Republican Glenn Youngkin, a former non-public fairness government who by no means earlier than held public workplace, signed 11 government orders on Saturday simply hours after he was sworn in as 74th governor of Virginia.
He ended masks mandates in public colleges, dropped vaccine necessities for state employees, and barred the instructing of vital race idea.
He additionally withdrew the state from the Regional Greenhouse Fuel Initiative, which is geared toward decreasing carbon air pollution together with neighboring states, and declared Virginia “open for enterprise.” Youngkin has named Andrew Wheeler, Donald Trump’s former chief of the Environmental Safety Company, to the state’s prime environmental submit.
The string of orders appeared to be an about-face on Youngkin’s message of bipartisanship and optimism.
He pledged to “restore belief in authorities and to revive energy to the individuals” at his swearing-in ceremony in Richmond.
“Regardless of who you voted for, I pledge to be your advocate, your voice, your governor,” he added. “It’s a brand new day in Virginia.”
Youngkin led the closing prayer himself.
“Father, we invite you into the following 4 years,” prayed Youngkin, the primary Republican governor of the state since 2009. “Convey Virginians collectively.”
However Virginians had been already divided over his new orders.
“The battle they’ve declared on Black historical past is harmful to say the least,” state Delegate Lamont Bagby (D), head of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, informed reporters, The Washington Submit reported. Bagby was referring to vital race idea, which supplies a instructing framework to look at slavery in America.
One other delegate, Democrat Elizabeth Guzman, who had praised Youngkin’s “unifying tone,” later known as his actions “divisive and disappointing.”
Youngkin must negotiate enterprise with a Republican-majority Home of Delegates and a Democrat-controlled state Senate.
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