Glenn Youngkin: America's Next President?

by Justin Soutar

Trump fans in general and Republicans in particular who were bitterly disappointed by the results of last year’s elections in New York City, New Jersey, and Virginia are now eagerly searching for strong leaders who can decisively win future elections. The Commonwealth of Virginia recently concluded four remarkable years under one such leader.

Glenn Youngkin towers head and shoulders above the field of contemporary Virginia governors and their accomplishments. Confident, energetic, indefatigable, and laser-focused on achieving his stated goal of making the Old Dominion the best place in the nation to live, work, and raise a family in the twenty-first century, he accomplished more in four years than his four most recent predecessors combined. In short, he made Virginia great again.

Entering the Richmond governor’s mansion in January 2022, Youngkin inherited a state that was losing population and tax revenue, that was failing economically and educationally, where personal and religious freedoms were curtailed. As he put it, “Virginia was losing.” Governor Youngkin’s independent thinking, unfailing common sense, incredibly hard work, authentic bipartisanship, and selfless dedication to public service led to innovative approaches, smart laws, and sound policies that transformed Virginia into a beacon of excellence, prosperity, and freedom. In his final State of the Commonwealth address in January 2026, he triumphantly declared, “Virginia is winning!”

The positive effects of Glenn Youngkin’s great leadership will continue to be felt in the Commonwealth for years to come. In the course of his extraordinary administration, Governor Youngkin signed more than 2,000 bills into law, the vast majority with bipartisan support—an astonishing achievement. Furthermore, he served without pay, donating 100 percent of his salary to charities.

He cut income taxes and business regulations to stimulate investment and economic growth and handed billions of dollars in tax relief to ordinary Virginians. The $156 billion invested in Virginia during his term, which resulted in more than 100,000 new jobs, exceeded the total amount invested under the previous six governors combined. He balanced the budget and generated record revenue surpluses for the state through sales and use taxes. He raised the state minimum wage to $12.77 an hour.

He secured millions of dollars in federal funding for abandoned mine land development, turning economically struggling southwest Virginia into a hub of nuclear energy research and technology. His Energy Plan rejected arbitrary renewable energy mandates in favor of a flexible, “all of the above” approach to modernizing and expanding Virginia’s electrical grid. He created the largest offshore wind energy farm in the western hemisphere. He set policies for the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence.

He repealed misguided public health mandates imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. His “Right Help, Right Now” program made mental health care more accessible and affordable. He enacted the largest education budget in Virginia history, raised teacher pay, put parents back in charge of their children’s education, banned cell phone use in public school classrooms, and kicked boys out of girls’ locker rooms.

He distributed hundreds of development grants to communities large and small across the Commonwealth, boosting Virginia’s recreation and tourism industries to new heights. He eliminated thousands of foreign nationals and illegal immigrants from the state’s voter rolls in 2024, for which he was sued by the Biden administration’s Department of Injustice, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in his favor.

He forbade state employees from using TikTok for official business due to Chinese Communist Party control of the social media platform. And under his leadership, the Virginia State Police seized thousands of pounds of fentanyl and other illegal drugs, arrested dozens of MS-13 gang members, and investigated unlawful teen abortions without parental knowledge facilitated by a high school in Northern Virginia.

That just scratches the surface of Glenn Youngkin’s accomplishments as Governor of Virginia. None of them may have happened. As a successful businessman, a solid family man and a devout Christian running for governor of a state Biden had won by ten points the previous year, with no previous political experience and former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, Youngkin wasn’t expected to win the 2021 gubernatorial election. But former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe’s foolish claim in a pre-election debate with Youngkin, “Parents shouldn’t be telling schools what to teach their kids,” was wildly unpopular with Virginia parents, which helped ensure Youngkin’s surprise victory.

With a record like this, it’s no surprise that Glenn Youngkin has set his sights on the White House. If he has a canny political strategist, just as Bush had Karl Rove and Trump had Dick Morris, his presidential bid may very well be successful. Such a strategist will help him raise the campaign money he needs, increase his visibility on the national stage, and focus on key issues that really matter to voters.

Republicans and Trump supporters looking to win the 2028 presidential election would do well to unite around Glenn Youngkin as Trump’s successor. While they are two different men, there are many parallels between Trump and Youngkin. His legendary work ethic, traditional family values, strong Christian faith, unsullied integrity, longtime business experience, excellent communication and debating skills, practical governing style, and promises made and kept are unmistakably similar to Trump’s.

