The Education of Glenn Youngkin
Yes, Virginia, there is critical race theory
A couple of months ago, I was in Richmond with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin when he learned to do the nae nae.
Politicians should know better than to dance in public, a rule that perhaps especially applies to a lanky 55-year-old white man in a neat suit and tie. Staffers groan; the first lady grimaces; the lieutenant governor cries out, “Don’t do it!” But Youngkin gamely plants his feet, raises a hand and executes a couple of hip-swivels as Butts gives an impromptu hip-hop dance lesson. Before moving on, Youngkin mutters the phrase that could be his signature: “How much fun!”
One of the great joys of being a reporter is getting to witness such momentous occasions in the halls of power—hinge points of history, as it were.
My new piece in TIME is a profile of Youngkin that zeroes in on the political appeal and subsequent execution of his education agenda, including his approach to the fraught issue of critical race theory:
It was this sort of thing, Youngkin says, that he hoped to root out—the erosion of standards in the name of leveling the playing field, the sorting of students into groups based on their race. “Let’s teach all of our history, the good and the bad,” he tells me, repeating a mantra from the campaign. “Let’s not run from it—let’s run to it. But let’s not say someone is inherently racist. We’re not going to have privilege bingo in the classroom. And we can do both of these things.” Liberals might argue that trying to teach the realities of race in America without interrogating systemic racism creates an unresolvable tension. But for parents of all races exhausted by the fraught debate, and feeling gaslit by the left’s insistence that it didn’t exist, this sounded like a sane middle ground.
Youngkin also throws the gentlest of elbows at Trump, and his inner circle drops some hints about 2024:
Still, I note, Trump remains the GOP’s undisputed leader, and has not been shy about enforcing his will on the party’s candidates and agenda. “You know, I so appreciated President Trump’s support,” Youngkin replies. “With great respect to everybody else, I’m the leader of the Republican Party in Virginia.”
Like many political observers, Sabato believes Youngkin is angling for a presidential run, and a member of Youngkin's inner circle tells me the conditions look increasingly favorable: “The rest of the potential field has a brash Trump style,” the adviser says. “Republicans need a new Reagan. Donors, insiders and increasingly Republican primary voters are coming to this realization.” On the other hand, when I asked Youngkin about such speculation, he professed to be flattered but said, “I’ve signed up for four years, and I’m going to do my job for four years”—a pledge that would preclude him from running in 2024.
Read the story here, with photos by the great Lexey Swall.