Glenn Youngkin

Glenn Allen Youngkin (born December 9, 1966) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 74th governor of Virginia from 2022 to 2026. A member of the Republican Party, he spent 25 years at The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, where he became co-CEO in 2018.

Born in Richmond, Youngkin won the 2021 Republican primary for governor of Virginia and defeated former Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe in the general election, becoming the state's first Republican governor since Bob McDonnell in 2009. Youngkin supported COVID-19 vaccination efforts against the disease but opposed vaccine mandates, and banned mask mandates in Virginia public schools; this ban was partially rescinded following legal challenges. During his first year in office, Youngkin signed a bipartisan state budget that paired increased education spending with expansive tax cuts.

During his term as governor of Virginia, Youngkin signed a bill passed by Democrats to protect same-sex marriage, repealed protections for transgender students in schools, unsuccessfully advocated for abortion restrictions after the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling, and opposed various legislative efforts to liberalize recreational marijuana laws while signing a bill to ease the medical marijuana registration process.

Due to term limits set in Virginia's constitution, Youngkin was ineligible to run for re-election in 2025. He was succeeded by Democrat Abigail Spanberger.

Glenn Allen Youngkin was born in Richmond, Virginia, on December 9, 1966. He is the son of Ellis (née Quinn) and Carroll Wayne "Yunk" Youngkin. His father played basketball for Duke University and worked in accounting and finance. His mother was a doctorally prepared nurse practitioner who specialized in women's health; she was also a professor of nursing, and an associate dean for graduate studies at Florida Atlantic University. Youngkin has a sister, Dorothy Marian "Dottie" Youngkin Kouba. When he was a teenager, the family moved from Richmond to Virginia Beach. He attended the private Norfolk Academy in Norfolk, Virginia, graduating in 1985. He received numerous high school basketball honors.

Youngkin attended Rice University in Houston, Texas, on a basketball scholarship. He played four seasons for the Owls in the Southwest Conference, and he totaled 82 points and 67 rebounds in his career. In 1990, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in managerial studies and a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering.

He attended Harvard Business School and earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in 1994.

After graduating from Rice in 1990, Youngkin joined the investment bank First Boston, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions and capital market financing. The company was bought out by Credit Suisse and became Credit Suisse First Boston; Youngkin left in 1992 to pursue an MBA.

In 1994, after receiving his MBA, he joined the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

In August 1995, Youngkin joined the Washington, D.C. private-equity firm The Carlyle Group, initially working as a member of the US buyout team. In 1999, he was named a partner and managing director of Carlyle. He managed the firm's United Kingdom buyout team (2000–2005) and its global industrial sector investment team (2005–2008), dividing his time between London and Washington.

In April 2008, Carlyle's founders asked Youngkin to step back from deal-making to focus on the firm's broader strategy. In 2009, the founders created a seven-person operating committee, chaired by Youngkin, which oversaw the non-deal, day-to-day operations of Carlyle. Also in 2009, Youngkin and Daniel Akerson joined the firm's executive committee, which had previously consisted solely of the three founders. When Carlyle's chief financial officer Peter Nachtwey left the firm suddenly in late 2010, Youngkin became interim CFO until Adena Friedman was hired as CFO late March 2011. In 2010, Youngkin joined the firm's management committee. Youngkin was chief operating officer of the Carlyle Group from March 2011 until June 2014.

Youngkin played a major role in taking Carlyle public, supervising the initial public offering. In June 2014, Youngkin and Michael J. Cavanagh became the firm's co-presidents and co-chief operating officers. Together, they helped develop and implement the firm's growth initiatives and managed the firm's operations on a day-to-day basis. Cavanagh left the firm in May 2015 to become CFO of Comcast, leaving Youngkin as president and COO of Carlyle.

In January 2021, Youngkin declared that he would seek the Republican Party of Virginia's nomination for governor of Virginia. Youngkin's personal wealth gave him the ability to self-fund his candidacy, and he spent at least $5.5 million of his own money on his primary campaign. Youngkin was endorsed by Ted Cruz during the primary; Cruz has described Youngkin as a close family friend. Youngkin had previously donated to Cruz's 2018 re-election campaign.

