BILLY SHIELDS: This is VPMs special coverage of the 2026 State of the Commonwealth Address.

As Gov.

Youngkin bids farewell.

I'm Billy Shields and we are live from the old Senate chamber in the Virginia State Capitol building here in Richmond.

Joining me now is VPM News political analyst Rich Meagher, Thank you for being here.

RICH MEAGHER: Great to be here with you, Billy.

BILLY SHIELDS: Okay, Rich, The governor called the last four years the great Virginia renaissance.

Which achievements did he point to and what stood out to you?

RICH MEAGHER: Yeah, that term, he's been really trying to make a go of that term to describe and I think really sum up and define his legacy here for the last four years.

Now, he says it's a term he heard.

I don't know that I've heard anyone use that term except the governor himself.

But certainly he wants to use it to say, “Look, where were we four years ago when we were coming out of the pandemic?” Now, whether you want to lay the blame for that on the previous administration of Ralph Northam.

Notably, the governor did not mention Northam or try to put any blame on him.

But he did say, “Look, four year ago we were in bad shape.” And I think there's plenty of evidence that that was true.

And yes, we are in much better shape.

Now, I think the real question here is, does Glenn Youngkin and his role as governor deserve credit for all of the gains that we've made?

And I think plenty of people would disagree with that as we just saw from Louise Lucas and Dan Helmer.

But I think there are other things that Glenn Youngkin can point to, right?

An improved economy, certainly an education system that seems to have bounce back, lots of individual, sort of smaller policy gains that he laid out throughout his speech tonight that I think he can point to and say, “Look, we've accomplished quite a lot in our last four years in his administration.

BILLY SHIELDS: Okay, the Democrats in this last election expanded their control of the Senate.

And they retained — They also got control of the House.

What, if any, of Gov.

Youngkin priorities do you expect to see preserved, and which one might — which ones might go by the wayside?

RICH MEAGHER: Yeah, so certainly in terms of preservation, there's a lot that the governor accomplished that I think anyone in the commonwealth, Democrat and Republican, can celebrate.

You know, major investments in education and teacher pay, major investments in behavioral health, cleaning up the unemployment backlog.

It's hard to remember now in 2026, just how bad the state's unemployment backlog was, how terrible the system of paying out unemployment benefits were during the pandemic, at a time that a lot of people were out of work.

And Youngkins administration has really cleaned up that backlog and made that unemployment function functional.

And I think, not only should Democrats celebrate that, but they should ensure that the increased service provided by the bureaucracy of places like the DMV that the governor mentioned, are continued on.

I also think one thing that he mentioned that got a lot of applause, applause from me as a parent, maybe not from my children.

The bell-to-bell cell phone ban.

I think that's been very popular, and I'm sure that Democrats will want to continue that and make sure that policy is preserved, possibly even expanded in the upcoming years.

BILLY SHIELDS: Interesting.

Okay, we just heard the governor address a General Assembly pitch packed with Democrats.

As he prepares to leave how did he account for their expanding power in this state?

RICH MEAGHER: Yeah, and so the one word that we didn't hear from Glenn Youngkin that I think actually is his biggest achievement was the word “veto.” You mentioned that actually, astutely Billy, before the governor spoke, which is the governor — Gov.

Youngkin issued a record number, historically record number of vetoes during his term, particularly the last two years as Democrats sent him a bunch of legislation that he turned away.

Almost 400 vetoes, which is just blowing out of the water the previous record.

Now, I understand that's a sort of negative thing that the governor maybe didn't want to point to.

But if you're a Republican, I think looking at the governor as someone who stopped, or at least slowed down, a lot of Democratic priorities should be something the governor is proud of, something that you would support him for.

And I think — I wonder if the governor is going to mention that more as he moves on to the next phase, whatever the next job is to mention, “Look, the Democrats wanted to do a whole bunch of things that I oppose, that Republicans oppose, and I held them back,” at least for a couple of years.

I think it's interesting he didn't mention it tonight, but I do think that's really part of his legacy, if not the main part of his legacy here.

BILLY SHIELDS: Okay, whenever a governor has these end of term speeches, one of the things that every governor wants to do is shape their legacy.

And so, what are some of the points that Youngkin made — the things he pointed to that he hopes will leave a lasting mark on the commonwealth, at least as he sees it?

RICH MEAGHER: Yeah, and I think this is another way to answer that question or look at that question, is what was he warning against?

What did he want the Democrats, who are now in charge of the state, to not do.

So he mentioned the right to work, right?

Something that he feels like has helped contribute to the economic success that he was, let's say, claiming credit for, but certainly has shepherded over the last few years.

He warned against, probably uncharitable saying this, “Bill's raising every tax known to man.” But I certainly think he wants to try to keep taxes low in the commonwealth.

