What had the potential to be a messy ranked-choice convention nominating process for Virginia Republicans went surprisingly smoothly over the weekend into Monday's tabulation, with former investment executive Glenn Youngkin emerging as the party's nominee for governor. His win gives the GOP — who's trying to come out of a dozen years in electoral wilderness — a candidate without a voting record to attack who will clearly have the resources to compete statewide and against the likely Democratic nominee, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe. And many Republican observers in the commonwealth even before the surging Youngkin secured victory, believed he would be the best statewide nominee out of the options before them.

Youngkin, who was the former CEO of the Carlyle Group before retiring last fall, spent nearly $6 million of his own money to beat his closest competitor Pete Snyder, who spent almost the same of his own fortune. He also bested former House Speaker Kirk Cox and state Sen. Amanda Chase — the latter of which was by far the most problematic potential standard bearer for Republicans with her

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