Extremism “Being Rewarded” in VA-02 Republican Primary

The GOP’s ongoing battle with party extremism is taking center stage in the VA-02 Republican primary. Jen Kiggans and her establishment backers like the NRCC are seeing warning signs as her primary opponent, America First candidate Jarome Bell, is “rewarded” for his “violent threats and hate speech” and makes headlines for high-profile endorsers like Rep. Bob Good (VA-05).

The Washington Post editorial board highlighted Bell’s dangerous rhetoric that has garnered him support from the fringes:

“He went a major step beyond the lie that Joe Biden stole the 2020 presidential election, calling for putting to death anyone convicted of voter fraud in a tweet in September: “Audit all 50 states. Arrest all involved. Try all involved. Convict all involved. Execute all involved.” Now Mr. Bell, who faces stiff competition in the party primary in June, has been endorsed by Republican Rep. Bob Good of Virginia.”

In a desperate effort to win the primary voters supporting Bell, Kiggans has taken increasingly extreme positions that make her unelectable in the general election — like being one of only four Republicans to vote for a $70 million audit of Virginia’s 2020 election results.

“Jarome Bell’s national attention and fringe endorsements are sending warning signs to Jen Kiggans, as she seeks to make it through the Republican primary,” said DCCC spokesperson Monica Robinson. “If Kiggans is lucky enough to make it out of the primary, Virginia voters will find Kiggans unelectable thanks to the GOP’s extremist pressure.”

Washington Post: Opinion: Trump’s violent political rhetoric is metastasizing in the Republican Party
March 19, 2022
Editorial Board

• “Violent and threatening political rhetoric, normalized and encouraged by former president Donald Trump, is metastasizing in the Republican Party.”
• “Silence is complicity. By not speaking out even in response to overt calls for lethal vengeance and death threats against political foes, Republican officials send a clear message that violence itself is a plausible alternative to debate, and even a palatable one.”
• “Far from being condemned for violent threats and hate speech, candidates and incumbents are increasingly being rewarded. One is Jarome Bell, who is vying for the GOP nomination in Virginia’s highly competitive 2nd Congressional District.”
• “He went a major step beyond the lie that Joe Biden stole the 2020 presidential election, calling for putting to death anyone convicted of voter fraud in a tweet in September: ‘Audit all 50 states. Arrest all involved. Try all involved. Convict all involved. Execute all involved.’”
• “Now Mr. Bell, who faces stiff competition in the party primary in June, has been endorsed by Republican Rep. Bob Good of Virginia.”
• “Mr. Bell has also been endorsed by a Republican state senator in Arizona, Wendy Rogers, a rising star in GOP politics nationally despite — or possibly in part because of — her incendiary, antisemitic rhetoric. At a white nationalist convention in Florida last month, she said, ‘We need to build more gallows’ to dispatch ‘traitors.’”
• “History provides abundant evidence that rhetorical violence begets actual violence. By countenancing vile, dehumanizing, bloody-minded rhetoric, Republicans are paving a dangerous road to the future.”