From DPVA:
ICYMI: Amanda Chase Leads the Virginia GOP’s Reckless Bolt to the Right
Virginia Republicans “don’t know where they’re going,” but all roads lead to Trumpism
Richmond, VA — Virginia Republicans’ woes continue piling up. They still don’t know how they will select a nominee this year, they are desperately cash-strapped, and their weak field of candidates are entering a brutal primary fight. The result? A party careening further and further towards Amanda Chase’s extremism and chaos.
A new CNN report yesterday made it clear what this means: Amanda Chase is in the lead, and everyone else is desperate to prove their loyalty to Trump and far right bonafides. Recent reporting details just how out-of-control this rapid lurch away from common sense and Virginians’ values has become:
- Former Republican state delegate Chris Saxman says that “the problem with the Republicans right now is they’re in the post-Trump reality, and they haven’t quite figured out what that means… they don’t know where they’re going.”
- Saxman emphasized that doubling down on Trumpism is the path Republicans are currently on: “Right now [Chase] is the leader, because she’s the leader in name ID…People like the fact that she fights.”
- With just three months before the Virginia GOP’s planned nominating convention, “attention has fallen to Amanda Chase,” who spoke at the pre-insurrection rally on January 6.
- Sen. Chase called the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol “patriots” and insists that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
- Chase personifies the “political risk that looms for the entire GOP in the post-Trump era.”
Not one to be left behind, Fox News talking head Pete Snyder came out of the gate saying he “absolutely” supports Donald Trump and the America First Agenda and dismissed the former president’s responsibility in the January 6th Capitol riots. Then, he announced his star endorser and campaign co-chair: the embattled Ken Cuccinelli, who has his own questions to answer on his shady deals with ICE and efforts to downplay white supremacist threats during his time in the Trump administration.
Party insider Kirk Cox, who’s already getting hounded with questions from conservatives about falling short in fundraising to Chase, will have to adopt even more extreme positions to gain support in this primary contest.
Meanwhile, it appears Glenn Youngkin isn’t prepared to answer any questions yet — but if he wants to compete in this primary, the clock is ticking.
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