Glenn Allen Youngkin (born December 9, 1966) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 74th governor of Virginia from 2022 to 2026. A member of the Republican Party, he spent 25 years at The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, where he became co-CEO in 2018.
Born in Richmond, Youngkin won the 2021 Republican primary for governor of Virginia and defeated former Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe in the general election, becoming the state's first Republican governor since Bob McDonnell in 2009. Youngkin supported COVID-19 vaccination efforts against the disease but opposed vaccine mandates, and banned mask mandates in Virginia public schools; this ban was partially rescinded following legal challenges. During his first year in office, Youngkin signed a bipartisan state budget that paired increased education spending with expansive tax cuts.
During his term as governor of Virginia, Youngkin signed a bill passed by Democrats to protect same-sex marriage, repealed protections for transgender students in schools, unsuccessfully advocated for abortion restrictions after the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling, and opposed various legislative efforts to liberalize recreational marijuana laws while signing a bill to ease the medical marijuana registration process.
Due to term limits set in Virginia's constitution, Youngkin was ineligible to run for re-election in 2025. He was succeeded by Democrat Abigail Spanberger.
Early life and education Glenn Allen Youngkin was born in Richmond, Virginia, on December 9, 1966. He is the son of Ellis ( Quinn) and Carroll Wayne "Yunk" Youngkin. His father played basketball for Duke University and worked in accounting and finance. His mother was a doctorally prepared nurse practitioner who specialized in women's health; she was also a professor of nursing, and an associate dean for graduate studies at Florida Atlantic University. Youngkin has a sister, Dorothy Marian "Dottie" Youngkin Kouba. When he was a teenager, the family moved from Richmond to Virginia Beach. He attended the private Norfolk Academy in Norfolk, Virginia, graduating in 1985. He received numerous high school basketball honors.
Youngkin attended Rice University in Houston, Texas, on a basketball scholarship. He played four seasons for the Owls in the Southwest Conference, and he totaled 82 points and 67 rebounds in his career. In 1990, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in managerial studies and a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. He attended Harvard Business School and earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in 1994.
Career Early career After graduating from Rice in 1990, Youngkin joined the investment bank First Boston, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions and capital market financing. The company was bought out by Credit Suisse and became Credit Suisse First Boston; Youngkin left in 1992 to pursue an MBA.
In 1994, after receiving his MBA, he joined the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
The Carlyle Group In August 1995, Youngkin joined the Washington, D.C. private-equity firm The Carlyle Group, initially working as a member of the US buyout team. In 1999, he was named a partner and managing director of Carlyle. He managed the firm's United Kingdom buyout team (2000–2005) and its global industrial sector investment team (2005–2008), dividing his time between London and Washington.
In April 2008, Carlyle's founders asked Youngkin to step back from deal-making to focus on the firm's broader strategy. In 2009, the founders created a seven-person operating committee, chaired by Youngkin, which oversaw the non-deal, day-to-day operations of Carlyle. Also in 2009, Youngkin and Daniel Akerson joined the firm's executive committee, which had previously consisted solely of the three founders. When Carlyle's chief financial officer Peter Nachtwey left the firm suddenly in late 2010, Youngkin became interim CFO until Adena Friedman was hired as CFO late March 2011. In 2010, Youngkin joined the firm's management committee. Youngkin was chief operating officer of the Carlyle Group from March 2011 until June 2014.
Youngkin played a major role in taking Carlyle public, supervising the initial public offering. In June 2014, Youngkin and Michael J. Cavanagh became the firm's co-presidents and co-chief operating officers. Together, they helped develop and implement the firm's growth initiatives and managed the firm's operations on a day-to-day basis. Cavanagh left the firm in May 2015 to become CFO of Comcast, leaving Youngkin as president and COO of Carlyle.
Co-CEO In October 2017, the Carlyle Group announced that its founders would remain executive chairmen on the board of directors but step down as the day-to-day leaders of the firm. The firm named Youngkin and Kewsong Lee as co-CEOs effective January 1, 2018. Youngkin oversaw Carlyle's real estate, energy, infrastructure businesses, and investment solutions businesses, while Lee oversaw the firm's corporate private equity and global credit businesses. Youngkin and Lee also joined the firm's board of directors when they became co-CEOs. During Youngkin and Lee's tenure as co-CEOs, they oversaw the firm's transition from a publicly traded partnership into a corporation.
