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RICHMOND — Before Tuesday’s election, Gov. Glenn Youngkin was everywhere — on the stump in Virginia, in the Hamptons with megadonors, in TV ads and on the lips of Republicans still pining for a fresh face to snatch the GOP presidential nomination away from front-runner Donald Trump.
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And then, suddenly, he was nowhere.
Tuesday’s Democratic sweep in Virginia’s midterm legislative elections let most — if not all — of the air out of the notion that the telegenic multimillionaire could make an 11th-hour White House bid in 2024.
While a handful of associates still held out hope, Youngkin was not around in the immediate aftermath to offer even his standard, studiously coy response to the 2024 question that has swirled around him since he won a blue-leaning state two years ago. On Wednesday, Youngkin’s office announced shortly before noon that he would hold an afternoon news conference on the steps of the Virginia Capitol, where he’ll talk about the commonwealth’s agenda.
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In the meantime, MAGA Republicans allied with Trump happily declared Youngkin politically dead.
“The Donor conceived, Murdoch News driven fantasy of Youngkin as President died because MAGA smelled a phony and couldn’t be bothered,” former Trump White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon wrote in a text message to The Washington Post.
Conservative radio host John Fredericks, who was Trump’s Virginia chairman in 2016 and 2020, texted The Post to say Youngkin has “Zero national prospects.”
“At midnight he turned into a pumpkin with a washed out red vest,” Fredericks wrote, referring to Youngkin’s trademark campaign attire.
Not everyone counted him out.
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Brad Hobbs, a friend since junior high school and a major donor who has urged Youngkin to run since before he won the governorship, said Tuesday’s results should not be a factor in the governor’s decision.
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“The reasons to do it are independent of the outcome of yesterday’s election,” he said Wednesday. “He’s a better leader than Trump or Biden to me, and last night didn’t change that. … I think it’s possible because it’s still him.”
Hobbs also suggested that Youngkin, saddled with an entire General Assembly in Democratic hands, has nothing to lose by seeking national office.
“I look at it as now he’s not going to be able to get his agenda passed, so why not run?” he said. “He can’t do the things that he wants to do.”
One person familiar with the governor’s operation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private deliberations, suggested that the door on a 2024 run was not completely closed.
That person suggested that the results underscore Virginia’s blue tilt, making it all the more remarkable that polls show Youngkin is personally popular — even if that failed to rub off on the candidates and abortion restrictions he promoted.
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“Popularity is not transferrable to anything,” that person said. “And we got clocked on abortion. You can’t spend $2 million to convince a person they’re wrong on an issue. It’s like trying to convince an ex-girlfriend she still loves you.”
Given that many of the legislative races were close, some said that Republicans did reasonably well — but that Youngkin made the optics worse by leaning into his plan to ban most abortions after 15 weeks and stoking the notion that a red wave could propel him to the presidency.
“Youngkin’s Rs *did* run strong campaigns in Virginia,” David Weigel of Semafor wrote on X, noting that, pending mail ballots, the GOP was on track to win every seat that Joe Biden won by less than eight points in 2020. “But the 2024 savior/we cracked the abortion code hype makes it look like a debacle.”
This story is developing and will be updated.
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