No doubt you remember that when he campaigned for governor and when he campaigned for Republicans who were running for the state legislature, Glenn Youngkin painted himself as a different kind of Republican, not a crackpot MAGAt, a sane, moderate, mainstream Republican, just a tad right of the state’s political center. Virginia has a statewide PVI of D+3. The last time the state voted for a Republican presidential candidate was 2004 when George Bush was running for reelection; it had been solidly Republican before that, dropping the Democratic Party right after Harry Truman’s election. When Youngkin beat Terry McAuliffe in 2021, it was in the middle of the COVID pandemic confusion and he scored just 50.58%. Youngkin swung more suburban voters over to his side than previous Republicans running statewide had been able to— and he did that by pretending to be “moderate.”
Over the weekend, Laura Vozzella reported that the mask has slipped and Youngkin’s record has exposed him as the same far-right extremist Democrats said he was. On Friday, “Youngkin vetoed bills meant to ensure access to contraceptives and close tax loopholes for Confederate heritage groups… continuing a record-breaking veto spree that also nixed measures to ban guns from psychiatric hospitals and remind parents to store weapons out of their children’s reach… Youngkin’s moves solidify his record as a hard-right Republican, something often obscured by the governor’s upbeat image and ability to avoid taking action on Democratic priorities until this year, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) said Saturday. Before Democrats assumed full control of the General Assembly in January, a Republican-held House blocked many of the Democratic-controlled Senate’s bills from reaching his desk. ‘I told many people that after this session, we would find out where the governor really stood, because he’s been so opaque, trying to maintain his friendly, suburban, moderate, basketball dad image,’ he said. ‘But now we know.’”
Youngkin’s office announced the moves just hours ahead of an 11:59 p.m. deadline Friday and just days after Democrats who control the General Assembly passed a state budget compromise that the governor helped hammer out and immediately signed into law. The bipartisan spirit that helped the state avert a budget crisis in Monday’s special session seemed to evaporate with the latest vetoes, many of them related to culture-war issues that could play into this fall’s presidential and congressional contests.
“By vetoing our legislation, Governor Youngkin is now on the record agreeing with the extremists in his party— including Donald Trump— who conflate contraception with abortion,” state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield) and Del. Marcia “Cia” Price (D-Newport News) said in a written statement about a pair of identical bills they sponsored that would have put a right to obtain and use contraception into Virginia law.
Youngkin had proposed changing the bills— HB609 and SB237— to simply express the sentiment of the legislature that people have access to contraception under federal law. Hashmi and Price have said those amendments would have gutted the bills, rendering them meaningless if federal law changed. Letting his amendments die without a vote in April, the House and Senate sent the bills back to the governor in their original form, forcing him to choose between signing or vetoing them.
“Let me be crystal clear: I support access to contraception,” Youngkin’s written statement said. “However, we cannot trample on the religious freedoms of Virginians.”
Separately in his veto statement, Youngkin said the legislation failed to include “adequate conscience clause protections for providers and also undermines the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning their children’s upbringing and care.”
Other bills vetoed by Youngkin include:
Tax loopholes and license plates for Confederate groups
Youngkin vetoed a pair of identical bills— HB568 and SB517— that would have eliminated state tax loopholes for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society and the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Inc.
The groups are exempt from state recordation taxes and real and personal property taxes, an issue brought to the General Assembly by a Virginia Beach high school student after her lawyer father discovered the loophole in an obscure part of state law.
Youngkin had sought to duck the issue with an amendment requiring that the bills be voted on again next year and calling for a study. After the legislature rejected that, he pulled out his veto pen.
“Narrowly targeting specific organizations to gain or lose such tax exemptions sets an inappropriate precedent,” he wrote in his veto statement. “Choosing winners and losers is imprudent and undermines the tax system’s fairness. ”
Youngkin also vetoed a bill— HB812, sponsored by Del. Candi Mundon King (D-Prince William)— that would have banned the further issuance of state license plates commemorating the Sons of Confederate Veterans or Gen. Robert E. Lee.
In his veto statement, Youngkin noted that the state offers so many specialty plates— including those advocating both sides of some hotly contested issues— that they cannot be construed as “endorsements by the Commonwealth.”
