For years, I have religiously checked the Drudge Report at some point in the day to get an idea of the latest headlines. Although, since 2016, I've been using other resources for headlines in addition to Drudge, not many days have passed without Matt Drudge getting a little bit of ad revenue from me. Sometimes the headlines are good. Other times, he's just a moron. The example below is him being a moron.

Matt Drudge has been doing this stuff far longer and far more consistently than me, so he defiantly knows better than to make a big headline about someone starting an insane Presidential campaign in November just because a guy on X said a billionaire donor and Bill Bar said they would support him.

There have been a couple of late Republican entries into the Presidential primary this century. In 2012, Rick Perry jumped into the race in August. In 2008, Fred Thompson announced his candidacy in September. Both campaigns suffered the same problems.

I know I made fun of Fred Thompson for stumbling all over himself during his first debate, especially because he was supposed to be the greatest communicator since Ronald Reagan since he was an actor. In fairness to Fred Thompson, he had barely been running for President when he was thrown in a ring with several Republicans who had been running for President long enough for a woman to have sex, get pregnant, and have a baby. They had already been thorough several debates, and Fred Thompson was just doing it for the first time.

Rick Perry may not have stunk up the debate stage as bad as Fred Thompson, but he didn't have the same expectations, either. What really hurt both Thompson and Perry though was the lack of time on the ground. Winning Iowa and New Hampshire is not about how much money you can spend, but about the personal connections you make with caucus goers and voters. I am not exaggerating when I say this: there are a LOT of Iowa Republicans who will not vote for a candidate simply because they didn't shake that candidate's hand and have an opportunity to talk with them. As someone from Indiana, they come off as extremely entitled, but that's the reality of contests in the early states.

Exactly Why Glenn Youngkin Won't Run in 2024

Virginia's state wide elections are the year before Presidential elections. Every year, the Virginia elections are seen as a test of national attitudes towards the party in power in Washington. The Virginia elections are wildly important for the Republican Party, and they will be seen as a test of Glenn Youngkin himself. If Governor Youngkin can deliver down-ballot victories like Ron DeSantis in Florida last year, it's going to increase his stock nationally with all eyes on Virginia come November. However, however impressing political junkies like me and the mega donors in Washington, D.C. and California is different than impressing the voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.

It's too late to enter the race for President now, but Glenn Youngkin wouldn't be able to leave Virginia until November 8th at the very earliest. The Iowa Caucuses are scheduled for January 15, 2024. That would give Glenn Youngkin less than 10 weeks to win Iowa, and once he loses, all the momentum he had coming into the race and all the good will he created by creating a red wave in Virginia would vanish.

Governor Youngkin isn't an idiot. Like Gavin Newsom, he's going to coyly deny he has any plans to run for the White House, but privately revel in the attention and fan the flames just enough to create a hint of smoke and hopefully slow burn the attention until 2027 when he announces early that he's running for President and heading. Once they meet him, the voters in Iowa are going to fall in love with Youngkin; but he needs more than 9 and a half weeks to make that happen.

The other problem a Glenn Youngkin 2024 campaign would face is that all of the greatest talent for political staffers and operatives are already on the payroll of a Presidential Campaign and would be committed to skewering Youngkin if he gets in the race with a halfcocked staff of largely inexperienced and washed up Republicans who are in way over their heads.

Instead, Glenn Youngkin would be much better off focusing entirely on winning down ballot in Virginia and trying to push himself as the post-Trump era candidate, assuming Trump is going to win the nomination; which still looks exceedingly likely.