Virginia has become a blue state. Or, at least, that’s what everyone thought. Now, Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin is neck-and-neck in the polls with Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe. Youngkin could well win in an upset. So, it’s worth evaluating his campaign policy platform from a right-of-center perspective.
Youngkin has leaned into various culture war issues and toed a delicate line, attempting to appeal to both Virginia’s deep-red, Trump-loving GOP base and suburban centrists. As a result, the campaign has largely focused on cultural debates such as the fight over “critical race theory.” But on more tangible policy issues, Youngkin’s positions are somewhat unclear — and a mixed bag.
For one, the candidate’s website and campaign materials are extremely light on actual policy positions. He does not have a traditional or in-depth “issues” page, rather just a few specific policies and many broad platitudes listed on his “Day One Game Plan.” So, it took me a fair bit of internet sleuthing and research to find out what exactly Glenn Youngkin believes. Not exactly a promising start.
But I was heartened by what I discovered, at least on many fronts. The former CEO has taken a strong stand against authoritarian government pandemic restrictions, promising never to let alarmists close schools and stating boldly that he “will not allow covid lockdowns to ever occur in Virginia again.” While being personally vaccinated and encouraging the vaccines, Youngkin is also anti-vaccine-mandate. So, on this key issue relevant to so many today, he is firmly on the side of freedom, in stark contrast to his Democratic challenger.
On education, another key issue, Youngkin seems great — on the surface.
He has loudly rejected McAuliffe’s claims that parents shouldn’t be telling schools what they should teach. Reassuringly for conservatives, Youngkin says he firmly believes in parental rights and wants to expand school choice programs. Yet the GOP candidate has also run TV ads promising to pass the “biggest education budget in Virginia history” and “raise teacher pay.”
While perhaps simply rooted in raw political calculation, it’s depressing to see a “conservative” candidate fall for the canard that the problems with public education can be fixed by pouring more taxpayer money into the fire. And why is a Republican pushing to give in to the public teachers unions’ pay increase demands after they screwed over families and kept schools closed?
Cowing to government-employee unions may unfortunately be a bit of a pattern for Youngkin.
He professes his support for the police, which is hardly objectionable. Yet the candidate has promised to preserve “qualified immunity,” a horrifying legal distortion that lets police officers and government officials of all stripes violate citizens’ rights and, in many cases, escape accountability and civil liability. Yes, qualified immunity is a matter of robust debate on the Right. But those who truly believe in limited government and individual freedom will be disheartened to see Youngkin side with government unions over citizens’ rights.
Similarly, Youngkin’s economic agenda, while undoubtedly superior to McAuliffe’s, is a mixed bag from a fiscally conservative perspective. He has promised not to raise taxes and also, rather ingeniously, outlined proposals not just to cut taxes but in particular cut grocery taxes and other taxes that disproportionately hurt working-class Virginians. Youngkin has also promised to cut job-killing regulations by 25% and empower small businesses. So far, so good.
Yet it was concerning to discover that Youngkin did not oppose President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion “COVID-19” relief welfare spending plan. This federal legislation was a liberal, big-government monstrosity largely unrelated to the pandemic. It created a bloated welfare system that paid many unemployed people more not to work, lost enormous sums of taxpayer money to fraud, funneled hundreds of billions into the pockets of teachers unions, unnecessarily gave massive state and local bailouts, and renewed failed business subsidies that overwhelmingly went to big corporations, all while exploding the national debt and spending more money we don’t have.
But Youngkin has repeatedly claimed he “did not oppose the plan,” although he notes that he supported some parts of it and thought others were wasteful. It’s nonetheless concerning that a Republican candidate couldn’t come firmly down against such a socialist monstrosity — and raises questions about how he’ll truly govern.
If Youngkin pulls off the upset, will he govern as a principled conservative or yet another big-government, establishment Republican governor? We can’t know for sure. The suggestions from his policy platforms are largely promising, but the details are too vague, and there are a few red flags.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and a Washington Examiner contributor. Subscribe to his YouTube channel or email him at [email protected].