And then he specifically called out a particular agreement, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and, a particular piece of legislation, the Virginia Clean Economy Act.

These are Democratic priorities.

The Virginia Clean Economy Act was passed by Democrats in the past.

The RGGI, that Greenhouse Gas Initiative, is something Democrats have committed to joining back again.

And Gov.

Youngkin pulled us out of.

So I think he's trying to say, look, these decisions that I mean, these emphases that I've had, these things I've wanted the direction of the commonwealth to go in.

Don't change that, don't undermine that.

Really almost warning, the Democrats that, you know, the language that he used this year, that he used last year of winners and losers that if you go in this direction, Democrats, you are going to be a bunch of losers.

Like, let's keep winning was, I think, the message that he was sending to Democrats.

And I think that's the legacy that he wants preserved.

BILLY SHIELDS: Something you made reference to earlier, I noticed, you know, Virginia is a very unique state in the sense that it has a prohibition against governors serving consecutive terms.

And so always it seems like political analysts want to talk about what's next for an outgoing Virginia governor, because it's not always clear what you do after your governor.

What do you think's next for Youngkin?

RICH MEAGHER: Yes.

And so... I imagine we'll start having this conversation about Abigail Spanberger next week because, yes, Virginia governor's become a lame duck the minute that they are elected to office because they cannot run again, or at least not right away, right?

Terry McAuliffe ran again later.

But you have to take some time off and do something else.

And that means we have a lot of governors running around the commonwealth, right?

Our two senators are former governors, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.

George Allen, another former governor, was a senator.

And there was a lot of speculation that Gov.

Youngkin might cut short his term or think about running against Mark Warner next year for Senate.

I'm sorry, this year for Senate, it doesn't look like he's going to do that, itd be very late for him to try to take on Mark Warner.

It does seem like he has some interest in national politics, has explored a presidential run in the past few years.

I do think that while Glenn Youngkin today tried to tell a story about all the positive things he's done for the commonwealth, he's also taken some political hits in the last few years.

So how credible he might be as a presidential candidate?

Hard to say.

In recent days, he has endorsed or stood behind current Vice President JD Vance as the next presidential candidate, suggesting that maybe he doesn't have his eyes on the presidency, but instead a cabinet position either in the current Trump administration or perhaps a future Vance administration.

So I think Youngkin certainly must be thinking about what his next step is.

I don't think he's going to do what his predecessor did.

Ralph Northam, who is sort of went back to his life as a country doctor.

I don't think Glenn Youngkin is going to go become a country anything and certainly not go back to his business life in the Carlyle Group.

I think he does want a political future, and we'll have to see where that goes.

And of course, in Virginia there's always another election.

So we'll see what happens over the next few years.

BILLY SHIELDS: One final question, put a cherry on top of the sundae, Rich, what are some of your final takeaways from what you just witnessed, here today at the Capitol?

RICH MEAGHER: Well, in some senses, right, this is not unusual for any outgoing, executive leader right there.

Given the chance to sum up their own tenure to say this is what I was about these last four years.

I think the interesting thing about Glenn Youngkin is that the story that he has wanted to tell has changed over the last four years.

When he came into office, he came into office as the education governor.

He came into office saying, I'm going to be a warrior on behalf of parents.

I'm going to correct a lot of ills.

And not one word that he also didn't mention in his State of the Commonwealth today, which is the word diversity.

He was very concerned about DEI and critical race theory.

I believe his first executive order was about eliminating divisive concepts was the term that he used.

But diversity initiatives and I think his he's moved away from that as I think the people of Virginia have kind of moved away from that idea and that concern, and he much more emphasis, I think today, the economy and a strong economy.

So it's almost like he came into office as a kind of education warrior.

And he leaves that trying to to kind of put out the businessman that we all thought he was coming out of the Carlyle Group when he first got involved in politics.

So that story is one that he has tried to shape the story he's trying to bring out here.

But the rest of the folks in Virginia do remember all of the four years.

And so whether it's Glenn Youngkin, this is part of the story.

Other people will get to to help tell the story of Glenn Youngkin term as governor.

BILLY SHIELDS: Rich Meagher, VPM News political analyst, thank you so much for your time.

RIGH MEAGHER: Thank you, Billy, BILLY SHIELDS: and thank you for watching our special coverage of the 2026 State of the Commonwealth address.

Join us live for our continuing coverage of the transition to the new administration, including Gov.-lect Abigail Spanbergers inauguration this Saturday, and first address to the General Assembly next Monday evening.

Stay up to date with our news coverage of the General Assembly session by visiting our website at VPM.org.

For VPM News, I'm Billy Shields.