Glenn Youngkin is a Republican candidate for Virginia Governor. His name will appear on the ballot on Nov. 2.
Candidate: Glenn Youngkin
Race: Governor
Party: Republican
Website: youngkinforgovernor.com
Biography: Glenn Youngkin is a homegrown Virginian who grew up in Richmond and Virginia Beach. As his father changed jobs, Glenn learned that moving around didn’t equal moving up —nothing was handed to him.
From his first job washing dishes and frying eggs at a diner in Virginia Beach, Glenn embraced hard work and responsibility to help his family when his father lost his job. His determination to succeed earned him multiple high school basketball honors in Virginia and an athletic scholarship to college.
After earning an engineering degree at Rice University and his MBA, Glenn and his wife, Suzanne, moved to northern Virginia. Glenn landed a job at the Carlyle Group, where he spent the next 25 years. Working his way to the top of the company, Glenn played a key role in building Carlyle into one of the leading investment firms in the world. His efforts have helped fund the retirements of teachers, police officers, firefighters and other front line public servants and supported hundreds of thousands of American jobs.
Married for 26 years to his amazing wife Suzanne, Glenn is a dedicated father of four wonderful children. Their family journey has been and continues to be guided by their faith. From his life experiences, Glenn has developed the skills and character to lead Virginia with humility and courage. He has the know-how to get Virginia moving again and rebuild it into the best place to live, work and raise a family in America.
Why should Virginians elect you as Governor?
I’m not a politician. I’m a successful business leader and political outsider who will bring fresh ideas and new thinking to the job of the Governor and will get things done.
I spent 30 years building business and creating jobs, and I have a proven record of delivering results. I helped grow the Carlyle Group from a small firm into one of the top investment companies in the world. As co-CEO, I led a team of nearly 2,000 people and helped manage assets totaling more than $230 billion dollars, nearly four times the size of Virginia’s yearly budget.
Now, I want to serve the people of Virginia and use my real-world experience and skills to make our Commonwealth the best place to live, work, and raise a family.
What do you hope to accomplish, if elected?
As Governor, I will build a rip-roaring economy, lower the cost of living for families, lower taxes, create more jobs and opportunity, and cut the expensive and unnecessary red tape that is hurting our small businesses. We will put Virginia at the top of the list of places that companies want to do business.
I also have plans to restore Virginians’ confidence in the integrity of our elections, fight back against big tech censorship, protect our Second Amendment rights, respect the sanctity of human life, and support our law enforcement heroes. We will open our schools five days a week and give parents the power to choose the school that is best for their child. If you want to make Virginia number one again, please sign up to support me in May.
What is the most important legislative issue facing Virginia, and what is your position
on it?
We must address the abuse of taxpayer money. Every year, politicians spend more and tax more. We need to end the McAuliffe-Northam tax hikes and lower taxes for Virginia workers and their families. We must also stand strong for our Constitutional rights.
What is your position on Virginia’s overall response to the coronavirus pandemic, and
what might you have done differently?
Gov. Ralph Northam’s coronavirus response and vaccine distribution has been a disaster. He unnecessarily extended the shuttering of our businesses, closed our schools, and our houses of worship. It took more than two months after the first coronavirus vaccines were publicly administered for Northam to launch a phone hotline to facilitate vaccinations. Why was it not ready to go when the vaccine arrived? Why did the vaccine website go down for hours? At one point, Virginia was dead last in the entire country when it came to distributing the vaccine.
Many Virginians lost their paychecks due to the pandemic, and many of them failed to receive the unemployment assistance they filed for on time. Why couldn’t the Governor prioritize this problem, fix the backlog, and get it right? It’s been months and folks are still waiting.
It’s also unacceptable that many of our schools are still closed. Parents should have the option of sending their children to school five days a week. We know what the science says about this. Yet, too many elected officials are failing to lead because they are beholden to special interest groups.
Instead of dragging my feet like the current Governor, I would have made distributing the vaccine and unemployment assistance top priorities. The website and the hotline would have been ready to go on day one.
The simple fact is that the Governor and the career politicians in Richmond failed us, and Virginians paid the price. We need new leadership with real-world experience, someone who spent their career in business solving problems and getting things done. If you hire me as your Governor, I’ll fix these problems and make Virginia government serve the people again.
What are the top three issues created by the coronavirus pandemic in Virginia, and
how would you plan to address them?
Small businesses closed for good
Over the course of the pandemic, nearly 25% of Virginia’s businesses have closed temporarily or permanently. This has had a devastating toll on small business owners, workers, and their families with 1.5 million Virginians filing for unemployment benefits last year. As Governor, I will work to create jobs and build a rip-roaring economy, reopen our businesses safely, and bring Virginia back stronger than ever.
Women forced to leave their jobs
Due to the pandemic, nearly 3 million women have dropped out of the labor force, and Virginia has the lowest percentage of the adult population participating in the workforce. To emerge from the pandemic stronger than ever, we must open the schools, bring new economic growth and job opportunities to Virginia, and help folks get the training and skills they need to re-enter the job market or start a new career. As Governor, I will work to rebuild Virginia and revamp the Virginia Employment Commission.
Children falling behind in school
Our schools must be open five days a week so that parents have the choice of sending their children back to the classroom. Some children will have spent an entire year out of the classroom, and if we don’t address the learning loss and setbacks associated with the pandemic, children will be impacted for years. Students with special needs have been at a greater risk of falling behind with the online learning platforms. I will push for solutions that parents and students need to get back on track, with the proper protocols in place to protect and accommodate any teacher or school employee who is especially vulnerable to COVID-19.
