Youngkin to take part in CNN town hall amid 2024 speculation

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will take part in a CNN town hall next week amid speculation that he is considering seeking the GOP nomination for president in 2024. 

Youngkin will meet with host Jake Tapper on March 9 at 9 p.m. Eastern time to discuss education, a topic that the Virginia chief executive leaned into during his 2021 campaign — and during his time as governor. 

“During the Town Hall, Governor Youngkin will take questions from a live studio audience, and we will hear directly from parents, teachers, students and stakeholders about education and the issues that matter the most to families in Virginia and across the nation,” a CNN release said. 

Youngkin, who formerly served as the co-CEO of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group, ran for governor on a platform emphasizing parents’ role in students’ education and railing against diversity initiatives that he has called an effort at “political indoctrination” from the left. 

One of his first actions as governor was an executive order to ban public schools from teaching critical race theory, which examines how race has played a role in U.S. laws and institutions and is mostly taught at institutions of higher education.

Youngkin also asked his education secretary last month to look into the Advanced Placement African American studies course that has become the subject of controversy after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) administration rejected its use in schools. 

Youngkin has been included in some hypothetical 2024 GOP primary polls. He told NBC News in an interview in January that he was “humbled” by discussion about his potential candidacy, but he did not commit to whether he would run. 

The town hall will air during the network’s 9 p.m. time slot, which has remained without a permanent host since Chris Cuomo was fired over the role he played in helping his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), during his sexual harassment scandal. 

Tapper hosted during the slot from September through the November midterm elections, but a range of different hosts have occupied the hour.