Youngkin declares victory at GOP convention, winning Trump endorsement

Glenn Youngkin, former co-chief executive of a global private equity firm and a self-described “political outsider,” clinched the Republican nomination for Virginia governor with 54.7 percent of the vote in last weekend’s convention. He will be joined on the GOP ticket by Winsome Sears, a military veteran nominated for lieutenant governor, and Jason Miyares, a delegate in the Virginia General Assembly nominated for attorney general.

In a tweet on Monday night, Youngkin said: “I am prepared to lead, excited to serve and profoundly humbled by the trust the people have placed in me. Virginians have made it clear that they are ready for a political outsider with proven business experience to bring real change to Richmond.”

According to data from the Virginia Public Access Project, only 18 of Rappahannock County’s 78 registered delegates voted in the Republican convention on Saturday, May 8, but Terry Dixon, chair of Rappahannock’s Republican committee said that in fact 75 delegates voted. Of the nearly 54,000 delegates that were signed up for the convention, roughly 30,000 cast ballots.

Youngkin’s victory was announced Monday evening after six rounds of vote counting. Because it was a rankedchoice contest, candidates were competing

to be chosen not only as voters’ first choice, but also their second. Marketing executive Pete Snyder was the runner-up in the GOP contest over the weekend, trailing Younkin by seven points in the first round of the count.

“Out of an excellent field of candidates, three were nominated for statewide office that will bring the fight to the democrats,” Dixon wrote in an email to the News on Wednesday. “For governor,

a successful businessman with great ideas to move the commonwealth forward, not backward. For Lt. governor, a former marine and entrepreneur who is ready to lead and an attorney general who will adhere to the law, not politics.”

Despite the drama leading up to the election, the convention and subsequent manual vote count in a Richmond Marriott ballroom was, for the most part drama-free — with the exception of a hullabaloo after a hotel housekeeper audaciously entered the “sealed” room where the ballots were supposed to have been safely stowed overnight to deliver water, coffee and soft drinks. The ordeal sparked an investigation by Republican Party officials which involved a review of security camera footage and interviews, delaying the count by two hours. In the end, they concluded no tampering had taken place.

Former President Donald Trump wasted no time endorsing Youngkin for governor. “Glenn is pro-Business, pro-Second Amendment, pro-Veterans, pro-America, he knows how to make Virginia’s economy rip-roaring, and he has my Complete and Total Endorsement,” he wrote on his website.

And Virginia Democrats wasted no time criticizing Trump’s endorsement of the GOP candidate. “Glenn Youngkin is the epitome of a pro-Trump Republican who has demonstrated complete allegiance to the former president’s most dangerous conspiracy theories,” said Susan Swecker, chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia. “Youngkin’s proTrump extremism is flat-out wrong for Virginia. We’re just beginning to move on from the pandemic, and Youngkin is threatening to take us backwards.”

The Democratic Party will hold a state-run primary to nominate its candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general on June 8.