The popular and phenomenally successful MAGA Republican governor of a Democratic-leaning state will be a strong candidate who will attract many independent and some Democratic voters, as Trump did. He is a great leader who not only can win, but knows how to win. He can be trusted to carry the Trump legacy forward into the next decade. He is also relatively young, around 60. And unlike younger presidential hopefuls J. D. Vance and Marco Rubio, whose real and alleged differences of opinion with Trump are constantly and unfairly exploited by dishonest and irresponsible secular media, Washington outsider Youngkin carries no such baggage.

Additionally, those seeking to break the current Democratic stranglehold on Virginia should not discount the possibility of Republican presidential candidate Glenn Youngkin carrying his home state and its thirteen electoral votes. In any case, America has not had a president from Virginia in more than one hundred years.

Donald J. Trump has been the greatest President of the United States since Ronald Reagan. If anyone can fill his enormous shoes, it is certainly Glenn Youngkin.

Copyright © 2026 Justin D. Soutar.

Election Watch 2024: Good News for Trump

by Justin Soutar

There has been a great deal of encouraging news lately for "former" President Donald Trump's re-election bid. 

First, his campaign continues its now longstanding but still remarkable pattern of setting and breaking new fundraising records on a monthly basis, and this almost entirely with one, two, and three-figure donations from ordinary, working-class Americans. Unlike illegitimate Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, which is being largely underwritten by George Soros, Planned Parenthood, and the Washington, D.C. swamp, Trump's campaign is primarily a grassroots one funded by "we the people," that is, by tens of millions of ordinary, hardworking American citizens who steadfastly support him because of his record and his common-sense positions on the issues that are important to them.

Second, national polls clearly indicate that Trump is slowly but steadily continuing to win over additional new supporters in key demographic groups. For example, his lead over Harris with independent voters, who will decide the election in crucial battleground states such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina, has grown to twenty-five points. Trump is also faring considerably better with Hispanic and Black voters than he did eight years ago; in fact, it appears very likely that he will win a plurality of the Hispanic vote and at least 30 percent of the Black vote. Furthermore, whereas a majority of blue-collar workers in the rust-belt states and nationwide were formerly Democratic, they are now Republican. Perhaps most surprising and encouraging is the news that 25 percent of Democrats have decided to break with their party and vote for Trump instead!

Third, it was just revealed a few days ago that the total number of registered Republican voters in the United States now exceeds the total number of registered Democratic voters for the first time since the 1980s. This, and all of the foregoing good news, is a tribute to the fact that Donald Trump has brought more new people into the Republican party than any other American political figure since Ronald Reagan. He has accomplished this by establishing a successful record on the economy, taxes, Supreme Court appointments, crime, illegal immigration, the military, and foreign policy during his administration; by maintaining clear and consistent positions on these issues; and by his generally strong support for traditional values, including the right to life, religious liberty, marriage, and parental rights in education.

Fourth and finally, last week, the corrupt Biden-Harris Department of Justice sued the Commonwealth of Virginia and our Republican Governor, Glenn Youngkin, for mandating the removal of illegal aliens and foreign nationals from our state's voter rolls as required by state and federal law. How ironic it is that our governor is being sued for acting in accordance with the law, not for breaking it. This is a sign of just how desperate Kamala Harris is to win the most powerful political office in the world by any means necessary, including dark money and election fraud. If there was any doubt whatsoever that Harris can win this presidential election without fraud, it is gone. 

But why has Virginia specifically been targeted, and why is this good news for Trump? Because, although corrupt Democrats have successfully bought out our state for the past twenty years, they realize that the pendulum of momentum is now swinging back to the Republicans. No longer a reliably blue state, Virginia has joined the ranks of the battleground states that are up for grabs. The Biden-Harris cartel is afraid that they may very well lose Virginia to Trump without hundreds of thousands of illegal votes in their favor. In other words, they fear that Trump will win Virginia if the election here is free of fraud. They wouldn't be afraid of something that had no real chance of happening. The prospect of Donald Trump becoming the first presidential candidate to carry the Old Dominion since George W. Bush in 2004 is an exciting one!

