Nearly a year after Gov. Glenn Youngkin‘s (R) upset victory in Virginia, he says the same issues that got him to the governor’s mansion will propel Republicans into office across the nation.
Following a rally for Republican Yesli Vega in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, Youngkin told the Washington Examiner that Republicans’ focus on “commonsense” and “kitchen table” issues from school choice to inflation will be a winning formula on Nov. 8. Youngkin won the 2021 governor’s race in a state President Joe Biden carried the year before by 10 points by focusing on education and other issues that resonated with independent voters.
101722_YOUNGKIN_VEGA-14.JPGMIDTERMS 2022: LIVE UPDATES FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL AHEAD OF CRUCIAL ELECTION
“I think it’s still a huge issue. When you talk to voters, what I hear over and over across the commonwealth is cost of living and inflation, parents rights and education, and crime and public safety. These are the issues that they’re talking about around their kitchen tables,” Youngkin said Monday night, adding, “I think voters are going to come back to the polls again, just like they did last year, and vote for Republicans to bring commonsense solutions to these kitchen-table concerns.”
<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1666121426188,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016c-3f1f-d321-af7d-7f5f071a0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1666121426188,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016c-3f1f-d321-af7d-7f5f071a0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_66121407", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1120448"} }); ","_id":"00000183-ec80-d5ff-a7af-fcdf13b80000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedOutside of Vega, Youngkin is stumping for two other Virginia candidates in swing House districts. But the governor is also putting his weight behind Republicans nationally, including gubernatorial candidates Kari Lake in Arizona and Kristine Drazan in Oregon, and will appear with them at campaign events. There hasn’t been a Republican governor of Oregon since 1987, and with Virginia trending blue in the years leading up to his win, Youngkin sees similarities between his campaign and Drazan’s bid.
101722_YOUNGKIN_VEGA-22.JPG”A state all of a sudden is in play that people didn’t think was going to be in play because of these kitchen table concerns in Oregon,” he said. “It’s a homelessness crisis and it’s crime, it’s schools, it’s expensive. And these are the same kinds of issues that we faced in Virginia.”
Arizona, too, is seeing a tight race, in which Lake is testing if a candidate aligned closely with former President Donald Trump will be able to keep Republicans in control of the governor’s mansion. She has repeated Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen in Arizona, but Youngkin says that despite disagreements over the election within the party, Republican governors are still “the best route forward for states.”
“All Republicans don’t agree on the same stuff all the time, but boy, we agree on a lot,” he added. “And I think I think Arizona citizens deserve a Republican governor. That’s why Kari Lake wins.”
101722_YOUNGKIN_VEGA-3.JPGCLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Ultimately, Youngkin believes voters will make a “big statement” on Nov. 8 and predicts the GOP will take back the House and Senate.
“This is a real big statement about who [voters] think can get the job done. It’s exactly what we did in Virginia,” he said.
On net, Republicans must flip one Senate seat and five House seats to take control of Congress.