After multiple rounds of ranked-choice voting at 39 locations across the state, Youngkin won the Republican nomination at the party's state convention on May 10, 2021. He defeated six other candidates. All the Republican candidates, including Youngkin, stressed their support for Donald Trump and Trumpism; however, other candidates for the nomination—such as state senator Amanda Chase—were more vocally pro-Trump than Youngkin was. After winning the nomination, Youngkin was endorsed by Trump. He called the endorsement an "honor", but sought to distance himself from some of Trump's most ardent supporters. The New York Times wrote in October that Youngkin had sought to localize the race. Youngkin openly courted both Trump supporters and never-Trump voters.

Youngkin's Democratic opponent in the general election, Terry McAuliffe, had previously served as governor from 2014 through 2018. The Virginia constitution bars governors from serving consecutive terms, and McAuliffe sought to become the first Virginia governor to serve two terms since Mills Godwin. On July 12, 2021, 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. The VBA had held a gubernatorial debate every election year since 1985. McAuliffe and Youngkin went on to debate two times during the campaign.

According to PolitiFact, before the Republican convention, Youngkin "toed a delicate line when asked whether Biden was legitimately elected. He acknowledged that Biden was president without clearly saying whether the president was fairly elected. After the convention, Youngkin began acknowledging Biden's election was legitimate". Amanda Chase, who advanced conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, acted as a campaign surrogate for Youngkin after losing the Republican primary to him. The Associated Press noted that, while running for governor, Youngkin "failed to refute a conspiracy theory" about the 2020 election. Several months after Biden was inaugurated, when asked at a rally if Trump could be restored as president, Youngkin replied, "I don't know the particulars about how that can happen because what's happening in the court system is moving slowly and it's unclear".

Youngkin made a campaign appearance with Mike Pence in August. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon spoke in support of Youngkin at an October rally which also featured a video appearance from Trump. Youngkin did not personally attend the October rally, although he thanked the host for holding it. He later called it "weird and wrong" when that rally opened with attendees pledging allegiance to a flag that had flown, in the words of the event emcee, "at the peaceful rally with Donald J. Trump on Jan. 6".

Youngkin was sworn in as governor on January 15, 2022. He took office alongside his Republican ticket mates, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-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. The Washington Post called this ticket "historically diverse" and reported that it was a sign of "inroads" made by the Republican Party "in the African American and Latino communities." Former Democratic Governor of Virginia Douglas Wilder commented after the election that Republicans had "one-upped" Democrats with the historic achievement, which, he said, showed that Democrats "can't take the [Black] community for granted."

Youngkin was inaugurated two years into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. His first week in office coincided with the January 14–17, 2022 North American winter storm. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that the morning before his inauguration, Youngkin participated in a community service project at "the Reconciliation Statue along the Richmond Slave Trail in Shockoe Bottom, which was home to the second largest domestic slave market in the United States before the Civil War." Later that night, an inauguration eve party was held for Youngkin at the Omni Richmond Hotel. Another inauguration eve event for Youngkin was later held at the Science Museum of Virginia. On the night of his inauguration, Youngkin held a celebratory event at the Richmond Main Street Station.

The Washington Post wrote that Youngkin's inaugural address "delivered the blend of religious confidence and boardroom bravado that powered his victory", while The Associated Press characterized the address as one that carried "a tone of bipartisanship and optimism". The former publication noted that Youngkin used the address to criticize modern politics as "too toxic", but also wrote that, immediately after the address, Youngkin "stirred partisan rancor" by signing a series of polarizing executive actions. It further noted that Youngkin's praise for the COVID-19 vaccine "fell flat with the largely mask-free crowd". Multiple publications reported that Youngkin's biggest applause was for a line about "removing politics from the classroom".

After his inauguration, Youngkin signed eleven executive actions. The first of these bans the teaching of what it calls "inherently divisive concepts" and identifies critical race theory as one such concept. In his executive order, Youngkin characterized critical race theory and related concepts as "political indoctrination" that "instruct students to only view life through the lens of race and presumes that some students are consciously or unconsciously racist, sexist, or oppressive, and that other students are victims." The Washington Post noted that while critical race theory specifically refers to "an academic framework that examines how policies and laws perpetuate systemic racism in the United States", the term has been reappropriated by conservatives "as a catchall symbolizing schools' equity and diversity work." Youngkin's stance on critical race theory has been condemned by leaders of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, and according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch, has "alarmed many educators" in the state. Youngkin's critics, the publication wrote, view the banning of critical race theory as an attempt to "whitewash" history and "erase black history".

