Youngkin To Attend Trump Rally In VA Following CNN Debate; First Public Meetup In 3 Years

CHESAPEAKE, VA — After keeping his distance for three years, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expected to join former President Donald Trump at a rally in Chesapeake following this week's CNN presidential debate.

Trump will visit Historic Greenbrier Farms in Chesapeake on Friday, according to his campaign website. The rally will be held at 3 p.m. and follow Thursday's debate between Trump and current President Joe Biden.

The former president will be joined by Youngkin, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to Patch, marking the first time the two have made a public appearance together during the 2024 election cycle.

As of Monday, Trump, a Republican, was leading Democrat Biden in U.S. polls by a razor-thin margin, according to Real Clear Politics. Trump had a 1-point point lead with 46.2 percent compared to Biden's 45.2 percent.

With his campaign stop in Virginia, Trump will attempt to woo voters in a state that historically votes Democrat in presidential elections. Virginians voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016. Trump lost the state by five points in 2016 and twice that in 2020, the Washington Post reported.

The newspaper said as Youngkin aggressively flirted with a presidential bid that would have challenged Trump, their relationship cooled. But the pair met in private for the first time about two weeks ago.

Recent polls, however, suggest Biden's popularity in the state may be waning, the Post reported. Earlier this month, the Cook Political Report shifted Virginia from "solid Democratic" to “likely Democratic," though the state still remains at low risk of flipping for Trump.

While Youngkin has declined previous opportunities to meet with the current president, the pair met privately for the first time just two weeks ago, according to the Post.

In a recent interview with Fox News, Youngkin suggested his time in office has opened doors for other Republican candidates in the state.

Youngkin suggested in a recent Fox News interview that his record, as much as Trump’s, has opened the door for Republicans in a state that hasn’t picked one for president since George W. Bush in 2004.

Voters “want Trump back in the White House because he built a strong America. And that’s exactly what we’ve seen in Virginia over the course of the last couple years,” Youngkin told Fox’s Sean Hannity on June 10. “Common-sense conservative policies work. We’ve unleashed a rip-roaring economy in Virginia, and I think they want to see it on a national level.”