Add to this recent good news the important fact that Judicial Watch has forced many states, including Pennsylvania, to clean up their voter rolls in accordance with state and federal election laws in the past four years since Joe Biden fraudulently won the 2020 election. It is reasonable to conclude from all of this that the 2024 presidential election will be an electoral and popular vote landslide for Donald Trump. May God and his angels continue to protect him from harm, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for his victory in this crucial election, for the good of our country and for a more secure, free, and peaceful world.

Copyright 2024 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

"Common sense is something that's all too lacking in government and politics these days. Too often, we're bogged down by the mental gymnastics of partisanship, the heavy weight of hands that do too much finger pointing, and a media culture that stokes controversy instead of collaboration. But in a Commonwealth that was founded for the people, by the people, we must change course. With courage and conviction, we can--and will--restore common sense to governing."

--Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, State of the Commonwealth Address, January 11, 2023

Election Watch 2021: The Battle for Virginia

by Justin Soutar

As some readers of this blog may be aware, I enjoy writing about off-year and midterm elections here in the United States. New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states in the country that elect their governors every four years in the year following a presidential election. Their gubernatorial election campaigns typically generate a fair amount of national media and public interest because both the pre-election surveys of likely voters and the actual election outcomes tend to offer a glimpse of the issues and concerns that matter most to Americans in general, as well as a preview of the results that may be expected in the nationwide midterm elections the following year. My adopted home state of the Commonwealth of Virginia is particularly interesting to watch because it is one of a handful of "bellwether" states whose election outcome offers a reliable indicator of the general direction the nation is heading. The fact that no governor of Virginia may serve two consecutive terms, which means the contest for governor is always an open race, only adds to the interest level.

Formerly a southern Republican stronghold, Virginia has been occupied by Democratic agents from the Clinton-Obama-Biden political cartel in recent years, who have poured millions of advertising dollars into the state to win it for Barack Obama in 2008 and to take control of all five statewide offices--governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and both U.S. Senate offices--from 2013 to the present. It's been a long eight years under Democratic Governors Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam as their corrupt and tyrannical administrations have imposed crushing tax burdens on Virginians, increased the number and complexity of business regulations, supported ObamaCare and the HHS mandate, imposed unconstitutional and economically damaging anti-COVID mandates, shoved gender ideology and critical race theory into the public schools, attacked our religious freedom, further liberalized our abortion laws, and even attempted to legalize infanticide. Furthermore, McAuliffe and Northam have given scandal by claiming to be Catholic while advancing public policies that violate natural law and Church teaching on the sanctity of life, marriage, and religious liberty.

A year ago at this time, few Virginians knew who Glenn Youngkin was. This unfamiliar contender for the office of governor shrewdly adapted the Donald Trump presidential campaign model of a successful businessman and political outsider taking on the corrupt establishment to his own primary campaign for the Virginia governorship, and it worked: by May, he had sufficiently overcome his lack of name recognition to secure the Republican nomination for governor. Since his Democratic opponent and former governor Terry McAuliffe galloped into the race with huge name recognition and fundraising advantages, it was no surprise that he was far ahead of Youngkin in the polls for months. Despite his considerable handicaps, however, Youngkin steadily gained momentum across the Commonwealth, and by late August, much to the alarm of the political establishment, he was actually tied in the polls with McAuliffe. But the momentum didn't stop there. On September 8, a WPA Intelligence survey showed Youngkin running slightly ahead of McAuliffe, 48 to 46 percent. The latest poll by the University of Mary Washington, released yesterday, showed Youngkin leading McAuliffe by a healthy margin, 48 to 43 percent.

This steady upward trajectory from obscurity to front-runner is remarkable considering that McAuliffe's campaign has been outspending Youngkin's campaign by a significant amount throughout the race. The fact that the Republican gubernatorial ticket includes the first African-American female candidate for lieutenant governor, Winsome Sears, and the first Cuban-American candidate for attorney general, Jason Miyares, has played a role in this climb out of the doldrums, as these two candidates are certainly pulling some minority voters away from the Democratic Party of Virginia. More significantly, however, Youngkin's surprise ascendancy indicates that increasing numbers of Virginia's likely voters are losing confidence in the unprincipled leadership of McAuliffe and Northam and are rejecting the radical liberal agenda of the incumbent Democratic Party. These two governors have been profoundly out of touch with the daily problems and concerns, not to mention the traditional religious and moral values, of the silent majority of ordinary Virginians. People want an honest and trustworthy governor who will truly advance the common good, not an establishment politician who will exploit the office for personal gain.

