governor, also sees it that way.
“Look at what he’s done in a swing state — cutting taxes, fighting for parental rights, governing as a conservative — and he’s very popular,” she said. “I think he has a bright future and I’m sure former President Trump appreciates that Governor Youngkin helped put a blue state in a competitive situation.”
Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the Virginia Democratic Party, agreed that the rally will be a boost, but for Democrats.
“Virginians see Trump for what he is: a convicted felon who is on an increasingly unhinged and dangerous quest for power, fuels political violence, and called the extremists who marched in Charlottesville ‘very good people,’” he said. . “It’s fitting that a loser like Trump would choose to head to a state that rejected him twice, where he and his abortion ban agenda are so toxic that local Republicans have been forced to avoid campaigning with him in recent years. and that he is willing to reject it again in November.”
Whatever its impact on voters, Trump’s meeting with Youngkin will mark a milestone in the sometimes checkered relationship between two wealthy business figures who made improbable 180-degree turns in politics.
Youngkin, a former Carlyle Group executive, embraced Trump and refused to acknowledge that Biden had rightfully won the White House in 2020 as he sought his party’s gubernatorial nomination in 2021.
While Youngkin accepted Trump’s endorsement, he admitted Biden’s legitimacy and maintained Trump stayed away during the general election, leaning on MAGA culture war themes of “critical race theory” and “election integrity” with a friendly, basketball-dad personality that worked best with suburban moderates.
Trump has complained privately and publicly that Youngkin did not give him enough credit for his victory. The fact that Youngkin spent the first two years of his term exploring a 2024 presidential bid only deepened the rift, prompting Trump to lash out on social media in a way that dovetailed with the anti-China rhetoric of the Republican Party.
“The young relatives (now that’s an interesting insight. Sounds Chinese, right?) in Virginia couldn’t have won without me,” Trump wrote.
Youngkin has dipped in and out of MAGA messaging over the years: campaigning in 2022 for election-denying gubernatorial candidates, like Kari Lake in Arizona, and denouncing Trump’s various criminal allegations while remaining neutral in the elections. presidential primary until her rival Nikki Haley suspended her campaign the next morning. Trump’s defeat on Super Tuesday.
young he tweeted his support that Wednesday around 9 p.m., when he was buried by other breaking news. at that same time: The $2 billion taxpayer-backed sports stadium the governor had been seeking for the Washington Capitals and Wizards was dead.
Trump and Youngkin appeared to put all that behind them in a private meeting on June 12 at Trump National Golf Club in northern Virginia, where the governor presented internal polls that suggested his state was winnable. The campaign posted a blurry photo of Trump standing next to Youngkin, the former commander in chief flashing a thumbs up that Youngkin, in a minor violation of Trump photo etiquette, did not reciprocate.
The discomfort persists.
When, after that meeting, Trump cheerfully told a reporter that he could consider Youngkin as his running mate, the governor’s team was left in the dark and chose not to respond to requests for comment.
Youngkin, widely known to be considering a run for president in 2028, has shown interest in being part of the conversation: He has resumed his domestic political travel and is waiting to hear if he lands a prominent speaking spot at the Republican National Convention next month. but he is not part of the bill.
In his recent interview with Hannity, Youngkin deflected when the Fox host repeatedly asked if he would be Trump’s running mate if asked. Youngkin said he had to finish his job as governor, a change from when the governor was considering a 2024 presidential run and pointedly refused to commit to completing his term, which ends in January 2026.
“I would be honored and humbled to tell you that there is a lot of talent in the Republican Party today and I’ve seen them everywhere and my job is to finish my time as governor and help you win Virginia,” Youngkin told Hannity.
“Is it a firm no?” Hannity asked, bursting into laughter as Youngkin repeated her part about “so much talent.”
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