Virginia’s GOP Better Get A Reid On The Situation
Here’s some free advice for Virginia’s Republican Party: Get your act together before the Democrats sweep the November elections and Old Dominion turns into California East.
Intra-party squabbling and charges of extortion are not a winning message.
Cut it out.
Four years after stunning the nation by taking the commonwealth’s top three elected offices back from Democrat control, the Republican party is in disarray and appears on the verge of a schism with the governor on one side and some GOP committees and a former governor on the other.
In a close election, this will be fatal.
When news broke a week ago the Fairfax County’s most prominent Republican, Pat Herrity, had withdrawn his primary bid to be the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor due to health problems, it looked like the party was going to avoid a bruising primary altogether and focus on November.
Herrity’s withdrawal cleared the way for his opponent, John Reid, to be the nominee.
Reid is the son of the late Jack Reid, an 18-year Republican veteran of the House of Delegates. John Reid’s conservative credentials are impeccable: he interned in the Reagan White House, served as then-Sen. George Allen’s communications director and hosted a popular conservative Richmond talk radio show for eight years.
Reid has been a guest on The Kerry and Mike Show and he’s a smart, engaging guest. There’s no daylight between his issues and mine.
I’ll vote for him without hesitation.
Oh, he is openly gay and has been in a committed relationship for the past few years. He denies that a Tumblr account that included some nude photos of men was his. Photos of Reid at a drag show have been circulating on social media and he addressed this in an interview I conducted with him last week.
“Drag is not for kids,” Reid said emphatically.
Exactly.
Who cares about a candidate’s sexuality, right? Isn’t Richard Grinnell one of Trump’s most respected cabinet officers? Wasn’t Scott Pressler almost solely responsible for Trump winning Pennsylvania? Trump’s GOP fashions itself to be a big tent. Lots of room for gay conservatives. Especially ones who oppose gender affirming care for minors, drag queen story hour and pornography in the schools.
As it is now, at the top of Virginia’s ticket will be Winsome Earle-Sears, Reid for lieutenant government and Jason Miyares is running to retain his post at Attorney General. This will be the most diverse ticket in Virginia history and would seem to totally defang the usual cries of racism and bigotry that Democrats level at Republicans.
The three were set to appear together tomorrow night for a Richmond “Unity Rally.”
But that’s reportedly been cancelled.
All we have at this point is Reid’s explanation:
Two days later, Reid released this:
In short, Reid denies that the Tumblr account is his. The governor has not commented publicly, so whether Glenn Youngkin doesn’t believe Reid or is simply uncomfortable with Reid ’s lifestyle is unclear.
Earle-Sears and Miyares have been silent. Clearly, they were not kept in the loop by the governor.
Slowly, grassroots support has been trickling in for the embattled candidate.
Former Gov. George Allen is supporting Reid and released this statement early this morning:
Having known and worked with John Reid in our U.S. Senate office, I endorsed him in February in the Republican LG nomination quest. Susan and I respected and appreciated Pat Herrity as the taxpayers’ best friend in Fairfax County and said only good things about him. But, John was a member of our A-Team.
Presently, John is resolutely clear that he’s staying in the race. He’s our nominee. And, I’m supporting the whole Republican ticket..and many outstanding candidates running to flip Delegate seats in our VA Beach & Norfolk area, including Tim Anderson, Kyle Pasquarella and Andy Pittman and the re-election of Del. Anne Ferrell Tata.
I’m confident that when voters make their decisions, they will focus on the truly important issues that will impact their lives and our Commonwealth. The top issue is worker freedom embodied in Virginia’s Right to Work that protects workers from being forced to pay union dues as a condition of holding a job. Every Democratic Party candidate running for LG has stated that they want to repeal that worker freedom. Being the furthest State north of the Eastern Seaboard, the repeal of our Right to Work would cause devastating harm to Virginia’s attractiveness to business.
Other key issues on the ballot this year are:
1. increased government costs with forced collective bargaining for government employees,
2. rational, practical, affordable and reliable energy policies to avoid unnecessarily high electricity costs imposed on captive customers.
3. Many law enforcement polices from upholding truth in sentencing and support of crime victims rather than criminal apologists looking to significantly reducing the time served by convicted felons with dangerous early release.
4. Academic standards and accountability in public schools.
5. Taxes! Lower or higher to make Virginia more or less attractive and competitive with NC and Tennessee.
Virginia has higher costs of living due in significant part to higher taxes, higher electricity and gasoline prices than growing, prospering Tennessee and North Carolina and other States in the Southeast.
These are the key issues at stake in the upcoming election that I aim to address.
I do not wish to distract attention from these truly vital issues.
Other prominent Republicans seem to be holding their collective breath before supporting Reid. Perhaps Allen’s early move will give them courage.
Are they waiting to see if there’s more? Or do they simply lack the ability to back a candidate who shares their political goals, but not their sexuality?
Republicans better figure this out if they want to have any hope of holding on to power in Richmond.
