Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has confirmed that, at least until the end of this year, he won’t be entering the Republican presidential primary field and will instead continue to focus on running his state.
“I’m going to be working in Virginia this year,” the first-term governor added.
Specifically, Youngkin said he will focus on helping Republican candidates win legislative elections in Virginia. The commonwealth currently has a Democrat-majority Senate and a Republican-majority House of Delegates.
“I want to hold our House, and I'd like to flip our Senate. And I think we’re doing a really good job in Virginia, and I think this is a chance to bring that to voters,” Youngkin said. “I haven’t written a book, and I’m not in Iowa. I’m spending time representing Virginians this year.”
Youngkin said he’s excited that America seems to be paying attention to what’s going on in Virginia.
“I believe what we’re demonstrating is, first of all, we can do this differently, and we can bring common sense solutions to bear on some of these perennially challenging problems. And those common sense solutions work.”
Youngkin didn’t explicitly deny whether he has 2024 presidential ambitions when Baker pressed him on the matter.
“So in the words of LBJ, you will not seek and, if nominated, you will not serve and accept the Republican nomination for president of the United States?” Baker asked, referring to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1968 speech announcing that he would not run for the office again.
“We'll leave that one to LBJ,” Youngkin replied.
An aide to the governor also clarified to NBC News that Youngkin was answering Baker’s questions only with 2023 in mind, leaving the door open for a possible announcement in 2024.
Speculation of Announcement
Youngkin, a newcomer Republican who won the governor’s seat in a dramatic upset over career Democrat and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2021, recently embarked on an overseas tour that drew more speculation that he would jump into the 2024 presidential race.While another widely floated 2024 contender, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, Youngkin met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei. They both visited South Korea and Japan before returning home.
Both leaders billed these trips as trade missions, although spectators see them as a move for prospective candidates seeking to boost their foreign affairs resumes at a time when the geopolitical threat from the Chinese Communist Party is drawing outsize attention in Washington, especially among Republican lawmakers aligned with former President Donald Trump.
Trump, the dominant 2024 Republican primary candidate, has a list of successes to tout when it comes to dealing with China and the communist regime in North Korea. The former president has devoted much attention to attacking DeSantis as polls have shown the Florida governor as the most potent of the actual and potential primary challengers.
Trump continued that offensive after DeSantis arrived in Tokyo.
“The ‘Consultants’ are sending DeSanctus, and demanding he go immediately, on an emergency Round the World tour of U.S representative population countries, like South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Israel, in order to up his game and see if he can remove the stain from his failing campaign,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