Bloomberg News described the co-CEO relationship as "awkward ... and increasingly acrimonious". The publication later wrote that Lee "quickly established dominance, diminishing Youngkin's clout". This situation was largely due to Lee being given control of the firm's corporate private equity and global credit units—which were bigger and more profitable than the firm's other units—at the onset. Youngkin retired from the Carlyle Group at the end of September 2020, after serving as co-CEO for about 30 months. Youngkin stated that he intended to focus on community and public service efforts.
2021 gubernatorial election
In January 2021, Youngkin declared that he would seek the Republican Party of Virginia's nomination for governor of Virginia. Youngkin's personal wealth gave him the ability to self-fund his candidacy, and he spent at least $5.5 million of his own money on his primary campaign. Youngkin was endorsed by Ted Cruz during the primary; Cruz has described Youngkin as a close family friend. Youngkin had previously donated to Cruz's 2018 re-election campaign.
After multiple rounds of ranked-choice voting at 39 locations across the state, Youngkin won the Republican nomination at the party's state convention on May 10, 2021. He defeated six other candidates. All the Republican candidates, including Youngkin, stressed their support for Donald Trump and Trumpism; however, other candidates for the nomination—such as state senator Amanda Chase—were more vocally pro-Trump than Youngkin was. After winning the nomination, Youngkin was endorsed by Trump. He called the endorsement an "honor", but sought to distance himself from some of Trump's most ardent supporters. The New York Times wrote in October that Youngkin had sought to localize the race. Youngkin openly courted both Trump supporters and never-Trump voters.
Youngkin's Democratic opponent in the general election, Terry McAuliffe, had previously served as governor from 2014 through 2018. The Virginia constitution bars governors from serving consecutive terms, and McAuliffe sought to become the first Virginia governor to serve two terms since Mills Godwin. On July 12, 2021, Youngkin declined to face McAuliffe in the Virginia Bar Association debate, citing his objection to the moderator, Judy Woodruff, for a donation she made to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund in 2010. The VBA had held a gubernatorial debate every election year since 1985. McAuliffe and Youngkin went on to debate two times during the campaign.
According to PolitiFact, before the Republican convention, Youngkin "toed a delicate line when asked whether Biden was legitimately elected. He acknowledged that Biden was president without clearly saying whether the president was fairly elected. After the convention, Youngkin began acknowledging Biden's election was legitimate". Amanda Chase, who advanced conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, acted as a campaign surrogate for Youngkin after losing the Republican primary to him. The Associated Press noted that, while running for governor, Youngkin "failed to refute a conspiracy theory" about the 2020 election. Several months after Biden was inaugurated, when asked at a rally if Trump could be restored as president, Youngkin replied, "I don't know the particulars about how that can happen because what's happening in the court system is moving slowly and it's unclear".
Youngkin made a campaign appearance with Mike Pence in August. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon spoke in support of Youngkin at an October rally which also featured a video appearance from Trump. Youngkin did not personally attend the October rally, although he thanked the host for holding it. He later called it "weird and wrong" when that rally opened with attendees pledging allegiance to a flag that had flown, in the words of the event emcee, "at the peaceful rally with Donald J. Trump on Jan. 6".
When asked by Axios during the campaign whether he would have voted to certify Biden's election had he been a member of Congress at the time, Youngkin initially refused to answer. A few days later, Youngkin's campaign released a statement confirming that Youngkin would have voted to certify Biden's election. Throughout the campaign, he continued to emphasize "election integrity" as a major theme and voiced support for stricter voting laws, such as a photo ID requirement.
While running in the Republican primary, Youngkin had pledged to "stand up against all of the legislation that has been passed by the Democrats" and to be an opponent of abortion. At that time, he spoke out against gun legislation that Democrats had passed. After winning the nomination, he de-emphasized these social issues, seeking to appeal to suburban swing voters. In July, the NRA Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) declined to grade or endorse Youngkin after he declined to complete their candidate survey. In September, a Democratic-aligned group sought to diminish Republican turnout by running ads in conservative parts of Virginia attacking Youngkin's lack of an NRA endorsement.
During his second debate against McAuliffe, Youngkin stated that McAuliffe had vetoed legislation that would have required schools to inform parents about sexually explicit content in educational materials. McAuliffe defended his veto, saying: "'I'm not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision... I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. This quote was described by Politico as "a widely perceived gaffe that Republicans quickly pounced on", and Youngkin used it to create an attack ad. Following the election, Newsweek cited polling data showing that McAuliffe's comment on the veto had been "a major factor in the race".