Glenn Youngkin’s governorship can now be numbered in days.
That means we’re at the point where we need to invoke the L-word: legacy.
First, though, we must determine what we mean by legacy. Youngkin fancies himself “the education governor,” and he certainly has made changes in education policy. I’m disinclined to evaluate his governorship on such temporal things. Administrative directives change with each new governor. Executive orders can be rescinded. Laws can be repealed. Memories can fade. I’m more interested in what endures.
Years from now, what will we look back on and say: “Glenn Youngkin did that”? What did Youngkin leave behind that time will have a hard time erasing? Here are five (maybe seven) things on the western side of the state.
1. More industrial sites
At some point during the term of Youngkin’s predecessor, Democrat Ralph Northam, the state became concerned that rival states were spending more — much more — on site development to attract large-scale employers. Northam ramped up spending (proponents prefer the term “investment”) in large site development; Youngkin turned that up even more — and has made it a centerpiece of his administration. During his four years in office, Virginia has spent more than $282 million to get large sites “business-ready” — grading sites so they’re ready for construction, laying in water and sewer lines, and so forth.
Pittsylvania County got a taste of what happens when a site isn’t considered “shovel-ready.” The Southern Virginia Megasite was in the running for an 8,100-job car plant, but Hyundai ultimately chose a site near Savannah; one of the reasons was that the Georgia location was considered ready to build on, while the Pittsylvania site wasn’t yet. “Speed to market” is the industry term.
While the headlines for the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program typically go to large sites such as those in Southern Virginia, whose size is measured in the thousands of acres, this is a program that has put money into smaller sites, too. The August tranche of funding included money for Lynchburg to develop two sites totaling 33 acres in the Ivy Creek Innovation Park.
History shows that some sites might sit vacant for years, waiting for a suitor — that’s simply the nature of the business. However, those suitors may not consider a community at all if a site’s not ready to go. Years from now, we may see some future governor tout an economic development announcement whose roots really go back to the Youngkin administration. Now that’s a legacy.
2. A pharmaceutical cluster
Last year, in quick succession, two major pharmaceutical companies announced plans to build plants in Virginia: AstraZeneca said it would invest $4.5 billion in Albemarle County and create 600 jobs, Eli Lilly said it would invest $5 billion in Goochland County and create 650 jobs. A third pharmaceutical company, Merck, announced a $3 billion expansion of its plant in Rockingham County that would create 500 jobs.
Virginia is not yet ranked as one of the nation’s top pharmaceutical locations. According to Manufacturer’s News, the top pharma state is New Jersey, with 49,109 workers in that sector — 12.9% of the nation’s total. California is a close second at 47,996 employees — 12.6% of the total. By contrast, IBIS World put the count in Virginia at just 1,871 workers. However, Virginia’s status in this high-growth, high-wage sector is rising.
Youngkin did not invent a pharmaceutical cluster in Virginia. That Merck plant has been in Rockingham since 1941, and the current cluster centered in the Richmond-Petersburg area has been evolving for years now — the Biden administration declared it one of 33 “technology hubs” eligible for federal funding (although much of that funding may now be in doubt under the Trump administration). Northam presided over multiple pharmaceutical announcements during his term, including a $1 billion Merck investment at that Rockingham plant. Nonetheless, Youngkin did help take that cluster to a new level, which counts for something. The rise of a pharmaceutical industry in Virginia rightly counts as part of Northam’s legacy as governor; its further rise likewise counts as part of Youngkin’s legacy.
3. No Ford plant in Pittsylvania County, but a Microporous battery plant instead
In December 2022, Youngkin blocked Virginia from pursuing a battery plant that Ford Motor Company was eyeing for the Southern Virginia Mega Site in Pittsylvania County. That decision — based on Ford’s ties to a Chinese battery maker — was much criticized at the time.
In November 2024, Youngkin made a different announcement: The Tennessee-based battery company Microporous would build a plant at the Pittsylvania site. “This is an American company using American technology selling into an American supply chain,” he said. “It is the bookend to the Ford decision. Can you imagine — they’ve had so many problems with that — they’d have tied up this site and we’d have never had this discussion — it’s a quagmire.”
The Ford plant wound up going to Michigan, where it has been fraught with problems — at one point paused, then restarted but scaled down. In late 2025, Ford revised its ambitions for electric vehicles after poor sales and announced that the plant would produce residential batteries instead. It’s unclear what impact that will have on the projected employment, which had already been reduced from 2,500 to 1,700. Michigan, unhappy that many auto-related jobs have been going to other states, offered Ford $2 billion in incentives to locate the plant there (a figure later trimmed by $600,000). Given that heavy state involvement, Ford has reason to do something at the Marshall, Michigan, site; it seems fair to wonder whether the company might have given up on Pittsylvania altogether once the EV market hit a downturn.
