Former President Donald Trump and Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin met this week. They discussed efforts to turn Virginia red in the 2024 presidential election, Fox News Digital has learned.
A source with knowledge of the meeting told Fox News Digital on Thursday that Trump and Youngkin discussed recent polling that showed Trump and President Biden are neck and neck in the Old Dominion state, even though Biden won the state by 10 points in 2020. The meeting discussed how Trump could overtake Biden as the election cycle gets more intense.
The two leaders also discussed issues of energy, inflation and trade. This meeting is being described as the first meeting between the 45th President and Youngkin, who was elected governor in the state’s 2021 elections.
Youngkin is the state’s first Republican governor since Bob McDonnell’s tenure from 2010 to 2014.
Youngkin criticizes Pentagon’s plan to pay millions of dollars to China for rooftop solar panels
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and former President Donald Trump met ahead of the 2024 election. (Trump campaign)
Virginia has voted for Democrats in every presidential election since President Barack Obama’s first campaign for the White House in 2008. Virginia, which is home to many people who work in neighboring Washington, D.C., has not been considered a battleground state in the 2024 election, but recent polling indicates it could be more tightly contested than anticipated.
Youngkin had previously said that Virginia is “in the game” And Trump might win in November.
“I think Virginia is in play. Let’s remind ourselves — Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 points in 2020. I won by two points the next year. What we’ve shown is common-sense conservative policies work, and the people of Virginia appreciate that,” Youngkin said in an interview last month with radio host and Fox News contributor Guy Benson.
In 2020, Biden won the state by 10 points over Trump. During the 2016 election, When former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced off against Trump, the Democratic Party also claimed victory in Virginia, with Hillary winning 49.8% of the vote while Trump received 44.4%.
A Fox News poll published earlier this month shows the 45th president and Biden have 48-48% support in a deadlocked contest in the Old Dominion state.
Youngkin declares ‘independence from California’ as Virginia decides to pull out of emissions pact
In the multi-candidate race, Biden is at 42% and Trump at 41%, while Democrat-turned-independent Robert K. Kennedy is at 9% and Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent Cornel West are each at 2%.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin joins fellow Republican governors at a news conference to criticize President Biden’s energy policy at an oil refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana, June 3, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Youngkin took the governor’s office in 2021, thanks in part to Trump, though Youngkin and Trump never met in person.
Republicans also won elections for Virginia’s lieutenant governor and attorney general, the party’s first statewide victories in a dozen years. They also flipped the state House, and the win in a state that had leaned blue over the past decade energized Republicans across the country.
However, Democrats won a majority in the state House last November and retained control of the state Senate, a setback for Youngkin, who had led the Republicans during the campaign though his name was not on the ballot.
Fox News Poll: Biden and Trump neck-and-neck in Virginia
“I think this conversation today perfectly reflects the shift in attitudes about not only the strengths that Donald Trump brings to the presidency, but also his weaknesses.” Joe Biden has demonstratedYoungkin told Fox News’s McCallum in an interview this month.
“We have economic weakness, we have national security weakness, we have chaos at the border, we have energy weakness, and Americans and Virginians are ready for change. So I think states that weren’t in the game in 2016, I think they could be in the game this year. It’s still early days, but this strength of President Trump, not just in Virginia but across the country, is clear, and I think Virginians and Americans are ready for change.”
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin addresses the crowd during an early voting rally in Petersburg, Virginia, on September 21, 2023. Youngkin says he will soon present a proposed budget for the next two fiscal years that includes increased state spending on early education and child care programs. Youngkin said in a speech on December 7 that the proposal’s main goal is to ensure that the end of federal pandemic-era funds used to expand these initiatives does not leave families in the lurch. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
Trump has important advice on war, according to latest poll
Looking ahead to this autumn’s elections, Youngkin said he He “fully endorsed” Trump and said, “We will campaign passionately to win this election.”
Former US President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd at a campaign event in Pickens, South Carolina, on July 1, 2023. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
There was much speculation last year that Youngkin might run for the White House himself, but the governor has remained focused on his home state. A source familiar with Youngkin’s meeting with Trump told Fox News Digital that the two did not discuss the possibility of him as a running mate.
Click here to get the Fox News app
When asked in a previous interview about the possibility of moving to the White House in 2028, Youngkin said his priority is “to be the best governor in the commonwealth, and I have to tell you I love this job. We’ve made a lot of progress, and I have about two years to continue doing the work for Virginia that Virginians appointed me to do.”
