Ignoring Trump worked for Youngkin. It won't work for the GOP in 2024.

Donald Trump.
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Glenn Youngkin is the toast of the Republican Party. His upset victory in the Virginia gubernatorial election a year after President Biden won the state is going to be used as a model for future GOP candidates, sometimes to excess.

One thing is clear: Youngkin navigated the question of Donald Trump skillfully. He proved that a Republican candidate's choices aren't limited to emulating Liz Cheney or Matt Gaetz. You can give a couple of mildly pro-Trump quotes, even at the risk of giving the Democrats bulletin-board material (the couple things Youngkin did say along these lines were used by Democrat Terry McAuliffe in countless campaign ads). If a Republican does not appear to voters to be particularly Trumpy, talking about Trump instead of local issues or concerns with the current administration will not work.

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W. James Antle III

W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.