It looks like we're in for a repeat of 2009, when New Jersey and Virginia elected Republican governors one year after Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama carried both states. In fact, to the surprise of many observers, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell won Virginia with 59 percent of the vote. This landslide rejection of the party controlling both houses of Congress and the White House by Virginia voters was a foretaste of the 2010 midterms, when Republicans regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives, expanded their strength in the Senate, and picked up many more state governorships. Virginians' mounting dissatisfaction with their Democratic governor reflects the increasing disapproval of American citizens with their illegitimate president Joe Biden, who stole the White House from President Donald Trump through massive organized vote fraud in violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal and state election law. They've already had more than enough of the Biden administration's executive overreach, fiscal recklessness, monetary inflation, tax hikes, pork-barrel spending, immigration irresponsibility, abortion expansion, vaccine mandates, and radical secularism. They're increasingly realizing that Biden is a puppet of the Chinese Communist Party whose treasonous agenda serves the interests of Red China, not those of the American people. 

If New Jersey and Virginia voters elect Republican governors by substantial margins in November 2021, then it is highly likely that Republicans will win many victories across the nation in November 2022. The Democratic political establishment knows this and is very fearful of losing its grip on power, which is why George Soros recently donated $250,000 to Terry McAuliffe's campaign for governor, and why Youngkin signs are being vandalized and stolen across the Commonwealth. McAuliffe and his Democratic cronies will use all the cash they can haul in and every dirty trick in the book from mudslinging to vote fraud to try to keep Glenn Youngkin out of the Governor's Mansion in Richmond, but their efforts seem doomed to failure. The citizens of the Old Dominion have apparently made up their minds to elect a Republican leader who will put their interests first and govern in accordance with the state constitution and traditional values grounded in natural law. If this is any indication of a national trend, tens of millions of American voters will follow suit next year, resulting in a "red wave" election that will return the U.S. Senate and House and other state governorships to the Republican Party.

In conclusion, it must be candidly observed that Virginia and the United States remain perilously divided. While great leaders such as Trump and Youngkin may gain large followings and unite millions of people in support of their philosophy, agenda, and accomplishments, a large minority of their people will remain their bitter enemies for ideological reasons. Virginia played a leading role in the founding of the United States of America on the basis of common religious and moral philosophy and values that are rejected and attacked by today's adherents of radical secularism. We need to pray for the conversion of these militant secularists in the Democratic Party, Hollywood, Big Tech, academia, the courts, and elsewhere who threaten to drag our country into a second civil war and to destroy our traditional American society and culture. May such a catastrophe be averted, and may we return to being "one nation under God" before it's too late.

Here's to Glenn Youngkin as the next Governor of Virginia!

ElectionWatch 2014: Virginia Is Back in the Game!

Good news! Another U.S. Senate seat held by an incumbent Democrat is now up for grabs. For the past several months, Virginia's Democratic Senator Mark Warner was expected to easily defeat Republican challenger Ed Gillespie and win re-election handily this coming November. But now, thanks largely to increasing public disapproval of Warner's loyal support for ObamaCare in violation of his own explicit campaign promises in 2008, Warner's lead in the polls over Gillespie has shrunk from 30 points earlier this year to just ten points at the end of August. Bottom line: Virginia now features one of the nation's battleground Senate races, and political experts agree that a Republican victory in Virginia will be critical to shifting control of the Senate back to Republicans.

Does Ed Gillespie have the credentials to replace Mark Warner? Absolutely. A devout Catholic grandson of Irish immigrants and a coal miner's son, Ed represents the humble working class that made America an economic powerhouse. Ed is a true "conservative," which means pro-life, pro-religious liberty, anti-ObamaCare, constitutionally limited government, lower taxes, a balanced budget, and economic opportunity for everyone. He has quite a bit of experience in politics, having served as a White House counselor to President Bush, chairman of the Republican National Committee, chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, and as a successful campaign strategist for President Bush (2000 and 2004) and Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (2009). Ed has what it takes to serve our state and nation as a U.S. Senator, and as such he would be a vast improvement over Senator Warner. We in Virginia and the United States stand in great need of the principled leadership offered by Tea Party and other Republican candidates like Gillespie.

