Same Old Story: Youngkin Tests Activists' Patience as He Pushes Abortion and Guns Aside
Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin says he would “entertain” certain antiabortion legislation next year, but it is not part of his “day one” agenda. Gun rights appear to be on the back burner, too.
The Republican who launched his bid for Virginia’s highest office promising to “protect life before birth and after birth” and to roll back a slew of gun-control laws is focused on other matters as he prepares to assume the governorship on Jan. 15.
Youngkin was vocal about abortion and guns early in his campaign, when he was seeking the Republican nomination, then downplayed those polarizing issues after he’d won the nod and begun courting moderate suburbanites. But some conservative activists hoped – if not expected – that he would put those causes front and center again once elected.
Youngkin himself indicated that was the plan over the summer, when he was caught on video saying he couldn’t speak publicly about abortion ahead of the election for fear of alienating independents. But if he won, and Republicans took control of the House of Delegates, he said, he’d go “on offense.”