by Ann Ridgeway, the Democratic nominee in HD30 last year against Del. Nick Freitas (R), who is now the Republicans’ nominee for Congress in VA07
This truth was coming, but due to present circumstances, it should be addressed right away. Del. Nick Freitas and the Sheriff of Culpeper County, Scott Jenkins, work closely together and are two peas in a pod. Voters in the 7th Congressional district may be unaware of this relationship. You may have heard of Scott Jenkins as the ONLY Sheriff in Virginia who continues to have an agreement with ICE, or the Sheriff who spoke at the Gun Rally in Richmond, or the Sheriff who recently ranted about Black Lives Matter, “reposting an apparent fabricated report of violence by protesters in Roanoke,” referring falsely to the supposed “violent actions of Antifa and Black Lives Matter across the nation,” and referring to BLM’s “purported ‘Marxist revolutionary goals and ideology’.” This is the same Scott Jenkins who is totally backed by Nick Freitas and the Virginia Citizens Defense League.
During our campaign last year to unseat Nick Freitas from the 30th District House of Delegates seat, this became very clear to me. At area parades, Jenkins openly displayed Freitas campaign signs, along with the vehicles that were promoting his campaign. There were other Republicans running for various positions in the community, but those were not displayed, showing that this was not a “Republican” issue. I had Freitas constituents angrily approach me to discuss gun issues such as the “Red Flag” law and Universal Background checks that were being proposed in a bipartisan way to stop gun violence. When I said that one of the reasons I was supporting these bills was that law enforcement supported them, the next thing out of their mouths was, “You need to go talk to Sheriff Jenkins and see what he thinks about it!”
When people made comments to me that they had not seen many Freitas signs in Culpeper, I told them not to be fooled, that every Jenkins sign was also a sign for Freitas. Freitas signs came out later, mostly right next to Jenkins signs.
Now, most recently, as Donald Trump has come out against Black Lives Matter and preached that BLM supporters supposedly incite violence and are not peacefully protesting, Sheriff Jenkins has become bolder in his willingness to put out his true views about race issues. Recently, as noted above, Jenkins posted on his Facebook page an article he knew to be false, about an incident that The Roanoke Times proved had NEVER OCCURRED. The Roanoke Times published an editorial asking, “Has the sheriff of Culpeper County just given criminals an ‘out’?”, which noted, “This wasn’t a case of a gullible sheriff falling for the original story, he knew it had been debunked and still shared and endorsed it!” Yet Freitas’ ally, Jenkins, still stands by his post, even linking BLM with “antifa” in order to incite fear.
Please do not be fooled by Freitas’ “Christian” talk about we are all created in the image of God. Instead, realize that what Freitas does *not* say in support of social justice is what you need to pay attention to. Also keep in mind that Sheriff Jenkins is a mouthpiece for what Freitas avoids talking about, because he knows this will not help his election to Congress. The fact is, we all know that it is the company you keep that shows us who you really are, even if you constantly try to PIVOT your way out of it.
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