by Brandon Jarvis
The Republican Party of Virginia released a statement Tuesday condemning the chair of one of their largest committees in the commonwealth over his comments about courting Muslim voters while not caring about Christian voters.
RPV Chair Rich Anderson confirmed to Virginia Scope Tuesday that he had spoken with Loudoun County Republican Committee Chair Scott Pio privately to express his displeasure with the speech he gave at an event.
“The Republican Party of Virginia has been made aware of hateful and divisive comments made by a local county chair during a recent event in Northern Virginia,” RPV wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “We strongly and unequivocally condemn these comments, which are in no way reflective of our values as a party.”
During the event, Pio discussed the situation in the Middle East between Palestine and Israel and the impact it is having here on Republicans.
“We have to look at this from a Gaza/Palestinian mindset instead from an American mindset,” Pio said during his comments.
He talked about how he believes the way for Republicans to win in Northern Virginia is to court Muslim voters.
“We as a committee have dedicated our future in Loudoun to the immigrant vote,” Pio continued. “I don’t care about the White man vote. I do not care about the Christian vote. All I care about is the migrant/immigrant community vote.”
Pio said that he has been trying for months to have Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump visit a mosque in Loudoun County but has been unsuccessful.
Anderson told Virginia Scope that he wants RPV to be a big tent party and that he has heard from many Jewish Republicans who are offended by Pio’s comments.
“The Republican Party of Virginia is committed to fighting for the vote of EVERY Virginian – no matter their race, gender, faith, or background,” RPV wrote on Twitter. “We refuse to participate in the cynical identity politics game that pits Americans against one another and is an affront to the principles that our country was founded on.”
It was unclear at first who RPV was talking about in their statement as they did not name Pio specifically, but he quickly accepted responsibility and defended himself in a long thread on Twitter.
“It was me. I accept responsibility,” he wrote. “I became Chair of Loudoun Republicans due to my desire to fix Loudoun and turn it RED. In order to do that, we must reach out to our minority communities. There are over 150,000 citizens in Loudoun which are untouched people groups. We have Arabs, Latinos, Ethiopians, Indians, Koreans, Afghans, Africans, and more. For too long in Loudoun County, they have gone entirely untouched! If we want to inform these voters, then we must take the long road and wake these people up.”
RPV said that they will continue to support Israel as an ally and will address the situation with Pio internally.
“We reiterate that the Republican Party of Virginia unequivocally stands with our ally Israel and against anti-Semitism in any form,” they wrote. “On behalf of Republicans across the length and breadth of Virginia, we condemn these comments without equivocation and will address them as an internal party matter.”