The only remaining question is: Will Ed Gillespie unseat Mark Warner on November 4? This is shaping up to be yet another close race, so it's very difficult to predict two months in advance what will actually happen on Election Day. After unfortunately narrow defeats for the Tea Party in the 2012 elections and in Virginia's 2013 election for governor, I don't want to get my hopes up too much that we will win this time. Although he is losing ground, Warner is still leading in the polls and has millions of dollars to spend on negative attack ads against Gillespie, which may enable him to just barely hold that lead just long enough to pull victory from the yawning jaws of defeat. On the other hand, however, Gillespie's campaign has now reached a critical mass to threaten Warner's re-election, as Warner's own campaign strategists now admit, and if public opinion continues to shift away from Warner and toward Gillespie, he may end up winning the election and joining the U.S. Senate.

Either way, Virginia is now definitely a battleground state for control of the Senate, and thus of the federal government. The stakes are high, and we really need to win this time. So let's get busy! Pray for victory, get the word out about Ed, donate to his campaign, volunteer if you can, and if you live in Virginia, vote for him and urge your relatives and friends to do the same. Together, we the people can take our country back from the corrupt and irresponsible establishment politicians who are destroying it for their own financial benefit--one prayer, one donation, and one vote at a time.

Go Tea Party!

Four Victories

The last three weeks, including Holy Week, have seen four significant victories for the American people and their God-given inalienable rights against the fierce onslaught of their twin enemies, Big Government and Big Business.

Here in Virginia, earlier this month, for the first time in our state's history, our governor, Terry McAuliffe, had denied a permit to hold a prayer service on the National Day of Prayer at noon in front of the state capitol, using the excuse that this is the hour when people eat their lunch on the capitol grounds. This prayer service has always been held at noon, which allows people who work to participate in it during their lunch break. In a break from this longstanding tradition, the governor allowed the prayer service to be held at 1 PM instead, which would have prevented many people from participating. The Family Foundation raised a storm of protest, rightly pointing out that this was a blatant case of discrimination against religious believers that could not be tolerated. Republicans, Democrats and even the ACLU joined us in denouncing the governor's move. As a result, on April 11 Governor McAuliffe relented and announced that the prayer service could be held on the capitol grounds at noon as usual. This was a victory for religious liberty and a defeat for radical secularism.

In Colorado, a terrible abortion bill that would have repealed all state restrictions on the barbaric practice was defeated on Holy Thursday, just two days after Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver rallied Catholics across his diocese to pray in front of the state capitol on Tuesday, April 15 at 3 PM. Kudos to Archbishop Aquila for being a true leader and demonstrating the courage of his convictions by challenging the culture of death head on. This was a victory for the right to life of the innocent unborn in Colorado and a defeat for the abortion cartel, led by Planned Parenthood, which is desperate to stay in business as long as possible while public demand for abortion continues to decline steadily.

On April 16, Vermont became the first state in the Union to pass a law requiring all food products sold in the state that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to be labeled as containing GMOs. GMOs artificially alter the genetic structure of food crops, messing with the Creator's perfect design to produce bigger yields or make them resistant to chemical fertilizers. Although the purveyors of GMO crops claim that they are safe and healthy, a mass of troubling evidence is accumulating that tells a very different story: GMOs are harmful and destructive to human and animal health and the environment. Deep down, most Americans are rightly wary of GMO food products; surveys confirm that more than 80 percent of them want GMO food products labeled so that they can avoid purchasing them. We certainly have the right to know what's in our food and how it was grown. But Monsanto, America's leading producer of GMO food crops, has been fighting tooth and nail to protect its massive profits, spending millions of dollars on advertising campaigns to defeat GMO labeling legislation in California and other states and corrupting the FDA to ensure that GMOs remain legally hidden in thousands upon thousands of U.S. food products every year. The passage of this GMO labeling law in Vermont was a victory for American food safety, public health, and the right to know what's in our food--and a defeat for Monsanto, whose unscrupulous abuse of technology for profit and utter disregard for public health and the environment are finally getting the attention they deserve.

