John, I wanted to make sure you got our team's note over the weekend.
Glenn Youngkin's presidential aspirations mean that the Virginia GOP will be laser-focused on defeating candidates like Hala in open State Senate races — and with our first public finance deadline of 2023 less than a month away, we need to demonstrate that we're in a position to counter the attacks that are coming our way.
John, our governor spent a lot of time throughout 2022 with his focus away from Virginia. Glenn Youngkin — after promising voters he'd be moderate — invested major political capital into supporting MAGA extremist candidates around the country like Kari Lake in Arizona and Tudor Dixon in Michigan. His gambit failed, as many of his highest-profile endorsees went down in defeat.
But Youngkin isn't deterred. This week, he took the first of several planned trips out of the Commonwealth to meet with top GOP donors — a clear sign that he remains interested in positioning himself for a potential presidential campaign.
With Youngkin focused on raising his national profile, you can be certain that he'll double down on his efforts to flip the State Senate. There's nothing a prospective Republican candidate wants more than a trifecta that will pass extreme bills for his base like abortion bans and rollbacks of LGBTQ+ rights.
Youngkin's left no doubt that he's focused on his intended audience of national GOP primary voters. That means we can expect more extreme proposals from him and his allies, and more shameless attempts to stand out by attacking our Commonwealth's vulnerable communities.
We need to rein in Youngkin's power as much as possible. And we can do that if we extend our Democratic State Senate majority and elect leaders like Hala.