For now, Youngkin’s rejection of Ford and pursuit of Microporous seem to have been the right decision. Microporous promises more jobs than Ford (2,100 vs. Ford’s scaled-down 1,700). The Microporous jobs also appear likely to pay more: The Michigan news site MLive reports that the jobs at the Blue Oval plant in Marshall, Michigan, are projected to average $52,416 per year. The paperwork filed with the Microporous project says the jobs there will average “at least $58,090” per year.
Microporous will also take less of the megasite than Ford would have — 212 acres vs. the 730 acres Ford originally took in Michigan, since scaled back to 500 acres. That leaves the opportunity for more tenants at the megasite.
Microporous says it intends to begin construction in 2026, so it won’t be open until after Youngkin has left office, but its presence in Virginia will be part of his legacy. Aside from promising to be a major employer in a part of the state that needs jobs, Microporous also gives Virginia a presence in the “battery belt” that is growing in the Southeast, which raises the prospect of supply chain jobs coming to the southern part of the state.
4. An inland port in Washington County
Youngkin’s final budget includes $35 million to begin work on Virginia’s second inland port, this one in Washington County. (An inland port is a freight hub, designed to funnel cargo to and from Hampton Roads as a way to relieve congestion at the coast and speed up turnaround times for ships. Virginia already has one inland port, near Front Royal.) The real owners of the inland port legacy are Southwest Virginia legislators: state Sen. Todd Pillion and Del. Israel O’Quinn, both R-Washington County. Still, in terms of gubernatorial legacy, Youngkin gets the credit for including the money. It will fall to the incoming governor, Abigail Spanberger, to claim her part of the legacy by including the remaining money in future budgets to complete the project.
The potential payoff: jobs. The existing inland port has spawned thousands of trucking and warehousing jobs in the northern Shenandoah Valley.
5. No more S-curve on Interstate 81 in Botetourt County
The 2-mile stretch of Interstate 81 between Buchanan and Arcadia — or mile markers 167 and 169, if that’s how you roll — has long been considered one of the most dangerous parts of I-81. The road curves back and forth like an S; it’s the site of an infamous crash that killed seven people on the Fourth of July in 1998.
Del. Terry Austin, R-Botetourt County and the senior Republican on the House Transportation Committee, has long been a proponent for straightening that S-curve. In October 2025, Youngkin announced $270 million to do just that. This project is expected to take two to three years to design, so actual construction may not begin until near the end of Spanberger’s term and likely won’t be finished until the term of whoever is governor after that. But the project was set in motion under Youngkin.
Conditional pick 1: A nuclear site in Southwest Virginia
In October 2022, Youngkin announced his energy plan — and specifically called for a small modular reactor in Southwest Virginia, a declaration that caused much excitement (both pro and con) in the region. He later backed off that proposal; the state doesn’t build reactors or site them, utilities do and none of the state’s utilities showed any interest in putting a reactor in Southwest.
Dominion Energy later announced it would pursue one at its existing North Anna power station in Louisa County; Appalachian Power is exploring one at its Joshua Falls substation in Campbell County. (Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in new decisions; see our policy.) Nonetheless, some officials in Southwest have pursued the idea of a nuclear reactor. The LENOWISCO Planning District Commission has identified potential sites in Southwest, the GO Virginia Region 1 economic development board has commissioned a study on a possible microreactor and Youngkin recently announced funding for the University of Virginia’s College at Wise to set up a nuclear control room simulator.
Conditional pick 2: The prospect of revived rail service in the Shenandoah Valley
This is a late addition to the list. In 2023, the General Assembly appropriated $35 million to convert an abandoned 49-mile rail line from Broadway to Front Royal in the Shenandoah Valley into a trail, much the same as the highly popular Virginia Creeper Trail in Southwest Virginia. Earlier this week, the Youngkin administration pulled a surprise: a proposal for a rail-with-trail to preserve the option of starting either a short-line freight railroad and/or passenger trail someday. That move was controversial, partly because some felt it had been sprung with little notice, partly because some see a rail-with-trail as incompatible uses. The Commonwealth Transportation Board deadlocked, so Secretary of Transportation Shep Miller broke the tie in favor of the plan, the first step of which involves transferring that $35 million from the Department of Transportation to the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.
“The question posed is whether the commonwealth should pursue a rail and trail concept or only a trail,” Miller told the board. “The administration believes that pursuing both delivers the greatest benefit to the citizens of the commonwealth.”
All of these may someday be seen as false starts and dead ends. Depending on your point of view, they may be bad ideas, but that’s not really the point here. If a nuclear reactor ever does wind up in Southwest Virginia, or rail service again runs down the western side of the Shenandoah Valley, the idea can be traced to Youngkin.
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