CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Gov. Glenn Youngkin shook Donald Trump’s hand and offered him a rousing endorsem*nt at a rally in this southern Hampton Roads city Friday, after three years of at times keeping the former president at arm’s length.
Youngkin (R), who has been coy about his support for Trump as he worked to woo suburban support and establish a national profile, shouted his fealty to a cheering crowd of thousands waving Trump signs and flags in a farm field.
“I think this is the best Trump rally ever,” said Youngkin, who had never before appeared with Trump in public. “Mr. President, eight years ago you left your business career and built a great America and in Virginia, we’re going to work to elect Donald Trump back to the White House.”
Trump took to the stage about 4 p.m., praising Youngkin repeatedly during his wide-ranging speech. “He’s got the policies that made America great,” Trump said. “We’re proud of him, he’s done a great job.”
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More than an hour into Trump’s speech, Youngkin briefly joined the former president onstage.
“Mr. President, this is the best Trump rally that you’ve ever had, and you’re doing it in Virginia,” Youngkin said. “And yes, on behalf of 8.7 million Virginians, Mr. President, we are going to go to work and get you back in the White House!”
Youngkin spent hours in the hot sunshine, often clapping and nodding along with Trump as the former president made points that sometimes veered into extreme territory — such as claiming multiple times that the 2020 election was rigged, that climate change was “fine” and that Venezuela’s crime rate went down to almost nothing because the country exported all of its criminals to America under Biden.
Youngkin led a lineup of Republican former governors and current candidates proclaiming their support for Trump. “Are y’all fired up?” former governor George Allen asked. “Are y’all ready to make Virginia, North Carolina and America great again?”
The rally was held in a rural area near the North Carolina line and drew heavily from that state as well, which is considered solid territory for Trump.
Virginia has not been a Trump stronghold — he lost to Biden by 10 points in 2020 — but recent polls and Republican enthusiasm suggest it could be in play this year.
Several speakers brought up Biden’s widely panned performance at the debate the night before. Hung Cao, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Tim Kaine, accused Biden of trying to arrest Trump to keep him from becoming the next president. “I’m surprised he didn’t try to arrest him last night for elder abuse,” Cao said.
Rallygoers Daralynn Eassa, 66, and Rick Bower, 60, both of Portsmouth, said they are enthusiastic Trump supporters and were thrilled to see Youngkin appear at the event. “I’d like to see him become vice president,” Bower said. “I’d love that. That’s the rumor going around. I think he’s done a great job.”
He said he liked Youngkin’s enthusiasm, particularly when the governor came out dancing and clapping his hands over his head to his usual walk-in song, “Spirit in the Sky.”
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Eassa said she was particularly impressed by Cao. “His speech when he first started brought tears to my eyes. It was a great speech,” she said.
Both said they thought Trump and Republicans would do a better job with the economy and national security. And while they disapproved of the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 — “I don’t think violence is ever a good thing,” Bower said — they don’t blame Trump.
“I don’t think it was Trump’s fault,” Eassa said. “Some people have that gang mentality and did things they shouldn’t do.”
Meanwhile, Democrats on Friday morning highlighted Trump’s former unpopularity in Virginia and defended Biden at a news conference just a few miles from the rally site.
But while the state Democratic Party had hoped to highlight themes of support for military veterans, leaders were left having to defend Biden’s debate performance and his place on top of the presidential ticket.
“Everybody has a rough night now and then, and it wasn’t his best,” state Democratic Party chairwoman Susan Swecker said in response to questions from reporters. “But I’ll tell you what I also saw: Donald Trump is the same liar he was in 2020.” Swecker said she stands by Biden’s record and predicted that Virginia voters would do the same, noting that his campaign opened five more statewide field offices Thursday for a total of 11.
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Swecker also questioned how Youngkin could stand next to a man who she said had disrespected members of the military — citing charges that Trump called dead service members “suckers and losers” — and who had said there were good people “on both sides” of the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017.
Congressional candidate Missy Cotter Smasal, a military veteran and Democrat challenging incumbent Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) in the 2nd District, had been scheduled to appear but did not attend the event. State party spokeswoman Kelsey Carolan said she did not know why Smasal was not there and had not been in contact with her campaign.
Democrats said they believe Virginians continue to oppose Trump. But Trump and Youngkin have been touting Virginia as within reach for the Republican in this year’s presidential contest, citing at least two recent polls that show Biden and Trump running neck-and-neck.
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Jack Reynolds, 63, a self-employed landscaper from Suffolk, said it was good for the Republican Party to see Youngkin and the former governors come together in support of Trump. He had watched the debate Thursday night, he said, and felt “embarrassed” by Biden’s performance.
“I honestly feel sorry for the guy,” Reynolds said. “He is no longer stable enough to run this country, in my opinion.”
Youngkin’s relationship with the former president has ebbed and flowed as it suited the governor’s needs. When he sought the Republican nomination as a newcomer in 2021, Youngkin praised Trump to the party’s base and refused to acknowledge that Biden’s 2020 victory was legitimate.
Once he won the nomination, though, Youngkin wooed suburban moderates in the general election by saying he accepted Biden’s election and by keeping his distance from Trump. Youngkin never campaigned with Trump in Virginia, and when the former president called in to a Republican rally late in the race, Youngkin did not attend.
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Trump sometimes grumbled that he did not get enough credit from Youngkin for his narrow, unexpected victory in the gubernatorial election. When Youngkin toured the country for other GOP candidates and cultivated rumors that he was considering his own run for president, Trump became antagonistic, making fun of Youngkin’s name and belittling him.
Now, though, after Youngkin’s failure to win GOP control in the Virginia legislature last year put his national ambitions at least temporarily on hold, the red-vest-wearing suburban-dad governor has cast his lot fully with Trump.
The governor endorsed Trump in March. And while he did not attend a Trump rally that month — turning up instead at a University of Virginia-Duke basketball game in North Carolina — Youngkin finally met Trump in person this month at Trump National Golf Club in Northern Virginia.
On Friday, Bruce Donnelly, 59, a commercial painter from Virginia Beach, had walked to the rally from a nearby job — avoiding hours and hours of backups on the small roads around the venue. He had never seen Youngkin in person before and was impressed.
“He was great. He was energized,” Donnelly said. He knew there had been friction between Trump and Youngkin in the past, he said, but was pleased to see them appearing at the same event. “I’m definitely glad that he’s really close to Trump now,” he said.
correction
A previous version of this story incorrectly reported the location where Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and former president Donald Trump first met in person. They met at Trump National Golf Club in Northern Virginia. The story has been corrected.
