RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — Virginia Republicans have selected two of their candidates for the first post-Trump statewide election with businessman Glenn Youngkin securing the top of the party's 2021 ticket Monday night.
"I am prepared to lead, excited to serve and profoundly humbled by the trust the people have placed in me," Youngkin said on Twitter Monday night. "Virginians have made it clear that they are ready for a political outsider with proven business experience to bring real change in Richmond."
A political newcomer and former Carlyle Group executive, Youngkin matched his fellow Republicans on the campaign trail with promises to roll back gun laws, tackle "election integrity" and address perceived issues with use of critical race theory in state schools.
The win comes by way of a concession tweet from Pete Snyder as the sixth round of vote counting began.
A fellow businessman and political newbie, Snyder said he “would have preferred a W” but offered his “100 percent support” to Youngkin and the entire ticket.
Youngkin also beat out long-time Delegate Kirk Cox and state Senator Amanda Chase — a devotee of former President Donald Trump.
His win brings an end to Cox’s 30-year political career after as he announced he wouldn’t run for his Colonial Heights House of Delegates seat.
Fewer than 30,000 votes were counted Monday, about 60% of the nearly 54,000 voters the state party had approved.
Becoming a voter, or delegate, was a process that required multiple pledges to the party and aimed to weed out less conservative applicants. The delegates voted by car at locations across the state in the decentralized convention process, in a departure from the process used during the 2017 primary, which was open to all registered voters at traditional polling places and involved 366,000 votes. The party has used both nomination methods in recent history.
The party argued the change was required to accommodate Governor Ralph Northam’s Covid-related executive orders, which limit the number of individuals allowed indoors. Some candidates argued the process was chosen in an effort to favor one candidate over another.
Candidates were knocked out in a total of five rounds before Youngkin got the 50% required to claim the win. The party approved a hand-counted process that took all day Monday to complete following Sunday’s day-long tally for Attorney General votes. Lieutenant governor votes will be counted Tuesday.
Youngkin, who donated $5.5 million of his own money to his campaign, promised to spend more of his own wealth to get him into the governor’s mansion — and to support Republican delegates in down-ballot races around the state. Virginia Republicans haven't won a statewide race since 2010 and has the state has pushed more left in the wake of Trump, who lost the state by 10 points last year. After gerrymandering in 2011, the Republican party lost control of the state's House of Delegates for the first time in 20 years in 2019 and all 100 seats, many with first-time Republican candidates, are up for grabs this fall.
Youngkin may still have to contend with Chase, who has not ruled out running as an independent after questioning the gubernatorial selection process for months.
Chase sued the state Republican party over the nomination process and the state’s Democratic-controlled Senate after she was censured for speaking at Trump’s Stop The Steal rally. A state judge dismissed her challenge to the nomination process as too early but a federal judge has yet to rule in her second suit.
On Saturday, she said her observers were denied access at some polling locations and renewed her retracted offer to run as a third-party candidate.
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