Over in VA07, there are both Democratic and Republican primaries going on right now, with the winner of each vying for the seat currently held by Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) this November. To see a list of all the candidates, click here.
On the Republican side, given his fundraising lead as well as his numerous endorsements, it appears that the frontrunner is Derrick Anderson. What do we know about Anderson? Mostly, that he has right-wing stances on the issues (e.g., he’s virulently anti-immigration); that he thinks the NY trial of Donald Trump – which found Trump guilty on ALL COUNTS – was “ridiculous“; that he thinks “investigations into the January 6th Insurrection are a ‘cover-up‘” (that belief alone should automatically disqualify Anderson from holding any public office – ever); that he’s vowed to “Stand with President Trump to Take on Far-Left Liberals and the Swamp“; etc. So yeah…if this guy were to win, god forbid, this November, it would represent a MASSIVE downgrade from Rep. Abigail Spanberger, and would be really bad in general.
So given the above information, you’re probably not surprised to know that Anderson recently put out an ad with Greene County Sheriff Steve Smith, promoting Smith as someone who could (supposedly) “keep our families safe.” Yeah, sure…except that Smith has a *myriad* of “issues,” including: defending a school resource officer who handcuffed a 4 year old; overseeing deputies who were caught trying to solicit minors online; pushing “seminars” that promoted an Islamophobic extremist who doesn’t believe Muslims deserved 1st amendment rights; hiring a friend who, in 2002, had received three felony convictions for altering or forging vehicle titles in what prosecutors referred to as a resale “scheme” (Smith had testified in his friend’s 2002 trial that he had been transferred the title of two cars his friend had bought and Smith resold them for a higher price. Smith defended his friend and claimed he “wasn’t trying to scam anybody”); etc.
And yet this is the type of person is someone Derrick Anderson features in one of his ads? At the minimum, that’s revealing about where Anderson’s coming from and how he thinks. Combined with Anderson’s hard-right, pro-Trump views, VA07 voters shouldn’t even CONSIDER supporting him this November over whoever Democrats end up nominating…
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