BREAKING: Virginia GOP Chair John Whitbeck Announces Resignation

by Kyle McDaniel

In a move that came as a shock to most observers, John Whitbeck abruptly announced his resignation as chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) earlier today at the party’s State Central Committee meeting in Richmond.

More details will likely emerge, but first musings are fairly obvious: either John wants to turn his disastrous tenure as chairman into another run for public office [UPDATE by Lowell: maybe for the House of Delegates seat currently held by Democrat Wendy Gooditis, or for Sen. Jennifer Wexton’s seat if/when she defeats Barbara Comstock for U.S. House?), or he was kindly shown the door by the Republican National Committee ( RNC). Or maybe both.

After the overwhelming victory in this months primary by every white supremacist’s best friend, Corey Stewart, it would be no surprise if the RNC actually did step in and insist on a change. As for running for political office, if you can’t run RPV, I guess trying your hand at running the state is the next logical step!

Either way, the RPV continues its slide into irrelevancy.

P.S. by Lowell: With Virginia GOP Chair John Whitbeck resigning, it might be a good opportunity for a quick recap of his illustrious – ok, maybe not! LOL – career. That includes serving as VA GOP Chair starting on January 24, 2015; since then, Virginia Republicans have lost election after election, including Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by 5 points, a complete wipeout in November 2017 (Democrats swept the statewide races plus picked up 15 seats in the House of Delegates), and now the nomination of neo-Confederate Corey Stewart over party favorite Nick Freitas. Complete debacle, in other words. With that, here are a few links to get you caught up:

• Va. GOP official refuses to apologize for anti-Semitic joke (September 2013)
• VA Republican Says His Joke Wasn’t Anti-Semitic Because He Heard it in Church (September 2013)
• Party Chairman Who Told Anti-Semitic Joke At Cuccinelli Rally Is Now Running For Office (November 2013)
• Jennifer Wexton wins Virginia Senate special election to succeed Mark Herring: Ms. Wexton led Mr. Whitbeck 53 percent to 37 percent. (January 2014)
• “Anti-Semitic VA GOP Chair John Whitbeck Scolds Republican State Committee Member for Religious Bigotry” (June 2016)
• Virginia GOP Chair Says White House SHOULD Ban “Media Who Hate Us” (February 2017)
• VA GOP Chair Says Massive # of Dems Running in 2017 a “Huge Help” to…Republicans??? (May 2017)
• Video: John Whitbeck, John Adams Both Massively Fail to Criticize Trump’s “Many Sides” Bull**** (August 2017)
• VA GOP Chair Takes on Trump 2016 VA Co-Chair Over Rep. Barbara Comstock; Hilarity Ensues: Whitbeck claims Comstock can’t do town hall meeting because constituents might shoot her (September 2017)
• Corey Stewart calls for resignation of RPV Chairman John Whitbeck
• VA GOP Chair/Good Trump Soldier Follows Orders, Disowns Bannon, Gets Brutally Mocked (January 2018)
• Video: VA GOP Chair John Whitbeck on Hardball Epitomizes Why Everyone Needs to Vote Democratic Up and Down the Ballot (March 2018)
• Wayyyy Beyond Parody: VA GOP Chair John “Whitebeck” on Far-Right “Newsmax TV” with Seth Rich Conspiracy Theorist Jack Burkman (March 2018)

UPDATE 3:52 pm by Lowell: I’m hearing speculation about Nancy Dye to replace Whitbeck. For some info on her, see Virginia Democrats criticize Dye as extremist on abortion (“The criticism comes one day after Dye, a retired surgeon, called for Planned Parenthood to be investigated and defunded”).

UPDATE 2:11 pm by Lowell: The Washington Post reports, “‘Other political opportunities have arisen for me that I am thinking about pursuing,’ he told members of the party’s governing board at a meeting. He did not elaborate.” Also, “There is speculation Whitbeck does not want to spend the next four months answering for Stewart.” Ya think? 🙂