Local Editorial Boards Slam Jen Kiggans for “Reckless” Rhetoric, “Selling of Her Soul” to Run for Congress

Jen Kiggans (VA-02) has proven she’ll do or say anything to get elected, even if it means selling her soul to the most extreme wing of her party. But while that strategy might have helped her win her primary, Virginians aren’t buying it in the general election.

The Virginian-Pilot editorial board slammed Kiggans for her “reckless” rhetoric, including her attacks on the integrity of the FBI after they searched former president Donald Trump’s home this week. The editorial also criticizes Kiggans for being one of only four Republican state senators to vote for a $70 million, taxpayer-funded audit of the election results in an attempt to toss out Virginians’ votes.

Kiggans’ craven bid for political power has led her down some cowardly paths – and Virginians will see right through her in November.

The Virginian-Pilot: Editorial: Virginia officials’ lack of restraint was reckless
By Editorial Board
August 10, 2022

• “It’s reckless to speculate about the legal justification behind the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Monday execution of a search warrant at the Florida home of former President Donald Trump without seeing the warrant itself. Not that it’s stopped some prominent Virginia Republicans from plunging head-first into those murky, brackish waters.”
• “Nevermind that Virginia is home to a great many FBI and DOJ employees, and nevermind that Virginia is in the running to land a new FBI headquarters building.”
• “Virginia Sen. Jen Kiggans, who similarly aspires to higher office, also joined those ranks.”
• “In going off half-cocked, Youngkin and Kiggans have some distasteful company.”
• “And it includes Rep, Marjorie Taylor Greene, representing the party’s Q-Anon wing, who tweeted “DEFUND THE FBI!” and followed it with an upside-down American flag, a rare one-two punch that undermines her position as a champion of law enforcement and a supporter of the military.”
• “That’s the team Kiggans aspires to join. After announcing her bid for Congress, she apparently decided that the path to victory is the selling of her soul.”
• “How else can she defend voting to spend $70 million in taxpayer funds on a ridiculous ‘forensic audit’ of Virginia’s 2020 election, a baseless scheme advanced by high-profile wackadoodle state Sen. Amanda Chase?”
• “Kiggans was one of only four state senators to vote for the measure, meaning that even those who have made their public careers advancing all sorts of wild, extremist legislation considered that too radioactive to support.”
• “If ‘the better part of valor is discretion,’ as Shakespeare wrote, and patience is a virtue, it’s pretty clear when Youngkin, Kiggans and their fellow Republicans stand.”