OPINION:
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the former co-CEO of international conglomerate the Carlisle Group, was elected on a fluke in 2021. In 2022, he targeted three congressional races and lost two of them. In 2023, he lost the Virginia House of Delegates and the Senate. In 2024, he refused to take on Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, whom he could have beaten. That would have elevated Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears as the first Black female governor ever in the United States. But he refused.
This year, Mr. Youngkin is refusing to do the one thing that will give Ms. Earle-Sears a chance at victory in her bid for governor of Virginia: asking Mike Wooten, chairman of the State Board for Community Colleges, to restore to the former Patrick Henry Community College the name of Patrick Henry, revolutionary patriot, Founding Father and first elected governor of Virginia.
Why will restoring the name give Ms. Earle-Sears a chance? It will bring President Trump to the rededication in Virginia because Patrick Henry is a favorite historical figure of the commander in chief. At that rededication, which will surely turn into a rally, will be former Democratic Govs. Chuck Robb, L. Douglas Wilder, Mark R. Warner, Tim Kaine, Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam, all there to honor the restoration of the name of the man who gave us “Give me liberty, or give me death,” leading to the founding of our nation.
At the rally, Mr. Trump will likely drive hundreds of thousands of reluctant Republicans to the polls. The reasons for their reluctance are justified: Ms. Earle-Sears broke with Mr. Trump in 2023, John Reid is openly gay and Jason Miyares fought in court against restoring Patrick Henry.
So Mr. Youngkin needs to have the State Board for Community Colleges — every member of which he appointed — restore the name of Patrick Henry.
Or is he waiting for Mr. Warner (files on whom are about to be released by the Trump Justice Department) to hand him the Senate seat next year, like Republican Sen. John Warner did for Mark Warner in 2008?
LIEUT. COL. BRADLEY G. POLLACK
U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (retired)
Woodstock, Virginia
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