Glenn Allen Youngkin was born on December 9,1966 and is an American businessman and politician currently serving as the 74th governor of Virginia since 2022.
113 Facts About Glenn Youngkin
2.
Glenn Youngkin resigned from that position in 2020 to run for governor.
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Glenn Allen Youngkin was born in Richmond, Virginia, on December 9,1966.
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Glenn Youngkin is the son of Ellis and Carroll Wayne Youngkin.
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Glenn Youngkin's father played basketball for Duke University and worked in accounting and finance and his mother was a nurse.
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When Glenn Youngkin was a teenager, the family moved from Richmond to Virginia Beach.
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Glenn Youngkin attended the private Norfolk Academy in Norfolk, Virginia, graduating in 1985.
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Glenn Youngkin attended Rice University in Houston, Texas, on a basketball scholarship.
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Glenn Youngkin played four seasons for the Owls in the Southwest Conference, and he totaled 82 points and 67 rebounds in his career.
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Glenn Youngkin attended Harvard Business School and earned a Master of Business Administration degree in 1994.
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Glenn Youngkin was bought out by Credit Suisse and became Credit Suisse First Boston; Youngkin left in 1992 to pursue an MBA.
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Glenn Youngkin managed the firm's United Kingdom buyout team and global industrial sector investment team, dividing his time between London and Washington.
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In 2009, the founders created a seven-person operating committee, chaired by Glenn Youngkin, which oversaw the non-deal, day-to-day operations of Carlyle.
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In 2009 Glenn Youngkin joined, along with Daniel Akerson, the firm's executive committee, which had previously consisted solely of the three founders.
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When Carlyle's chief financial officer Peter Nachtwey left suddenly in late 2010, Glenn Youngkin became interim CFO until Adena Friedman was hired as CFO late March 2011.
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Glenn Youngkin was chief operating officer of the Carlyle Group from March 2011 until June 2014.
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Glenn Youngkin played a major role in taking Carlyle public, supervising the initial public offering.
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In July 2020, Glenn Youngkin announced that he would retire from the Carlyle Group at the end of September 2020, after serving as co-CEO for about 30 months, stating his intention to focus on community and public service efforts.
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In January 2021, Glenn Youngkin announced that he would seek the Republican Party of Virginia's nomination for governor of Virginia.
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Glenn Youngkin was endorsed by Ted Cruz during the primary; Cruz has described Glenn Youngkin as a close family friend.
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Glenn Youngkin won the nomination at the party's state convention on May 10,2021, after multiple rounds of ranked-choice voting at thirty-nine locations across the state.
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All the Republican candidates, including Glenn Youngkin, stressed their support for Donald Trump and Trumpism, although other candidates for the nomination, such as state senator Amanda Chase, were the most vocally pro-Trump.
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Glenn Youngkin called the endorsement an "honor" but sought to distance himself from some of Trump's most ardent supporters.
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On July 12,2021, Glenn Youngkin declined to face McAuliffe in the Virginia Bar Association debate, citing his objection to the moderator, Judy Woodruff, for a donation she made to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund in 2010.
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McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin went on to debate two times during the campaign.
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Glenn Youngkin acknowledged that Biden was president but would not clearly say whether he thought the president was fairly elected.
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Glenn Youngkin's focus on the legislation, known as the "Beloved Bill", was criticized by Virginia Democrats, who accused him of targeting a black author.
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Glenn Youngkin countered that some Virginia Democrats had voted for the bill.
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Glenn Youngkin's victory was attributed to a coalition of voters consisting of both Trump supporters and some suburban residents who had supported Joe Biden in 2020.
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Glenn Youngkin was sworn in as governor on January 15,2022.
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Glenn Youngkin took office alongside his Republican ticket mates, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears, the first woman of color elected to statewide office in Virginia, and Attorney General Jason Miyares, the first Latino elected to statewide office in the state.
