With growing speculation that some Republicans are clamoring for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to jump in the presidential race — or at least start “warming up in the 2024 bullpen” — everyone should be prepared for a steady stream of discussion surrounding the wisdom and viability of a Youngkin presidential run.
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Youngkin has a lot going for him. For one, he has an impressive 57 percent approval rating among Virginians. Moreover, Virginia law doesn’t allow governors to run for a second consecutive term, so throwing his hat in the presidential race won’t hinder a reelection campaign. Third, Youngkin’s softer temperament offers a contrast from other candidates that might appeal more broadly to independents. And despite (or because of?) his temperament, he seems to have the uncanny ability to attract support from both establishment and more conservative Republicans — demonstrated at least in part by his ability to raise money.
Fourth, he’s a businessman turned politician. With a huge part of the Republican base laser-focused on “draining the Swamp,” the fact that he’s a political and D.C. outsider could be another plus. Fifth, Youngkin has proven that he is a real conservative in his short-tenure office. Whether it be taxes, his appointments, the environment, law enforcement, life, or education, Youngkin has established a proven conservative track record that should appeal to voters — both on the right and in the middle.
Most importantly, however, Youngkin has delivered on his campaign promises — particularly those on education.
Youngkin’s 2021 Turnaround
Flashback to the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election. President Joe Biden had just won by 10 percentage points, and the state had not elected a Republican governor since 2009. Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin was an outsider with little name recognition — hardly someone who could flip the state back to the GOP. Just two months out, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe was ahead in polls by about 9 points. And then, in the blink of an eye, everything changed.
During the first gubernatorial debate, McAuliffe stated, “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions.” When pressed the next day whether he meant what he said, McAuliffe explained:
Listen, we have a Board of Education working with the local school boards to determine the curriculum for our schools. You don’t want parents coming in every different school jurisdiction saying this is what should be taught here, and this is what should be taught there.
McAuliffe’s statements were particularly significant given that Virginia had become sort of a “ground zero” for national debates surrounding the proper role of critical race theory and gender identity ideology in education. The fact that McAuliffe was willing to go on the record and unambiguously state his position for one side of the debate marked a watershed moment for the election.
The Youngkin campaign — like a lion waiting for its prey — pounced on these statements and made “schools and ‘parents rights’ the centerpiece of the campaign.” Polls quickly began to shift, and by Oct. 19, 2021, some even had Youngkin pulling ahead. When all was said and done, Youngkin won the election by 2 points. In the exit polls, only the economy and the pandemic ranked higher than education in terms of the most important issues facing Virginia voters, and education was more than double the next-highest issue — health care. Of particular relevance was the huge shift among white women, who voted for Youngkin 57 to 43 percent, compared to 2020, when a narrow majority voted for President Joe Biden. Based on these results, it probably is not too much of a leap to affirmatively state that the issue of parental rights in education singlehandedly propelled a no-name Republican in a light-blue state to the same office once held by Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe.
Virginia’s Battle for Parental Rights in Education
Youngkin was running against not just McAuliffe but the entire Democratic Party and its education policies. Pursuant to a 2020 law passed by the democratically controlled General Assembly, the Virginia Board of Education published the “Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools.” This policy, among other things, mandated that all Virginia schools “accept a student’s assertion of their gender identity without requiring any particular substantiating evidence.” This included the obligation to use a students’ preferred pronouns, allowing students to dress in accordance with their gender identity, eliminating “gender-based events” and activities, allowing students to use the restroom and locker room that corresponds to their gender identity, and more.
Worst of all is how the policy treated parents. Instead of obligating districts to disclose their children’s gender choices to the parents, the policy did the exact opposite. It made clear that “[t]here are no regulations requiring school staff to notify a parent or guardian of a student’s request to affirm their gender identity.” In fact, citing the “imminent safety risks” that disclosure to unsupportive families can pose to self-identified transgender students, the model policy counsels against notifying parents when their children “change” their gender identity, stating that “[i]f a student is not ready or able to safely share with their family about their gender identity, this should be respected.” Elsewhere the policy is more explicit: “Regardless of the circumstances, the school should support the student’s need for privacy and safety and not disclose a student’s gender identity to other students or other parents.”
It was policies like these and the insanity in Loudon County that Youngkin vowed to dismantle — and, recently, he did just that. First released last September, the Youngkin administration officially repealed the 2021 policy on July 18 and replaced it with a new one. Under the “Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools,” students are now required to play on the sports team and use the school bathrooms that correspond to their biological sex. And schools are prohibited from forcing school personnel or students to “address or refer to students in any manner that would violate their constitutionally protected rights.” This requirement is particularly noteworthy in light of Vlaming v. West Point School Board, which is currently pending before the Virginia Supreme Court.
Most importantly, the new policy is anchored in a bedrock principle of individual liberty, which the Left was destroying and Youngkin promised to restore: the principle that children belong to parents, not the state, and that the state has no business indoctrinating or socially transitioning children behind parents’ backs. Youngkin’s model explicitly recognizes the “fundamental rights” of parents protected by the U.S. Constitution “to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children” and notes that the 2021 policies “promoted a specific viewpoint aimed at achieving cultural and social transformation in schools” and “disregarded the rights of parents and ignored other legal and constitutional principles that significantly impact how schools educate students, including transgender students.” The policies also state that “[p]arents are a child’s primary and most important educator” and that parental empowerment is “essential to improving outcomes for all children in Virginia.” Talk about dismantling leftist ideology and restoring parental rights.
With these principles at the foundation, the policy ensures that “[p]arents are in the best position” to determine what names teachers and staff use for their children, whether their children make a “social transition at school that encourages a gender that differs from their child’s sex,” and “whether their child expresses a gender that differs with their child’s sex while at school.” Therefore, schools must “keep parents fully informed about all matters” relating to their children, including those “related to their child’s health, and social and psychological development.” School officials must also obtain written permission from a parent if the school intends to refer to a child by a different name or a pronoun that doesn’t correspond to the child’s biological sex.
Youngkin’s model policy is outstanding — and it directly repudiates the ideology and illegality of the previous one. In reference to the new policy, Youngkin stated:
All children in Virginia deserve to have a parent engaged in their life and to be treated with dignity and respect. The VDOE updated model policies reaffirm my administration’s continued commitment to ensure that every parent is involved in conversations regarding their child’s education, upbringing, and care.
Whether Youngkin will jump in the 2024 Republican primary race is uncertain. What is certain is that he is an outstanding, popular governor who has fulfilled the key promise of his campaign: restoring parental rights in education.
S. Ernie Walton is an assistant professor at Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach. The views expressed in this article represent his individual views and not necessarily those of Regent University.
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