Trump takes credit for Youngkin’s win in Virginia

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Former President Donald Trump is claiming that Glenn Youngkin could not have won Virginia’s gubernatorial election without his supporters.
• “Without MAGA, he would have lost by 15 points or more,” Trump said during a radio interview.
• Trump also cited Youngkin’s victory to claim that voter fraud happened in Virginia in the 2020 election. 

Former President Trump says if he had not supported Virginia Republican Glenn Youngkin, the new governor-elect would have lost by a sizable margin in Tuesday’s election. 

“I’ve heard Virginia is blue, but I’ve never believed it was blue,” Trump said during an interview on local radio in Virginia on Wednesday morning, according to Politico reporter Meridith McGraw. “Without MAGA he would have lost by 15 points, more … instead of giving us credit they say, ‘Oh he’s more popular than Trump.’” 

Youngkin beat Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s gubernatorial election. He got support from suburban voters and received higher margins of victory in rural areas that Trump won during the 2020 presidential election.

The GOP was concerned that Trump’s interference in the race could cost Youngkin in a state where Biden won by 10 percentage points.

Trump endorsed Youngkin, who at the time said he was “honored” to have been endorsed by the former president, though the millionaire businessman campaigned largely on local issues such as education and lowering taxes. 

The chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a coalition of conservative House members, sent a memo to his colleagues on Tuesday. He said Youngkin’s successful campaign strategy should serve as a model for the GOP going into the midterm elections in 2022.

“Parents brought real energy in Virginia, and we would be wise to listen and seek to understand their concerns,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) wrote. “Those concerns cannot be addressed only with policies we traditionally associate with ‘education.’”

Before the gubernatorial race had even been called, the former president began taking credit for Youngkin’s surging popularity in Virginia.

In a statement, Trump thanked his “BASE for coming out in force and voting for Glenn Youngkin.” He added, “Without you, he would not have been close to winning. The MAGA movement is bigger and stronger than ever before.”

Trump also used Youngkin’s victory to push a repeated but false claim that voter fraud in Virginia and other states led to a “rigged” election in 2020. 

“I don’t believe we lost Virginia and I think they tried to get away with murder in Fairfax,” Trump reportedly said during the radio interview. “They were doing something in Fairfax then gave up — too many eyes.”

Source: The Hill