Trump and Governor Youngkin to Appear Together for First Time at Virginia Rally

Trump and the governor have been at odds since Youngkin entered politics three years ago, with relations particularly tense as Youngkin aggressively flirted with his own presidential bid. But now they both see an advantage in crossing their arms. The pair met privately for the first time just two weeks ago.

Youngkin chose not to take advantage of previous chances to meet. When Trump led a rally in Richmond on the eve of the Super Tuesday primaries in March, Youngkin said he had a conflict and showed up instead, at the Virginia University-Duke basketball game in Durham, N.C. Youngkin, citing another conflict, skipped a rally organized on behalf of his own campaign in October 2021 that Trump called and his former adviser White House Stephen K. Bannon headlined.

Trump performed poorly at the polls in Virginia, losing by 5 points in 2016 and double that in 2020. He dragged the state Republican Party with him while in the White House, allowing Democrats to gain full control of the state government in 2019 for the first time in a generation. Trump has not seriously contested Virginia in four years; his only campaign appearance, in Newport News, was intended to reach voters in the neighboring swing state of North Carolina, a media market that Friday’s rally will also reach.

But that was before Biden’s popularity plummeted and recent polls suggested Old Dominion’s presidential race was a dead heat. Earlier this month, the Cook Political Report changed Virginia from “solid Democrat” to “probably Democrat”. (Although Cook also found that the state was still “low risk” of turning to Trump.)

While independent political analysts and even Republican strategists don’t consider Virginia a top-tier swing state, Trump and Youngkin have declared 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 talking about this 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 “very dark” place before the governor flipped Virginia in 2021. “We had no bench, we had no victories, we had no hope.”

Youngkin suggested in a recent Fox News interview that his record, like Trump’s, has opened the door for Republicans in a state that hasn’t chosen one for president since George W. Bush in 2004.

Voters “want Trump back in the White House because he built a strong America. And that’s exactly what we’ve seen in Virginia over the last two years,” Youngkin told Fox’s Sean Hannity on June 10. “Common-sense conservative policies work. We’ve unleashed a roaring economy in Virginia, and I think they want to see that on a national level.”

The idea that Trump could boost his chances by campaigning in Virginia or cozying up to Youngkin has drawn derision from the Biden campaign and other Democrats, who note that Biden has opened six campaign offices in the state while the Trump campaign has none. no games visible.

“Virginians have rejected Trump every time he has run here, and his MAGA allies were defeated last year after campaigning on his Commonwealth-wide abortion ban agenda,” said Jake Rubenstein, state director for the Biden campaign, in a written statement. “We are mobilizing voters in every corner of Virginia and looking forward to defeating 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 the state’s two representatives on the Biden-Harris campaign’s national advisory board.

A political novice and private equity chief who invested $20 million of his personal fortune in his gubernatorial campaign, Youngkin turned Virginia seemingly solidly blue a year into Biden’s term. The victory drew national attention due to the off-year timing and 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 faced across the country in 2022 lost. A year later, in his own state, Democrats won full control of the General Assembly in races that Youngkin had called a midterm referendum on his government.

Virginia House Speaker Don L. Scott Jr. (D-Portsmouth) questioned how Youngkin could ease Trump’s path in a state that just rejected the governor’s decision aggressive push in the November legislative elections.

“Virginia is a competitive state, but … whatever they smoke, they need to realize we haven’t legalized it in Virginia yet,” he said.

Roday, who led Youngkin’s 2023 legislative effort, acknowledged those losses but noted that the 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 is on a knife’s edge and that’s the Youngkin effect. … It’s not whether Youngkin delivers the victory, it’s the fact that Virginia is on the board. That’s what Youngkin did.”

Roday is among the 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 to [Virginia to acquire] North Carolina-type status, where it’s in the top seven or six [swing states]but it is competitive,” he said.

Henry Barbour, a Youngkin supporter, Republican Party national committeeman in Mississippi and nephew of that state’s former governor, also sees it that way.

“Look at what he’s done in a swing state — cut taxes, fought for parental rights, governed as a conservative — and he’s very popular,” he said. “I think he has a bright future, and I’m sure former President Trump appreciates that Governor Youngkin helped put a blue state on a competitive footing.”

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 unbalanced and dangerous quest for power, fuels political violence, and said the extremists who marched in Charlottesville were ‘very fine people,’” she said . “It is appropriate that a loser like Trump would choose to go 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 who is about to reject it again in November.”

Whatever its impact on voters, Trump’s rally with Youngkin will mark a milestone in the sometimes rocky relationship between two wealthy business figures who have made unlikely political comebacks.

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 nomination for governor in 2021.

Although Youngkin accepted Trump’s endorsement, he admitted Biden’s legitimacy and maintained Trump was at a distance during the general election, leaning into MAGA culture war themes of “critical race theory” and “election integrity” with a friendly basketball dad persona that played better with suburban moderates.

Trump 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 divide, leading Trump to attack social media in a way that fit the Republican Party’s anti-China rhetoric.

“Young Kin (that’s an interesting opinion. Sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?) in Virginia could not 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 condemning Trump’s multiple criminal charges, remaining neutral in the presidential primary until rival Nikki Haley suspended her campaign the morning after Trump’s Super Tuesday defeat.

Youngkin tweeted his endorsement that Wednesday around 9 p.m., when it was buried in other news at that same moment: The taxpayer-supported $2 billion sports stadium the governor sought 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 the Trump National Golf Club in Northern Virginia, where the governor presented internal polls suggesting his state was winnable. The campaign released a blurry photo of Trump next to Youngkin, the former commander in chief giving a thumbs-up that Youngkin — in a minor violation of Trump photo etiquette — did not return.

The embarrassment persists.

When, after that meeting, Trump nonchalantly told a reporter that he might consider Youngkin as his running mate, the governor’s team was left in the dark, choosing not to respond to requests for comment.

Widely known to be planning a run for president in 2028, Youngkin has signaled interest in being part of the conversation — he has resumed national political travel and is waiting to find out if he will land a prominent speaking spot at the Republican National Convention next month — but no is part of the ticket.

In his recent interview with Hannity, Youngkin deflected when the Fox host repeatedly asked if he would serve as Trump’s running mate if asked. Youngkin said he had to finish his governorship — a change from when the governor was considering a 2024 presidential bid and explicitly refused to commit to completing his term, which ends in January 2026.

“I would be honored and humbled and tell him there is a lot of talent in the Republican Party today and I have seen it everywhere and it is my job to finish my term as governor and help you win Virginia,” Youngkin told Hannity.

“Is that a hard no?” Hannity asked, laughing as Youngkin repeated part of himself about “so much talent.”