RICHMOND, Va. β As Gov. Glenn Youngkin prepares to leave office on January 17, he's reflecting on his four-year term and defending his administration's record on education, economic development and nursing home oversight.
In an interview Wednesday just before he delivered his final State of the Commonwealth address, Youngkin touted significant economic achievements during his tenure.
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Youngkin delivers final State of the Commonwealth address
"Four years later, we're now at $147 billion of economic development wins, more than last six administrations combined, record job growth, which unleashes record opportunity," Youngkin said.
The governor highlighted tax relief efforts that he said helped bring newcomers to Virginia, reversing years of a net outflow.
"We had $9 billion of tax relief that was funded by our $10 billion of surplus revenue. And before you know it, in 2023 we had more people move here than move away for the first time in a decade," Youngkin said.
Youngkin defended Virginia's economic recovery efforts, arguing that despite garnering CNBC's "Best State in Which to Do Business" the year before he took office, the state needed substantial transformation to achieve real results.
"Rankings are nice, results are what matter. And just like a team that is ranked preseason number one and doesn't make the playoffs, Virginia was getting high rankings, but no results," Youngkin said.
He said his administration invested $500 million in site development and overhauled workforce training programs to attract businesses.
On education, Youngkin said the data on his Secretary of Education's webpage showing Virginia ranking poorly in pandemic recovery, were incorrect.
When asked why Virginia was ranked 41st among states in reading recovery from the pandemic decline, and 51st in math. Youngkin said, "I don't think that's true. I actually think that's wrong," even though his own education department has posted that very data.
Youngkin said Virginia led peer states with a 20% improvement in math scores, but the graphic he referred to, still shows the Commonwealth in last place overall.
Regarding nursing home oversight, Youngkin addressed criticism about inspection delays despite establishing a review board. Federal data shows Virginia's overdue inspection rate is 86%, a worse performance than when the review panel was established.
Watch: Youngkin touches on nursing home oversight data in final CBS 6 interview
"Those numbers are based on data that is not reflective of today, and so it's trailing data," Youngkin said. "What we've done over the last six months is tackled one of the biggest challenges, which is hiring people into these jobs."
He said the administration received over 1,000 applicants and substantially reduced vacancies in the inspection program.
When discussing November's election results, in which Democrats won all statewide offices and expanded their House majority by 13 seats, Youngkin attributed the outcome to the 43-day federal shutdown rather than a referendum on President Trump or Elon Musk and recent federal job cuts.
"You have a state like Virginia with 330,000 federal employees who have families and neighbors in the last two weeks. The whole thing swung really hard and amazingly, right after the election, the Senate, Democrat or Democrat leadership voted to open the government back up," Youngkin said.
As for his future plans, Youngkin said he remains focused on his left days in office, even when asked about potential opportunities in the Trump Administration.
"Governor Glenn Youngkin has the right job, and I have it until January 17," Youngkin said. "Virginians hire a governor for four years, and what an honor it is. I'm a home grown Virginian, and I had a chance to serve 8.8 million Virginians every single day."
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