Virginia Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin hits the panic button because he doesn’t know what to do with Donald Trump

| 11:00 pm EDT October 19, 2021
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For aspiring Republican politicians even just a year ago, it was a dream come true to have not just Donald Trump’s endorsement, but an invitation to appear at one of his demented rallies. Whatever your opinion was of him in private, getting in the good graces of his lunatic base – particularly in a year when Trump was on the ballot, meant you had a fighting chance at getting or keeping your power. Now, however, they’re not as sure. First, it began with party leaders begging Trump to not make his picks in the 2022 primaries until after the voters had spoken. Now, the latest insane ramblings for election officials to reinstate the former guy as president right now have gotten candidates like Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin nervous.

Youngkin knows that he can’t shy away from a Trump endorsement – or pretending that the former guy never existed, so he gave a low energy response to accepting Trump’s endorsement, which is hardly what any of the fabled moderate voters would care to hear. With his acceptance of the endorsement, Youngkin also tried to assert that he was running his own campaign – disinviting Trump from coming out to Virginia. We’ll see whether or not Youngkin has a change of heart when the race gets down to the wire – as ballot return rates have already surpassed 2017’s rate of early voting. Meanwhile, our goal is to not only help Terry McAuliffe win a second term as governor – but to help him win big so he can carry the state house with him and make good on his promises to voters.