Former Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and his wife, Hilary, hosted a buzzy dinner at their Hamptons home Friday night, we hear, for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the first lady of Virginia Suzanne.
A source on the East End told us that the dinner “was not billed as a fund-raiser,” but that it was attended by prominent GOP donors, including Steve Ross, Ronald Lauder, John Paulson and Nelson Peltz.
A source added that “the governor impressed the crowd with his pitch for winning seats in Virginia’s General Assembly this fall, and was met with enthusiasm from the donors,” and that he also “fielded questions about the economy, Biden’s presidency, education” and other topics.
We hear the group “dined on smoked salmon, chicken piccata, berry pie and Häagen-Dazs ice cream bars” — while host Wilbur was decked out in some snazzy red slippers for the event.
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Page Six reported that Ross would throw the summer bash for Youngkin, who was co-CEO of the Carlyle Group until he quit in 2020 to run for governor.
Recent polling in Virginia showed Youngkin, 56, would beat President Biden in a potential 2024 match-up, though he hasn’t announced plans to run.
The Post previously reported that the Virginia pol had also met with deep-pocketed donors at Ross’ the Related Companies — the real estate giant that owns Hudson Yards in New York.
The Hill previously wrote that Youngkin managed to score his upset win in 2021 “by avoiding Trumpian style politics — without directly denouncing Trump or his voters — and running a center-right campaign centered on quality-of-life issues like the economy, public safety, education and personal freedoms, which is precisely what Republicans need to do at the national level to remain viable.”
