A new Fox News poll has Republican Glenn Youngkin ahead by 8 points against Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial race. The latest results came just five days before the election on Nov. 2.
In an interview with Mr. Youngkin, I was able to discuss his platform and vision for what his administration would look like. We also discussed what changes he has in store for the state should he win.
With all of the news surrounding school boards around the country, as well as in his own state, education has become an important issue in the campaign.
“Terry McAuliffe himself, he was exposed, just three weeks ago when we were debating, and he spoke from his heart, he spoke from his heart and he said, ‘I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,’” Youngkin told me. “And it was Joe Biden … that called on his FBI to intimidate dissenting parents, now fully aware to the schemes perpetrated by the officials, these officials who were mistakenly trusted to be acting in your children’s best interest.”
“And now we learn there is no guarantee of our children’s safety. We’re told to stay out of education [and] trust the process that continues to fail our children day after day. No wonder … Terry wants parents out of it, and he wants to insert government between parents and their children,” Youngkin said.
Youngkin also detailed the important role parents play in their children’s education. After McAuliffe’s comments and Biden’s actions, and the disastrous implementation of critical race theory in schools, one can tell the stark differences between what a Youngkin administration and a McAuliffe administration would look like.
“As parents … we must harness that energy. We have to harness our outrage as we take back control from self-interested politicians and we produce solutions that not only meet the moment we’re in but make Virginia schools worthy of our children and Virginia’s future,” Youngkin told me. “Our children can’t wait — it is time to shine the light of truth on our schools.”
“Once we ensure our students are safe where they learn, we can respond immediately with actions on how and what they learn,” Youngkin said.
Youngkin offers a positive and active approach toward educating Virginia’s children.
“My administration will be defined by action, not platitudes. Our education movement, and it is a movement, will start with new leadership,” Youngkin said. “By Dec. 1, I am going to name a new secretary of education, and by Dec. 1 I will name a new Virginia superintendent, and they together … will assemble a task force — comprised of teachers, administrators, law enforcement, students, and parents. Did you hear me say parents? Because parents matter.”
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, George Floyd’s death, and subsequent protests were issues that affected all areas of the country. Virginia was no different. Youngkin told me his approach would have contrasted with Gov. Ralph Northam’s extended shuttering of businesses and the closure of schools and churches. Northam’s administration didn’t even set up a hotline for vaccinations in the first two months after the vaccines were available, and many workers’ expanded unemployment benefits were delayed.
“Instead of dragging my feet like the current governor, I would have made distributing the vaccine and unemployment assistance top priorities,” Youngkin told me. “The website and the hotline would have been ready to go on day one. The simple fact is that the governor and the career politicians in Richmond failed us, and Virginians paid the price. We need new leadership with real-world experience, someone who spent their career in business solving problems and getting things done. If you hire me as your governor, I’ll fix these problems and make the Virginia government serve the people again.”
Youngkin also had firm ideas on the crime plaguing the United States and how he would be different from McAuliffe.
“With Virginia facing a serious crime problem, Terry McAuliffe’s continued embrace of ‘defund the police’ radicals is a giant red flag that should worry every Virginian. Also telling is his shameless embrace of Stacey Abrams, who lost her election, refused to concede, and claimed it was stolen,” Youngkin said. “McAuliffe is the only candidate in this race who has claimed an election was stolen or suggested the 2020 election would be rigged, and his continued refusal to acknowledge the fact that George W. Bush was legitimately elected further demonstrates his extreme hypocrisy. It’s clear he’s a dishonest politician who says one thing and does the exact opposite.”
“Terry McAuliffe said he was proud to be endorsed by radical ‘defund the police’ groups, and now he’s campaigning with the radical Stacey Abrams, who said the election was stolen from her, compared law enforcement officers to terrorists, opposed enforcing our immigration laws, and supported defunding the police,” Macaulay Porter, press secretary at Glenn Youngkin for Virginia Governor, told me. “Virginians are seeing that Terry McAuliffe is too extreme for Virginia and will reject his anti-police liberal agenda at the polls.”
As abortion laws have also made the news cycle, especially with Texas’s new law, Youngkin also has strong beliefs on this issue and tells me why he is the best anti-abortion option for all Virginians.
“As I’ve said through this entire campaign, I’m pro-life,” he said. “I believe in exceptions in the case of rape and incest and when the life of the mother is in jeopardy. … My opponent doesn’t want to talk about this topic because he actually called legislation that would enable abortion paid for with taxpayer money all the way up through and including birth, where a child is kept comfortable while the decision is made whether that child lives or dies — he called that legislation ‘common-sense legislation’ and said he would sign it.”
“My opponent wants to be the abortion governor,” Youngkin concluded, “and I want to be the jobs governor.”
