On Saturday, the official Twitter account for the Republican governor’s campaign posted a photo of Ethan Lynne with former Gov. Ralph Northam at a Democratic fundraiser in October.
“Here’s a picture of Ethan with a man that had a Blackface/KKK photo in his yearbook,” Team Youngkin tweeted, along with the October photo and a racist image from Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook that surfaced in 2019.
The tweet was deleted on Sunday following a fierce backlash, and after Democrats and others called on Youngkin to apologize to the teenager.
Lynne on Sunday said that although the tweet had been deleted, he had heard nothing from Youngkin’s office.
“They’ve deleted it, but I have received no communication from the Governor’s office,” he wrote in a tweet that had amassed more than 50,000 likes by Monday morning.
“In school, we are taught how to spot bullying, and their tweet last night, perfectly fit that description.”
Lynne said: “It is disgusting, disturbing, and unbecoming of the Commonwealth to see the Governor and his office stoop this low, especially on a public platform.
“We all know that Youngkin has an agenda to attack and endanger students, and last night proved that. I will not be intimidated by these attacks and will continue to be a voice for students across the commonwealth.”
Lynne pointed to Youngkin’s order restricting school mask mandates and the tip line set up for reporting teachers as part of that agenda.
“I’ve just been completely appalled by the whole situation,” he told Newsweek.
“If you’re a teen watching from he sidelines, don’t let this deter you,” he added. “We can work hard to defeat people like this and their allies at the ballot box.”
Team Youngkin lashed out at Lynne on Twitter after the teenager retweeted a Richmond public radio station’s report that suggested Youngkin might be scrapping efforts pursued under two previous Democratic governors to highlight the history of enslaved people at the governor’s mansion.
The report had contained an error, which Lynne noted in a tweet hours later when the station, VPM, issued a correction.
Matt Wolking, a spokesman for Youngkin’s campaign who continues to work for the governor as a strategist at Axiom Strategies, told The Washington Post that Team Youngkin had decided to remove the tweet after finding out that Lynne is a minor.
The teenager’s Twitter bio identifies him as a “Virginian. HS Senior. Democrat.”
Wolking described Lynne as a “Democrat Party official” to the Post and suggested that Democrats had made the teenager a fair target by previously promoting him on Twitter. He declined to say who wrote the tweet.
Youngkin’s spokeswoman Macaulay Porter have been contacted for additional comment.
Update 02/07/22, 7:47 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add comments from Ethan Lynne.
