Youngkin responds to Trump early voting comments: ‘every single vote matters’

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) said Tuesday he’s “pushed hard” for people to vote and to “make a plan to vote early,” responding to a question over former President Trump seemingly discouraging his supporters from voting this week.

“I think it’s a key component to us winning,” Youngkin said to Blake Burman on The Hill on NewsNation. “Every single vote matters, and it’s the people that show up and vote that are gonna decide the election. I wanna get ‘em all voting.”

Burman asked Youngkin if it was a mistake for Trump to tell his supporters at a rally on Monday that they don’t have to vote. While Youngkin did not address Trump directly, the Virginia governor said he’s encouraging everyone to vote.

“I’m going to get everybody out to vote. I don’t want to leave a single vote on the sidelines,” Youngkin said.

The former president has had mixed messaging on early voting in particular. On Monday, Trump told his supporters at a rally in New Hampshire that they “don’t have to vote” and instead should “watch the voters.”

“So we have to be careful, you gotta get out there and you got to watch those voters,” Trump said. “You don’t have to vote, don’t worry about voting. The voting, we got plenty of votes, you gotta watch.”

Trump has recently at times encouraged early voting among Republicans, telling a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March to “[swamp] the left” with votes. But, the former president has also repeatedly denounced mail-in and early voting and sowed doubt about the methods.

Last year, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel made a plea to members of her party to stop discouraging early voting. 

“Our voters need to vote early,” McDaniel told Fox News. “I have said this over and over again. There were many in 2020 saying, ‘Don’t vote by mail, don’t vote early.’ And we have to stop that and understand that if Democrats are getting ballots in for a month, we can’t expect to get it all done in one day.”

Youngkin’s state will take on highly competitive elections this year, with issues like crime and abortion holding prominence in the contests. 

“Given the fact that the rules are the rules, and they’re the ones that I inherited and we have 45 days to vote in Virginia, I’m gonna get everybody out to vote,” Youngkin said on The Hill. 

“And therefore, we’ve really pushed hard for people to go to secureyourvotevirginia.com,” Youngkin continued. “Make a plan to vote early.”

The Hill show on NewsNation airs Monday to Friday at 5 p.m. EST. NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill. 

This story was updated on Oct. 25 at 1:20 p.m.