Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is demonstrating how states should work together with President-elect Donald Trump to enact a smart, conservative agenda. This is key leadership by Youngkin as some blue state governors vow to impede Trump’s agenda at every turn.

For example, Youngkin recently announced his budget proposal to crack down on the Old Dominion’s sanctuary cities. Youngkin’s “No Sanctuary Cities” budget proposal would require local law enforcement, sheriffs, and jail directors to fully comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers and provide notification to U.S. Customs 48 hours prior to the release of an illegal immigrant who commits a crime. Youngkin also wants funding withheld from localities that claim to be “sanctuary” cities or that enact practices obstructing cooperation with ICE.

Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida transported illegal immigrants to Democrat-led states like New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois to illustrate how illegal immigration is a nationally pervasive problem.

We illustrated this also through a video documentary with the story of Irina Edelstein, our Independent Women’s Network Brooklyn chapter president, who was horrified when New York City government opened an adult male illegal immigrant shelter just steps away from her children’s school. Residents in their neighborhood also witnessed illegal immigrants committing crimes when the shelter arrived.

As illegal immigration swelled, New York City Mayor Eric Adams begged for federal financial support and condemned Republican efforts to call national attention to the illegal immigration crisis. We’ll see if Adams continues pandering to his hard-left base or, like Youngkin, works with Trump to restore safety and save taxpayers their hard-earned money. This will be an especially notable dynamic to observe as Adams seeks re-election (despite headwinds of a corruption investigation and a court recently striking a blow to Adams’ campaign finance coffers).

State and local collaboration to fight illegal immigration will restore the rule of law and fiscal responsibility that Trump has promoted since he rode down the escalator in 2015 announcing his first presidential race. 

In another policy area, Youngkin’s budget announcement Wednesday called for removing tax on tips in Virginia, echoing Trump’s “no tax on trips” proposal the former president announced during the heat of the 2024 presidential campaign. It was a proposal Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, quickly poached a few weeks later.

In taxes, Youngkin also proposed making the Virginia increase in the individual tax standard deduction permanent. This is a perfect complement to the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that Trump signed in 2017 (the law’s seven-year anniversary is Dec. 22), which also significantly increased the individual standard deduction.

In school choice—a passion at the federal level for Trump’s previous and incoming Education Secretaries Betsy DeVos and Linda McMahon, respectively, Youngkin is also leading in Virginia. This week, he announced a $50 million investment in creating Virginia opportunity scholarships, allowing lower-income K-12 students to receive a $5,000 grant each year for private school tuition fees, uniforms, textbooks and some other attendant costs.

This exciting opportunity provides parents with the choices they need for their children—and dovetails with the Trump White House’s plan for bolstering school choice and expanding state-based education leadership.

Trump has even called for shutting down the U.S. Department of Education entirely, transferring some duties to other federal agencies (like student loans to the Treasury Department) and the rest to the states. This would provide even greater opportunities for state governors to innovate in education.

After nearly four years of across-the-swamp disasters emanating from the Biden White House, Virginia is fertile ground for sharing governance in a complementary manner–modeling the best of federalism for other states. Youngkin is blazing a trail for other governors to follow suit.

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