Gov. Youngkin’s incompetence has really spooked Virginians
Richmond, VA –This week marks Governor Youngkin’s first 100 days in office. After inheriting the strongest economy in Virginia’s history, Gov. Youngkin’s first 100 days was filled with a rollercoaster of chaos, confusion, far-right extremism and outright incompetence. From cyberbullying a high schooler to failing to deliver a budget, Governor Youngkin has made one thing abundantly clear: Virginians are in for a long four years.
In case you missed the first 100 days, here are some of the highlights of Governor Youngkin’s first 100 days in office:
- Governor Youngkin quickly racked up a record-breaking three lawsuits after he signed an illegal executive order that was later struck down by an Arlington Judge.
- After school divisions rejected the Governor’s illegal executive order, Gov. Youngkin and Lt. Governor Earle-Sears threatened to defund public schools.
- After overstepping his executive powers, Gov. Youngkin established a ‘tip line’ encouraging Virginians to report teachers for teaching ‘divisive practices’ and then claimed executive privilege to prevent the release of the emails after numerous FOIA requests.
- In a major setback, Democrats rejected Gov. Youngkin’s highest-profile cabinet nominee Andrew Wheeler – a former coal lobbyist and Trump crony.
- In the legislature, Youngkin has failed to deliver on major campaign promises such as his anti-democracy bill restricting the right to vote.
- In just two weeks on the job, Gov. Youngkin’s approval ratings were already underwater.
- After preaching about unity and respect, Governor Youngkin’s official campaign account attacked a high school student and offered a non-apology after the student was ridiculed and harassed by his own supporters.
- Gov. Youngkin’s Attorney General, Jason Miyares, came under fire after recent revelations of a quid-pro-quo and patterns of systemic unethical behavior were reported in the AG’s office, including a Deputy Attorney General who was overseeing Virginia’s elections who expressed her belief that the 2020 election was stolen and praised the Jan. 6 insurrectionist.
- In several hearings, Governor Youngkin’s nominees put forward an incompetent display of befuddlement, ignorance and cluelessness, the trifecta of incompetence with their “I Don’t Knows.”
- In response to the Andrew Wheeler nomination failing, Governor Youngkin strong-armed House and Senate Republicans to go nuclear and shut down Virginia’s government by holding over 1,000 appointments made by the previous administration.
- Now, Governor Youngkin and Republicans have abandoned any premise of bipartisanship and rejected the nominations of 11 life-long dedicated public servants in an effort to play politics.
- During Black History Month, Governor Youngkin mistook two prominent African American legislators, Sen. Louise Lucas for Sen. Mamie Locke when attempting to compliment the Senator on her speech.
- Governor Youngkin refused to comment on Republicans killing two historic bills: one that would have removed the shameful and discriminatory ban on same-sex marriage from our constitution and another that would have enshrined the automatic restoration of voting rights for people who have served their time and paid their debt to society into it.
- A story in the Washington Post found that Governor Youngkin’s administration has targeted equity as a “divisive concept” that should be banned from Virginia’s public schools adding to a long list where Governor Youngkin has used racist dog whistles to appease his far-right allies.
- The governor failed to deliver on another one of his biggest campaign promises of confirming new members to the Virginia Parole Board.
- Failing on a major campaign promise Governor Youngkin and Republicans failed to roll back Virginia’s progress and pass a flurry of voting restriction bills, from repealing same-day voting to gutting access to absentee ballots.
- After establishing a “tip line” to snitch on teachers, Governor Youngkin has taken his efforts one step further now and created a new office within the Department of Education to undermine public schools and established a watchdog authority over teachers.
- A recent story in The American Independent uncovered that Attorney General Jason Miyares and his office lied about a plea deal with a pedophile sheriff’s deputy.
- Over a dozen media organizations are suing Governor Glenn Youngkin for violating FOIA Laws as a result of his refusal to turn over records on emails sent to his “tip line” to report “divisive.”
- After calling back legislators to Richmond with no budget wasting $46,000 in taxpayers' dollars with nothing to vote on, Governor Youngkin waited until after the House and Senate went into recess to send his gas tax holiday bill.
- Governor Youngkin vetoed a total of 26 bipartisan bills, a historically large number, and added controversial amendments to others.
- Governor Youngkin appointed McKenzie Snow, former policy director for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Special Assistant to President Donald Trump to be the Deputy Secretary over K-12 education.
- Governor Youngkin promised he would create 400,000 jobs during his term, so far has only created 2,525 towards his goal.
- Virginia Democrats outraised Virginia Republicans across the board during Youngkin’s first months in office painting a clear picture – ‘Republican momentum” has stalled while Virginians are rejecting Governor Youngkin’s far-right agenda and showing support for our Democratic delegation.
- Governor Youngkin failed to pass his central promise on the gas tax holiday and continued to ignore calls from Democrats to investigate bad actors' price gouging at the pump.
“If Governor Youngkin’s first 100 days in office is a glimpse of what the next four years are like, Virginians are in trouble,” said DPVA Spokesperson Gianni Snidle. “100 days on the job and what are Virginians seeing? They’re seeing a Governor who has instilled chaos, sown divisions, and flat out failed to govern. If Virginians had any doubt before, they know now that Governor Youngkin isn’t some mild-mannered fleece vest-wearing moderate, he is an incompetent far-right crony that puts our Commonwealth at risk.”
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