Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin Takes a Pass on 2024

Sundance reporting for Conservative Treehouse 

Given the nature of the club plan, we can probably expect to see the field thin much faster as it gets closer to Ron DeSantis launch date.

The South Carolina folks (Haley and Scott) will remain, and Asa Hutchinson is likely to hang out as the club player for Iowa, but pulling the other noise away from DeSantis will be a priority.  Also, no one will enter the contest after DeSantis.

With Trump surging, Team RdS needs every part of their 20% to remain as the floor.  The Big Club handlers can’t afford the optics of Ron DeSantis polling dropping further because it will make his pre-planned entry look weak and more transparent.   As such, Youngkin taps out before he reaches the ring.

(Via New York Times) –  Virginia’s governor is putting the presidential hoopla on ice.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the Republican whose surprising election in a blue-trending state set off instant talk of a presidential run, has tapped the brakes on 2024, telling advisers and donors that his sole focus is on Virginia’s legislative elections in the fall.

[…] “Listen, I didn’t write a book, and I’m not in Iowa or New Hampshire or South Carolina.” Instead, he said, he is putting his full focus on November’s statewide Virginia election, when all 140 seats in both chambers of the General Assembly are on the ballot. A decision to enter the 2024 campaign in November would be historically late, well past the first Republican debate in August.

[…] “I am wholly focused on the Commonwealth of Virginia, and I’m looking forward to these elections,’’ Mr. Youngkin said during an appearance to promote Virginia’s agricultural exports. [T]he governor, 56, said that gaining majorities in the legislature “is what this year is all about.”  (read more)

It’s likely the Republican Governor’s Association helped influence this decision.