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Glenn Youngkin was inaugurated two years into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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The former publication noted that Glenn Youngkin used the address to criticize modern politics as "too toxic", but wrote that, immediately after the address, Glenn Youngkin "stirred partisan rancor" by signing a series of polarizing executive actions.
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The Washington Post noted that no governor had "banned critical race theory via executive order" before Glenn Youngkin and predicted that any such order would face court challenges, writing that it was "not clear" whether Glenn Youngkin would be exceeding his legal authority by issuing such an order.
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Glenn Youngkin called on Virginia parents to cooperate with school principals while the lawsuits proceeded.
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Glenn Youngkin began announcing nominations for his sixteen-member cabinet on December 20,2021, and did not finish the process until after his inauguration.
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Several news outlets noted that Glenn Youngkin's focus on education as a campaign priority was reflected in his decision to begin announcing his cabinet nominees with his choice for Secretary of Education.
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Glenn Youngkin finished announcing his cabinet nominees on January 19,2022, with his choice for Chief Diversity Officer.
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Glenn Youngkin did not announce a nomination for Chief Diversity Officer until after his inauguration, which led to media speculation that he would be eliminating the position.
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Glenn Youngkin sought to rename the agency as the Office of Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion, but a legislative proposal to do so was voted down in the state senate.
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Wheeler served as acting Secretary of Natural Resources until mid-March 2022, when Glenn Youngkin appointed him as a senior advisor, a role that does not require confirmation by the legislature.
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Glenn Youngkin went on to issue more vetoes during that session than any of his immediate predecessors had done during their own first years in office.
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All of the bills vetoed by Glenn Youngkin had been sponsored by Democrats and had passed the legislature with bipartisan support.
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In several cases, Glenn Youngkin vetoed bills sponsored by Democratic state senators while signing identical bills that had been sponsored by Republican delegates.
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The Glenn Youngkin administration has drawn notice from both The Washington Post and The Richmond Times-Dispatch for its use of Matthew Moran and Aubrey Layne as unpaid advisors.
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Glenn Youngkin did so while on paid leave from two political consulting firms; one of these firms "runs public affairs campaigns designed to influence legislators through such things as TV ads and polling", according to The Washington Post.
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That publication, along with The Richmond Times-Dispatch, noted that Moran's role in the Glenn Youngkin administration drew scrutiny for presenting a possible conflict of interest.
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Richard Cullen, Glenn Youngkin's counselor, has said that he personally determined both Layne and Moran's roles in the administration to be in compliance with state ethics rules.
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On February 3,2022, Glenn Youngkin explained that his administration was "responding" to complaints submitted to the tipline but did not say whether there would be ramifications for teachers mentioned in those complaints.
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That month, it was reported that multiple inquiries by The Virginian-Pilot about how complaints sent to the tipline would be used by the Glenn Youngkin administration had gone unanswered and that FOIA requests to see emails sent to the tipline had been denied by the Glenn Youngkin administration, citing the "working papers and correspondence" exemption in Virginia's FOIA law.
51.
In September 2022, the Glenn Youngkin administration announced that it would be repealing protections for transgender students in Virginia schools.
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In October 2022, the Glenn Youngkin administration announced that its model policies, which were set to take effect that month, would be placed on hold pending further review.
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At that time, Glenn Youngkin stated his preference for a "pain threshold bill", which bans abortion at around twenty weeks.
54.
In May 2022, following the leaked draft opinion of Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, Youngkin joined with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan in calling on the federal government to intervene against peaceful protests targeting the homes of conservative Supreme Court Justices living in Virginia and Maryland.
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Glenn Youngkin sought to block the protesters by having a perimeter established around Justice Samuel Alito's neighborhood, but his request was denied by Fairfax County officials, on the grounds that they believed such a perimeter would have been unconstitutional.
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In June 2022, Glenn Youngkin responded to the protests by introducing an amendment to the state budget, that if adopted, would have made it a felony in Virginia to participate in any protest seeking to intimidate or influence a judge.
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Glenn Youngkin has indicated that he would support restricting abortion access in Virginia beyond a 15-week ban if he can garner enough votes to do so.
