“Youngkin may have campaigned like (moderate) Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, but judging from his first month in office, he’s governing more like Ron DeSantis,” says University of Mary Washington political science professor Stephen Farnsworth, referring to the GOP Florida governor known for his directives against vaccine and mask-wearing mandates and in favor of rules restricting what teachers can say in the classroom.
After a welcoming inaugural message, “his first effort was to double down on Trump-style culture wars, which has increasingly become the norm for Republican officials,” Farnsworth says.
