Glenn Youngkin launches national group focused on education policy

The former governor of Virginia is targeting several battleground states with an ad campaign promoting President Donald Trump’s federal school choice program.

Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2028, has founded a national policy group that will launch with a push to promote a new school choice program.

Empowering America’s Parents will begin a multimillion-dollar advertising blitz targeting several battleground states, including Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, a person familiar with the internal planning told NBC News.

The states, led by Democratic governors, are among those that have yet to opt in to the Education Freedom Tax Credit, which was in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law by President Donald Trump. The federal initiative is intended to expand school choices for K-12 students and their families.

“Regrettably, 20 states have refused to opt-in to these scholarships,” Youngkin said in a statement announcing the launch of his policy group and an accompanying media campaign. “Empowering America’s Parents will recognize the strong leaders who embraced this program and aggressively call out far-left governors who won’t stand with parents and are instead playing politics.”

Critics have long worried that such programs benefit private schools at the expense of public schools.