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Shortly before taking office, Glenn Youngkin announced that he would challenge the Biden administration's employer vaccine mandate.
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In October 2022, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended that the COVID-19 vaccine be added to each state's list of required immunizations for school children, Glenn Youngkin stated that he would oppose any effort by the legislature to implement the recommendation.
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Glenn Youngkin reversed this position later in the campaign, saying through his PR team that although he opposed Virginia's statewide public school mask mandate, he would give local school boards the discretion to implement their own mask policies.
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Glenn Youngkin called on Virginia parents to cooperate with school principals while the lawsuits proceeded.
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On February 16,2022, Glenn Youngkin signed a bill that made masking optional in all public schools throughout Virginia.
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The Glenn Youngkin administration appealed the ruling, and in December 2022, reached a settlement with the plaintiffs.
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On February 16,2022, Glenn Youngkin convened the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry's Safety and Health Codes Board to vote on whether to revoke those safety standards.
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In January 2022, the Virginia Department of Health, under Glenn Youngkin's authority, became one of the first states to cease efforts at contact tracing every positive case of COVID-19.
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In May 2022, Glenn Youngkin announced that on July 5 of that year, he would be scaling back the telework policy for Virginia's executive branch employees, which had been expanded two years earlier by Northam in response to the pandemic.
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Glenn Youngkin argued that his telework policy would lead to increased innovation and improved customer service across state agencies.
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The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Glenn Youngkin's policy diverged from private sector trends favoring telework options and could lead to challenges for state employees in rural areas with particularly long commutes.
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In 2022, Glenn Youngkin signed a bill downscaling the Marcus alert system, which had been established by Northam about two years earlier in response to both the George Floyd protests of 2020 and the 2018 killing in Richmond of Marcus-David Peters.
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An amendment that Glenn Youngkin introduced to the 2022 state budget limited the number of inmates who could qualify for an expanded early release program that was scheduled to begin later that summer.
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Glenn Youngkin's amendment was adopted by the General Assembly along mostly party lines.
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Glenn Youngkin's amendment was approved a few weeks before these inmates would have been released.
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Glenn Youngkin argued against the merits of the CNBC rating, stating that it put too much emphasis on inclusivity and noting Virginia's poor ratings in the "cost of living" and "cost of doing business" categories.
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The lower ranking under Glenn Youngkin was due to Virginia earning worse scores in the "life, health and inclusion" and "workforce" categories.
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In late August 2021, Glenn Youngkin announced a series of more modest tax cut proposals.
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In 2022, Glenn Youngkin signed a two-year, $165 billion state budget featuring $4 billion in tax cuts.
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The budget included one-time tax rebates and a partial elimination of Virginia's grocery tax, both of which aligned with Northam's own outgoing budget proposals rather than with Glenn Youngkin's preferred tax policies.
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Democrats argued that the plan proposed by Glenn Youngkin would have deprived the state of revenue for transportation projects while offering insufficient relief to consumers.
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Glenn Youngkin opposed a Democratic counter proposal to send direct payments to Virginia car owners.
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Glenn Youngkin has said that he opposes any further investments in affordable housing.
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In 2022, Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have given judges the ability to mandate that landlords address code violations.
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In explaining his veto, Glenn Youngkin called the legislation "unnecessary" and said that tenants should share responsibility with landlords for maintaining safe living conditions.
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The New York Times wrote that Glenn Youngkin's campaign turned Virginia public schools into "a cultural war zone".
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The Washington Post identified the Loudoun County school system as "ground zero for Glenn Youngkin's victory", citing the widespread activism among parents in the county who opposed progressive school policies.
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Glenn Youngkin's administration has since announced plans to repeal all of the protections for transgender students that had been introduced under Northam.
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Glenn Youngkin called the program a "left-wing takeover of public education", and many conservatives claimed that it would have eliminated advanced high school math classes - a claim that Glenn Youngkin gave prominence to during his campaign.
