In an announcement, Mr. McAuliffe in contrast Mr. Youngkin to different Republicans who “fawn all over Donald Trump” and “fully embrace his extreme, right-wing agenda,” including, “Now, Glenn Youngkin has paid enough to purchase the Republican gubernatorial nomination so he can run Donald Trump’s dangerous playbook here in Virginia.”

Republicans haven’t gained a statewide election in Virginia since 2009, a mirrored image of the state’s altering demographics as effectively as the party’s tendency in recent years to appoint candidates who fanned divisive social points, slightly than appealed to suburban voters on kitchen-table priorities.

The thumping that Mr. Northam administered to his Republican rival in 2017 was each a rejection of Mr. Trump and a catalyst in additional pushing Virginia, a once-purple state, out of the Republican orbit. Mr. Trump misplaced Virginia by 10 percentage points in November.

Still, Republicans consider they’ve a greater likelihood of profitable statewide this yr than at any time within the final decade, after Democrats, who took full management in Richmond in 2020, handed sweeping liberal laws on gun restrictions, elevating the minimal wage and different points.

Mr. Youngkin, 54, was raised in Virginia Beach and has lived in Northern Virginia for 25 years. Besides defeating Mr. Snyder, a expertise entrepreneur, he additionally outlasted State Senator Amanda Chase, who was censured in a bipartisan vote of the state’s General Assembly for calling the rioters on the Capitol on Jan. 6 “patriots.”

Supporters of Ms. Chase accused Snyder partisans within the state get together of rejecting a major and engineering Saturday’s “disassembled convention” to harm her possibilities. Ms. Chase had mentioned that if he grew to become the nominee, she would run as an unbiased. There isn’t any indication she intends to do this with Mr. Youngkin heading the get together’s ticket, which may also embrace nominees for lieutenant governor and lawyer common.

Many G.O.P. insiders heaved a sigh of reduction that the nomination for governor was not gained by Ms. Chase, believing that her general-election candidacy would have been prone to go down in flames given how deeply unpopular Mr. Trump is in Virginia.