“The Department also offers specialty plates for debated social issues, such as advocacy for fox hunting, coal, or internet infrastructure,” he wrote. “In some instances, the plates represent overtly political statements, including pro-abortion, pro-life, for and against the Second Amendment, and even international relations concerning Tibet.”
Firearms
The measure was meant to reduce the risk of school shootings like the one that took place in Newport News in January 2023, when a 6-year-old boy shot and wounded his elementary school teacher with a gun he took from his mother’s purse.
“This proposed legislation is unnecessary for responsible parents and ineffective in persuading the irresponsible,” Youngkin wrote.
Youngkin, who won the executive mansion on a theme of parental rights in K-12 education, said the bills had “a singular focus on one parental responsibility, which applies to a subset of parents, omitting other legal obligations, like providing an environment free of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.”
Youngkin also vetoed a pair of identical balls— HB173 and SB100— to prohibit the sale or possession of “ghost guns,” weapons that have no serial number and are often made of plastic or other parts that can pass through metal detectors. Youngkin’s veto statement said the measure might affect sellers of industrial parts, such as aluminum, that become part of those guns.
Youngkin is ineligible to run for reelection next year but his Lieutenant Governor, Winsome Sears, will probably run. Former state senator, MAGA extremist and insurrectionist Amanda Chase has already declared her candidacy. Unpopular right-wing Democrat, Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, has also declared her candidacy. She could be the key to another GOP win.
I spoke with Fergie Reid, Jr. of <https://www.90for90.org> 90For90<> about the Youngkin situation yesterday. His insights went a little deeper. “Sometimes the old election cliches,” he told me, “hold great wisdom that should be heeded:
‘Every vote matters’— ‘elections have consequences’— ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’— ‘careful what you wish for, you just might get it’— ‘rural votes matter’— ‘Black votes matter’, etc.
“So much ink is being spilled describing the ‘gnashing of teeth’ and the ‘rending of garments’ in response to the ‘revelation’ that Glenn Youngkin is just another Trump cult proto-fascist. Oh my !!
“It’s almost as though the media scribes who offered him up to their audiences as some ‘new kind of centrist Republican’ actually believed that the failed CEO of the Carlyle Group had suddenly transmogrified into a reasonable bipartisan populist. But, they weren’t fooled. They willingly went along for the ride, prostrating themselves before the tall, rich, ‘White Business Man’ with reasonably good hair & teeth, adorned in his mesmerizing ‘red vest’. They asked for him, and they got him. Please, save all the complaining now; possibly start off with an apology, and just try to write the truth in the future.
“According to vpap.org, Youngkin defeated McAuliffe in 2021 by ~ 63,000 votes, out of about 3.2 million votes cast. Both candidates spent roughly $70 million dollars on their campaigns. Youngkin’s team ran state house candidates in 98/100 State House Districts on the 2021 Va. ballot, intelligently choosing to field Republican candidates in very predominantly urban Black districts, understanding that these candidates would lose badly. At the same time, McAuliffe’s team ran house candidates in 93/100 state HDs, the 7 uncontested districts overlaying a very predominantly white Republican area of the state; their rationale being that these HDs would be a ‘waste of time and resources’. This amounts to a net deficit/advantage of 5 HDs for the McAuliffe/Youngkin teams respectively. In the (net) 5 HDs that McAuliffe’s team ceded to Youngkin’s team, Republican state house candidates collectively received about 120,000 votes, and, (since there were none), Democratic state house candidates in these HDs collectively received 0 votes. Most of the 2021— Democratically uncontested— HDs are in the most Republican, rural area of SW Virginia, which is also roughly known as Va.’s 9th Congressional district. Both candidates spent about $40-43 dollars/vote. Youngkin spent his more efficiently. Elections have consequences, and every vote matters. Urban Votes add up the same way as rural votes on election night. Tim Kaine is currently NOT making the ‘McAuliffe mistake’. He spent the past weekend in Va.’s 9th CD barnstorming the area with Karen Baker, the very impressive 2024 Va. 9th CD Dem candidate. If she ‘holds the line’ for Va. Dems in their most difficult part of the Commonwealth, Tim Kaine will run up more than sufficient margins of victory in Democratic strongholds, and enjoy a solid re-election night tally. An ounce of prevention in deed.”
If guest had lived in Virginia, it would have stayed home in the last election and helped gives us Youngkin. Abstaining is half a vote for the greater evil.