If you recall, the Democratic primary in VA10 last June got nasty towards the end, with unsubstantiated allegations against Del. Dan Helmer – a leading candidate in that primary to succeed Rep. Jennifer Wexton:
According to the The New York Times, a Democratic Party official, through an anonymous statement from her attorney in June 2024, accused Helmer of “groping her and later making sexually crude remarks.” Current and former Loudoun County Democratic Party officials said that the committee “developed its sexual harassment policies in response to “the egregious harassment” of a Loudoun County party member by Mr. Helmer. Helmer was accused of grabbing the woman’s breast after a political event during his 2018 campaign as he lewdly referred to her body and propositioned her for sex with him and other women while describing the different sexual positions he wanted to try with her.
Numerous Democratic Party politicians and officials, including three former Loudoun County party chairmen, and the National Organization for Women (NOW) called on Helmer to withdraw from the race…
At the time, it was a very close contest between State Sen. Suhas Subramanyam and Del. Helmer, with the final results a fairly narrow victory for Subramanyam over Helmer (30.4%-26.6%), with several other candidates trailing significantly behind – and with no “Ranked Choice Voting” (ergo, no need to get 50% of the vote – just “first past the post”). So, in the end, given how close that primary was, it’s certainly possible that Helmer might have won without the last-minute allegations against him.
Now, over seven months later, Dan Helmer has filed a lawsuit in Fairfax County Circuit Court (see below; also, see here – case number: CL-2025-0001487) alleging defamation and asking for judgment of $15 million as “compensatory damages,” as well as “an award of treble damages, costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.” The defendants listed in the lawsuit and other details of the case – including Helmer’s case for why he believes he was defamed – can be seen below. So other than the money, this case is important for Helmer because as of right now, the allegations against him are hanging out there, and obviously if they’re false, he’d want to clear his name for a bunch of reasons – including his future in politics. Anyway, check out the lawsuit…and stay tuned for more on this story.
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