Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) said recent polling data in Virginia indicate that residents do not want President Joe Biden’s “weak America” and instead want former President Donald Trump back in office.
The polling data Youngkin referred to showed that Trump and Biden are tied in Virginia, a state Biden won by a 10-point margin in 2020. When asked if this could mean Virginia could flip red in November, Youngkin argued that it could, noting how polls for swing states, including Georgia and Pennsylvania, are leaning toward Trump because voters are shifting away from the president.
“They want a strong America,” Youngkin said on Fox News’s Hannity. “They want an America that has economic strength, not the Biden-generated economy that’s unleashed inflation. They want an America that has national security strength, not the indecisive, weak America that Joe Biden has created. They want an America that has a secure border, not one that has terrorists and illegal immigrants and fentanyl flowing over it every day.
“We see it in Virginia — we literally have five Virginians dying on average from fentanyl overdose, and we had two illegal immigrants crash the gates at Quantico in a box truck recently,” the governor continued. “And they want an America that has energy independence. We are so tired that I can hear every single day of being told that you have to buy an EV if you live in California, but not in Virginia anymore, because we declared our independence. Or that, in fact, you have to pay 20, 30, 40% more for a gallon of gas because of the Biden failed energy policy. They want Trump back in the White House because he built a strong America.”
Youngkin said voters will be able to look at the records of both candidates when they head to the polls in November and that he is confident they will be “pulling the lever for President Trump.”
The governor was also asked if he had any concern about northern Virginia voters making it hard for Trump to win the state, as many Democrats who work in Washington, D.C., live in the area. He suggested that the key to winning the state is to lose northern Virginia “less badly,” which he said helped him win the gubernatorial election in 2021.
Hannity also asked if Youngkin would accept the vice presidential nomination should Trump ask him. The governor first said his focus is on the commonwealth, but when further pressed, he said he would be “honored and humbled” if offered. However, he said he would tell the former president “there is a ton of talent” in the Republican Party, and that his job is to finish his time as governor and get Trump back in the White House.
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Trump has reportedly sent “vetting materials” to several vice presidential candidates, though Youngkin’s name was absent from the list that included Govs. Doug Burgum (R-ND) and Kristi Noem (R-SD), Sens. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Tim Scott (R-SC), Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and Dr. Ben Carson, the former president’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
The last Republican presidential candidate to win Virginia was former President George W. Bush in 2004. Trump previously lost the state to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by over 212,000 votes in 2016 and again to Biden in 2020 by 451,000 votes.