I am always amused when leftwing activists simply refuse to absorb clear facts. Case in point is Shawn Weneta’s recent op-ed saying the verdict on the economic and public safety turnaround under Gov. Youngkin, dubbed the “Virginia Renaissance,” is already in. While he is correct that the verdict is in, he is clearly reading the wrong one.
The bottom line is that by every objective measure, Virginia was stronger, safer and more prosperous after four years of the Youngkin-Miyares Administration than the commonwealth we inherited. The stunning facts of the Virginia Renaissance simply cannot be ignored: more economic investment in Virginia under Gov. Youngkin than the last six governors combined. A state government that was well-managed, leaving office with a $572 million budget surplus, a $1.8 billion cash cushion and $4.7 billion in the rainy day fund, with $9 billion in tax relief for Virginians and consistent rankings as one of the best states in the nation to do business.
That isn’t a slogan. That is the record.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan noted that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but never to their own facts. In this case, what Democrats don’t get to rewrite are unemployment numbers, economic investment, murder rates or overdose statistics after the fact.
Worth remembering is the Virginia that Youngkin and I inherited when we took office. The Virginia of 2021 was dying, literally, financially and figuratively. Coming into office, we had the highest levels of addiction deaths ever recorded in the history of the commonwealth, a murder rate at a 20-year high and a violent crime rate at a 30-year high. It was a Virginia that was ranked 46th out of 50 states in post-COVID job creation, where our public schools were among the last to reopen, which led to a devastating impact on learning loss and the mental health of Virginia’s children. All of these factors led to the first time in close to 100 years of more people moving out of the state than moving in.
People were fleeing because of the results of the progressive monopoly that had descended in Richmond under Youngkin’s predecessor, Ralph Northam, which created conditions where businesses and population were attempting to flee. That was the Virginia Democrats handed us and is the baseline Weneta conveniently leaves out of his column. He seems to be blaming the doctors for the treatment rather than the failed leftist policies, more concerned with social justice activism than governance.
After four years of Gov. Youngkin’s common-sense policies, Virginians rewarded him with a 56% approval rating. Even Abigail Spanberger ran on continuing Youngkin’s successes by campaigning on job creation and being pro-law enforcement because she knew that’s what Virginians actually wanted. Now her approval ratings are among the lowest of any modern Virginia governor, and it isn’t a mystery why: it’s the bait and switch of campaigning as a moderate and governing as a leftist.
As Virginia’s “People’s Protector,” I chose to work with law enforcement instead of against them. We launched Operation Ceasefire with bipartisan support, and the results speak for themselves: a statewide drop in the murder rate of more than 30%, and in some of our Ceasefire cities, including Roanoke, we saw a 66% drop in murders. Those are Virginia State Police numbers and actual results, not talking points.
We held opioid manufacturers responsible for the addiction crisis to the tune of $1.2 billion in legal judgments while aggressively prosecuting fentanyl dealers that were poisoning our children. In just four years, my office removed enough fentanyl off the streets of Virginia that would have taken the lives of 6 million of our fellow citizens. This led to Virginia being recognized by the DEA as having the number one drop in addiction deaths of any state in the nation in my last year in office.
Compare that to the disastrous “Enhanced Earned Sentence Credit” program championed by Shawn Weneta, a convicted felon himself. In the first full year alone, nearly half, 49.8%, of those released early under the program were rearrested on new criminal charges. This is not a policy hiccup; that is a public safety failure with victims’ names attached to it.
Most shocking is that Weneta’s own op-ed doesn’t deny people are getting raped and killed, just that it’s not that many people getting raped and killed due to early felon release. Now he is pressuring Virginia’s General Assembly to take it much further while ignoring the lives ended or irrevocably changed due to early felon release. A criminal-first, victim-last justice policy doesn’t protect Virginians.
More Virginians were working, more Virginians were thriving, more small businesses were opening their doors and yes, more Virginians were alive when this chapter of the Virginia Renaissance ended in January of 2026. That is the verdict, and with each passing day, it becomes more apparent that the Virginia Renaissance was real. What we have now is a Leftist Resurgence taking Virginia in a very different direction.
I’m flattered by the comparisons to Ronald Reagan because I’m a firm believer that the American Miracle has provided more hope, opportunity and prosperity than any country on the planet. Virginians are fundamentally a good, decent and noble people, filled with generosity and big hearts. Virginians want a government as good and as decent as they are, one that works for them, not against them. We are all scratching our heads wondering why so many in Richmond seem focused on undoing the Virginia Renaissance so as to adopt the same ruinous policies of California.
The Youngkin legacy proves commonsense leadership wins over bad ideas cloaked with good intentions. Here is hoping we’ve learned the lesson.
Jason S. Miyares served as Attorney General of Virginia from 2022 to 2026.
