As of noon Saturday, Virginia will have a new governor with Republican Glenn Youngkin taking the oath and changing the face of the commonwealth for the next four years. Running on a campaign of reforming public education and returning power to parents, many skeptical conservatives waited to see how the new governor, with no prior political experience, would stick to his campaign promises once in Richmond.
Lieutenant Governor-elect Winsome Sears and Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares will also be sworn in today on the steps of the Capitol in Richmond rounding out the top three highest positions in the state now Republican-controlled.
Here is the full video of Governor Youngkin’s inauguration from Saturday, Jan. 15:
Almost immediately, Youngkin made good on several promises including a promise to rescind the statewide K-12 mask mandate implemented last summer by outgoing disgraced Gov. Ralph Northam:
When asked if he plans to lift mask mandates in school districts, he said he does, but added that the governor cannot ban mask mandates.
“We are going to rescind the mandate that requires K through 12 children to wear a mask to school, and we’ve been quite clear about that,” he said. “The way Virginia works is that the governor cannot ban mask mandates — schools make those decisions. We will then make sure schools allow parents to exercise their rights for what’s best for their children, to opt out of those mandates.”
Allowing local school districts and parents to make decisions for their own children is not something that liberals tend to support so this will be a welcome change to the authoritarian edicts that previously came from the Northam administration.
Youngkin also made waves when he appointed Dr. Marty Makary, of Johns Hopkins University, as his lead Covid-19 advisor for the state of Virginia:
Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin has named a respected physician who opposes blanket vaccine mandates and downplayed the threat of the coronavirus to children as his lead adviser on pandemic response.
The choice of Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon and Fox contributor, signals that Youngkin (R) will upend outgoing governor and pediatric neurologist Ralph Northam’s (R) approach to public policy at a critical time in the pandemic, political science and health experts say.
Makary will probably have influence over how Youngkin handles vaccine mandates for health-care workers as well as K-12 schools and public colleges and universities — policies the governor rejected on the campaign trail — potentially leaving Virginia an outlier in the region.
Youngkin campaigned on opposing statewide mandates and taking a less authoritarian approach to Covid policy. No one, not even the heavily liberal Washington Post, should be shocked by this move.
Youngkin has also angered Democrats in the state with his pick for the Secretary of Natural Resources. Andrew Wheeler formerly worked under the Trump administration as acting head of the EPA and now Virginia Democrats are threatening to block his nomination:
Although Youngkin will be sworn in as governor, his cabinet secretaries will need to be approved by the General Assembly. Lawmakers rarely block secretary nominees, but several Senate Democrats have already voiced their objection to Youngkin nominating Andrew Wheeler for Secretary of Natural Resources. Wheeler served as the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump from July 2018 until January 2021.
It’s education, however, where Youngkin’s nominations shine brightest and his campaign promises of eliminating CRT embedded into Virginia public school curriculum, among other reforms, seems to be happening:
Signaling his intention to transform Virginia’s public school system, Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin announced today the appointment of outsiders to the positions of superintendent and assistant superintendent of public instruction — the top two officials in the Virginia Department of Education.
Jillian Balow, superintendent of Wyoming’s public schools, landed the top slot. Elizabeth Schultz, a senior fellow with Parents Defending Education and an outspoken foe of Critical Race Theory in Virginia schools, will be Balow’s deputy.
Both of these names, Balow and Schultz, are not retreads from past administrations, they are new outside voices to the established Virginia public education system. Under the past eight years of Democrat control in the state, teacher’s unions have grown more powerful, parental rights have declined, and students have suffered from diminishing standards.
At no time was this more evident than during the last two years of Covid-19 when many northern Virginia schools remained closed for too long causing students to suffer educational losses.
Beyond Youngkin’s swearing-in as Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect Winsome Sears will also take the oath of office becoming Virginia’s first black woman to hold the position:
On Saturday, Republican Winsome Sears will make history in Virginia by becoming the first Black woman to hold statewide office when she is sworn in as lieutenant governor alongside the governor-elect, Republican Glenn Youngkin.
Sears will preside over the state Senate and cast tie-breaking votes that could prove decisive on her political priorities, including restricting abortion and adding new charter schools. The Jamaican-born Republican frames her success as proof that the U.S. is progressing when it comes to race.
The 57-year-old doesn’t fit easily into a box. In her campaign literature, Sears is a gun-toting Marine Corps veteran who will banish Critical Race Theory from Virginia’s schools. Sears is also a philanthropist, a former director of a homeless shelter and a volunteer for a prison ministry. And she is a comeback story – someone who overcame a traumatic childhood, political setbacks and family tragedy to come within one heartbeat of the governor’s mansion.
Sears is a real boon to the Youngkin administration, and her tie-breaking vote in the closely divided Virginia Senate makes her very important during the next four years. She is someone who has potential for higher office and many would like to see her follow Youngkin’s footsteps and run for Governor some day.
Also, as for the Loudoun County school board and the cover-up of the sexual assault, incoming Attorney General Jason Miyares has pledged a full investigation of what happened:
Virginia Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares vowed to investigate the Loudoun County School Board’s actions surrounding two sexual assault allegations brought forth in the county.
“We know that two female students were sexually assaulted at Loudoun High Schools,” he tweeted Tuesday. “It is absolutely critical that we find out what the LCSB did and didn’t do. Virginia parents deserve answers. And during my administration, I plan to uncover the truth.”
It will be a new day for the Commonwealth of Virginia as the red wave of 2021 splashes in Richmond and continues on to the nation’s capital in 2022.