Two of the executive actions signed by Youngkin on his first day in office rescinded COVID-19 regulations that had been enacted by the previous administration; one of these actions rescinded Virginia's statewide mask mandate for public schools and attempted to make compliance with local public school mask mandates optional; the other rescinded the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all state employees. Additionally, one of Youngkin's Day One executive orders called for a reevaluation of the workplace safety standards that had been adopted by the Northam administration as a protection against COVID-19.

An article from All Things Considered published roughly a week after Youngkin's inauguration, likened his political ideology to that of President Donald Trump, writing that although Youngkin "came to power as a sort of establishment Republican politician, a businessman who spoke to suburban families" and who "gave off ... [a] dad-next-door image", his administration quickly began "leaning into a lot of the same themes as the former president". A year into Youngkin's governorship, The Washington Post called Youngkin "famous for being just Trumpy enough to woo MAGA Republicans without alienating more moderate voters". The newspaper summed up Youngkin's political style by calling him "a genial but aggressive culture warrior who has treaded cautiously with Trump and cozied up to election deniers." As governor, Youngkin subjected many executive branch positions to litmus tests on abortion, critical race theory, and transgender policies. Politico described Youngkin's tenure as "something of a disappointment but was a ... dike in a left-turning state."

In Youngkin's final year in office, NBC News wrote that "he staked out middle ground on social issues" by signing legislation that protects same-sex marriage and arguing for less strict abortion statutes than other Republican lawmakers such as his lieutenant governor Winsome Earle-Sears. In 2026, Youngkin said he had few regrets during his tenure as governor, although he did not accomplish many of his policy goals due to Democrats controlling at least part of the Virginia General Assembly.

During the 2022 United States elections, Youngkin campaigned frequently for Republicans in other states, supporting both candidates who had embraced Trump's false claims about the 2020 election and those who had not. This led to The Washington Post writing that Youngkin had "demonstrated uncommon flexibility on an issue that for others...represents a bright line." Youngkin's refusal to distance himself from conspiracy theorists within his own party has elicited criticism from some Republicans, such as Liz Cheney.

Abortion in Virginia remains legal up to the end of the second trimester of a pregnancy, and Virginia was the only Southern state not to restrict abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Youngkin advocated for restricting abortion in Virginia, but was unsuccessful. This was because Democrats controlled the Virginia Senate during the first two years of Youngkin's term, and won full control of the Virginia General Assembly in 2023. They maintained a majority in the Virginia Senate in the 2023 Virginia Senate election and won back control of the Virginia House of Delegates in the 2023 Virginia House of Delegates election. This blocked Youngkin from garnering the votes to enact abortion restrictions.

Youngkin describes himself as "pro-life," but supports legal access to abortion in cases of rape, incest, or protecting the mother's life. During his gubernatorial campaign, he criticized the Texas Heartbeat Act, which bans abortions around the sixth week of pregnancy except for when needed to protect the life of the mother. At that time, Youngkin stated his preference for a "pain threshold bill", which bans abortion at around twenty weeks. However, in July 2021 while running for governor, he was caught on a hot mic telling an activist that he would "start going on offense" against abortion rights if elected governor but would largely avoid the topic until then, saying "as a campaign topic, sadly, that in fact won't win my independent votes that I have to get."

In July 2026, Youngkin joined Red Cell Partners, a venture studio based in Tysons, Virginia that builds companies in national security, cyber, and healthcare technology, as a partner, chairman, and board member, succeeding founder Grant Verstandig as chairman. Verstandig remained the firm's CEO.

Before taking office, Youngkin lived in Great Falls, Virginia, with his wife Suzanne and their four children.

In 2020, Youngkin and his wife founded a nonprofit, Virginia Ready Initiative, focusing on connecting unemployed people in the state with job-training programs and potential employers.