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In early April 2022, Glenn Youngkin signed a bill allowing school parents throughout Virginia to review and opt their children out of any educational material containing "sexually explicit content"; any opted out student would be provided with alternative material.
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Shortly before Glenn Youngkin signed the bill, a similar bill was signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
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Virginia Democrats have criticized the bill signed by Glenn Youngkin for taking control over education away from local school systems and have argued that its definition of "sexually explicit content" is "overly broad".
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In May 2022, Glenn Youngkin sent a letter to the Council of Presidents overseeing Virginia colleges and universities, urging mandatory political diversity in their hiring practices.
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The reforms that Glenn Youngkin wanted to reverse had been adopted to increase racial diversity among the student bodies at those two schools, where Black and Hispanic students had been consistently underrepresented.
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The bill supported by Glenn Youngkin would have banned such an approach, characterizing the use of geographic and socioeconomic factors as "proxy discrimination".
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In contrast to McAuliffe, who introduced much of his education platform concurrently with his announcement to run in the Democratic primary, Glenn Youngkin did not begin sharing proposals for state spending on education until months after securing the Republican nomination.
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Glenn Youngkin began offering specific proposals for education spending late in the summer of 2021, only a few months before the election.
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Glenn Youngkin inherited a record surplus in state revenue from Northam, which was projected to continue growing during the state's then-upcoming budget cycle.
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In exchange for getting much of their desired education spending enacted, Democrats agreed to enact several of Glenn Youngkin's tax cut proposals.
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The state budget that Glenn Youngkin signed for 2022 includes $100 million for re-establishing lab schools in Virginia.
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An amendment that Glenn Youngkin introduced to the 2022 state budget removed the requirement that all lab schools in the state act as teacher training programs.
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Glenn Youngkin has additionally advocated for allowing private businesses to enter into lab school partnerships.
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Glenn Youngkin has said that lab schools could be either newly established or converted out of existing schools and has supported legislation that would direct the Virginia State Board of Education to "give substantial preference" to lab school applications filed by historically black colleges or universities.
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Glenn Youngkin supports revising how Virginia public schools are funded, so that per pupil funding for any students attending lab schools in the state would go to the institutions operating the schools attended by those students instead of going to the public school boards for the districts where those students reside.
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Glenn Youngkin is in favor of what he calls an "all of the above approach" to energy, saying that he supports both renewable energy sources and natural gas.
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Glenn Youngkin has called for Virginia to become a world leader in nuclear energy, proposing that a small modular reactor be built in Southwest Virginia within the next decade.
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Glenn Youngkin has called the initiative a "carbon tax" and has stated that leaving the initiative would save ratepayers an average of about $50 a year.
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On his first day in office, Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order calling for a reevaluation of Virginia's membership in the initiative.
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Around that same time, Glenn Youngkin announced his desire to block a law set to take effect in 2024, which would require that Virginia follow California's vehicle emissions standards.
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Under Glenn Youngkin's proposal, possessing more than two ounces of marijuana would become a Class 2 misdemeanor, while possessing more than six ounces would become a Class 1 misdemeanor.
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Later that year, as part of a bipartisan budget deal signed by Glenn Youngkin, Virginia made possessing between four ounces and a pound of marijuana in public a Class 3 misdemeanor for a first time offense and a Class 2 misdemeanor for repeat offenses.
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In 2022, Glenn Youngkin signed bipartisan legislation requiring that the removal of deceased voters from Virginia's electoral rolls be conducted on a weekly basis; this had previously been done on a monthly basis.
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That same year, Glenn Youngkin signed legislation changing how absentee ballots are reported in Virginia.
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Glenn Youngkin has said that he will donate his entire gubernatorial salary, $175,000 a year, to charities.
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Glenn Youngkin donated his salary for the first quarter of 2022 to the Virginia Law Enforcement Assistance Program, an organization devoted to helping first responders who have experienced trauma, and he donated his salary for the second quarter of that year to the Virginia Veterans Services Foundation.
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In early 2022, Glenn Youngkin received an honorary degree from the College of William and Mary.