And finally, on April 22, Tuesday of Easter week, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that an unborn child is a person, fully entitled to the same protections of the law as persons who have already been born. Such a ruling by any U.S. state or federal court is long overdue. Unborn children are persons with the same basic rights as born persons, and all courts and branches of government have a serious obligation to uphold that fact and protect those inalienable rights. Thank God there are at least a few good judges and one good court in this country that have enough common sense to render a just decision and have not been corrupted by Planned Parenthood and NARAL! This is a completely rational and logical decision that simply recognizes the objective truth of the matter—now well established by science—that the unborn child is a human person. This is a landmark decision properly grounded in natural law that protects the human rights of the innocent unborn in Alabama. Hopefully, other state courts will begin to follow suit with similar rulings to protect the right to life of the innocent unborn children in their jurisdictions as well. Moreover, this significant ruling marks the first time since Roe v. Wade that any U.S. court has explicitly acknowledged the personhood of the unborn child. Thus it signals a turning point—the beginning of a trend toward the reversal of Roe v. Wade. The misguided judges who saddled us with that horrible travesty of justice back in 1973 admitted that if the personhood of the unborn child could be established, then the rights of the fetus would be specifically guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, which forbids depriving any innocent person of life. Such personhood being now definitively established, the conclusion is obvious: Roe v. Wade has no legal foundation in the Constitution.

These four victories for the unborn, for religious liberty, and for food safety underscore the importance of active involvement in the political arena by concerned citizens. Powerful corporate interests may increasingly dominate state and federal policies today and many bad things are happening as a result of ever more widespread government corruption, but that is no excuse to throw in the towel and say, "There's nothing I can do to change things." That's a lie from the Father of Lies, the Devil, and one of his choice strategies to further his wicked agenda is to convince good people to do nothing to stop it. There are two crucial things we can do to make a difference: 1) pray and 2) take action. Prayer is powerful and can change the course of history; it has done so many times. And timely and concerted political action can halt the march of destructive policies that would infringe on our God-given rights; it has done so many times. Praying and getting involved in the political process do make a difference. These are our duties as good Catholics and good citizens, which we should perform out of love for God, our neighbor, and our country both in good times and in bad. The fact that our nation today is a shell of its former self makes it more imperative, not less imperative, that we its citizens daily unite in offering our prayers, sacrifices, words and actions in service to our country to help restore its former greatness. As long as we continue to do that, there is hope for our nation’s future.

Someone once wrote that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Today our liberties are under attack as never before by an unholy alliance between Big Government and Big Business, driven and justified by the anti-God and inhuman ideologies of radical secularism and insatiable materialism. We must remain vigiliant in defending our inalienable God-given rights and liberties--including the right to life of innocent unborn children, our right to pray and worship God publicly, and our right to safe and healthy food--against the attacks of these twin enemies of the American people, and we must not rest until those rights and liberties threatened and denied us are fully restored and protected.

Let freedom ring!

Copyright © 2014 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.

We Need Ken Cuccinelli for Governor

The whole country is now watching Virginia's gubernatorial race. This is one of the few gubernatorial elections in America that is held in an odd-numbered year. National interest in this particular race is based on the fact that Virginia, once a longtime Republican stronghold, is now a "battleground state" over which Republicans and Democrats are fighting furiously for control. Ending decades of Republican rule, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama won a majority of the popular vote in Virginia in 2008, which helped win him the presidency. President Obama narrowly won Virginia a second time (albeit fradulently) in 2012. Now the Democrats are hoping the third time will be the charm with the election of Terry McAuliffe to succeed Republican incumbent Bob McDonnell as governor of Virginia.



Governor McDonnell has served our state well over these last four years. Just one year after the election of President Obama, in 2009, Bob made headlines when he won Virginia by a landslide, garnering 59 percent of the popular vote. A devout Catholic in his late fifties, he has come closer than almost anyone else I know to the ideals of statesmanship and public service. One of his first acts as governor was to reopen the twenty-three interstate rest areas that had been closed the previous year by Democratic governor Tim Kaine. Coming into office in the middle of the worst recession in decades, McDonnell pledged to keep things running without raising taxes. He has kept his promise. He has worked faithfully to protect innocent unborn human lives; he signed into law a bill that requires pregnant women in Virginia to view an ultrasound prior to having an abortion, and he has also enacted strict new regulations for abortion clinics in our state (which were previously not regulated at all). He has upheld the Virginia Marriage Amendment. He has refused to pay for or administer ObamaCare in Virginia, instead signing into law our own common-sense state healthcare reform bill that respects human life and human rights. His economic initiatives have created thousands of new jobs. He has worked to make Virginia the energy capital of the East Coast, with an "all-of-the-above" approach including a general shift towards renewable energy resources. Under McDonnell's leadership, Virginia has been ranked one of the top states in the country to do business in. He has consistently shown respect for our men and women in the armed forces. He represents the traditional Republican ethos of limited government, low taxes, and a strong national defense. All this with his character as a "compassionate conservative" who is concerned about the true needs of people and who exhibits the increasingly lost art of bipartisanship--who knows how to work with representatives of both parties to get things done for the common good. All in all, I am very satisfied with McDonnell's performance as governor of Virginia. He will be missed. I think Bob McDonnell would make a good president of the United States. He has the right attitude, the experience, the principles, and the deep religious faith. He even looks presidential. If it weren't for the corrupt Republican establishment, he would actually have a chance at the nation's highest office.



The current Republican candidate for governor, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, is the logical choice to succeed McDonnell as governor of our state. A devout Catholic like McDonnell, in his mid-40s with a large family, Ken represents the average Virginian. Also like McDonnell, Ken has the character, the principles, the deep religious faith, and the ethic of public service. He has done a fantastic job as our state attorney general. He is strongly pro-life and opposed to abortion on demand. He supports keeping the Virginia Marriage Amendment on the books to legally protect marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Just minutes after the deceptively misnamed Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010, Ken became the first state attorney general in the nation to sue the federal government over ObamaCare. Needless to add, Ken is all for the repeal of ObamaCare. When the IRS ripped off Virginia not too long ago, Ken sued the federal government and won, resulting in millions of illegally collected taxpayer dollars being returned to us. He is opposed to a proposed $880,000,000 annual transportation tax increase that would take yet more money out of our wallets. And he is in favor of a proposed $1,400,000,000 Virginia income tax cut that would be a boon for our state economy. The election of Ken Cuccinelli as next governor of Virginia would represent a smooth transition, a successful passing of the baton of the true leadership we need in these difficult and challenging times.



By contrast, the election of Terry McAuliffe as governor of Virginia would be a disaster for our state. Terry is a wealthy elitist who cares nothing for the average Virginian. He is strongly pro-abortion and supports abortion on demand. He wants to repeal the Virginia Marriage Amendment to allow legal recognition of sodomy. He favors the full implementation of ObamaCare in Virginia, which our current governor, Bob McDonnell, strongly opposes. He supports the $880 million transportation tax increase and opposes the $1.4 billion income tax cut. Terry is a politician, not a statesman. If he takes over the governorship, he will plunge Virginia full throttle into the Obama nightmare our nation has been struggling through these last five years.



Unfortunately, it looks as if McAuliffe is poised to win this election. He has received millions of dollars in fundraising assistance from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is grooming him to be her vice-presidential running mate in 2016. Both the Clintons have been going all out to ensure Terry's election as governor of Virginia, in order to advance their and President Obama's self-serving radical agenda to "fundamentally transform" America, which involves taking away our rights and taking even more of our money through taxes. So far, they seem to be succeeding, as polls show McAuliffe tied with or slightly ahead of Cuccinelli. I'd like to think that Ken will make it, but I have my doubts. This country seems to be sliding gradually into a one-party dictatorship run by the corrupt elitist Democrats, who are using money and dirty tricks to gain and retain power. President Obama won the 2008 election by outspending John McCain three to one. He won the 2012 election by spending one billion dollars and through massive voter fraud in Ohio, Pennslyvania, Virginia and other states as discovered by the American Civil Rights Union. Now I'm sure the Democrats will let nothing stand in their way of taking over Virginia. THey won't let a principled man like Ken win the governorship of Virginia because if he does, it will be a great victory of the people against ObamaCare, indicating that the nation in general is ready to repeal this disastrous law.



Whatever happens in this gubernatorial election will be either God's ordaining or permitting will. All I can do, as a Catholic and an American citizen, is do my part: pray for the election of a good governor, vote my conscience on November 5, and encourage others to do the same. I strongly urge all of my fellow Virginians reading this to vote Ken Cuccinelli for governor, as well as Earl Jackson for lieutenant governor and Mark Obenshain for attorney general. All three have the same positions on the issues described above. We need these good men running our state. Having done our best, we leave the results in God's hands. As Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say, we're not called to be successful; we're called to be faithful. Our enemies have lots of money and worldly power on their side; we have God on our side. If God is for us, who can be against us? Even if we lose this battle, we should not be discouraged but keep up the good fight. We are fighting for human rights, for human life and marriage and liberty, for our Constitution, and for the heart and soul of our nation. If we remain faithful, one day the final victory will be ours.