GOP gubernatorial candidates and the Republican Party chairman respond to a joint statement from the Democratic candidates.
Democratic gubernatorial candidates took a break from running primary campaigns against each other Thursday to condemn their Republican counterparts. Jennifer Carroll Foy, Jennifer McClellan, Lee Carter, and Terry McAuliffe released a joint statement with direct criticisms of GOP gubernatorial candidates Amanda Chase, Glenn Youngkin, Kirk Cox, and Pete Snyder.
“At a time when Virginians across the Commonwealth are struggling in the face of this devastating pandemic, Virginia Republicans are inexplicably opposing the president’s American Rescue Plan and critical relief that will allow us to beat COVID-19 and build a better future for everyone in our communities,” the Democrats wrote in their statement. “This position is a testament to the reality that Virginia Republicans will always put far right politics over people and solutions.”
They then made direct statements about each of the Republican candidates. “From Pete Snyder lying to the IRS to hide information about his organization’s finances and Glenn Youngkin’s commitment to voter suppression, to Amanda Chase’s racist tirade against Sen. McClellan and the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and Kirk Cox’s embrace of policies that hurt Virginia working families — the Republican candidates are proving one thing: they are wrong for Virginia,” the Democrats said in their statement.
Macaulay Porter, a spokesperson for Youngkin, accused the Democrats of trying to score political points. “Republicans and Democrats have both raised concerns about the integrity of our elections in recent years, and Glenn is proposing real solutions to restore faith in the process and ensure every legal vote is counted quickly and accurately,” Porter said Thursday. “If the liberals in Richmond were as focused on election integrity as they were scoring political points and playing partisan games we could actually get something accomplished for a change.”
Snyder’s campaign feigned surprise in their response to the statement from the Democrats. “Shocking these left-wing Democrats found time to parrot talking points but can’t find a second to stand up to teachers unions and special interests groups to open our schools and our economy. Their radical agenda for our state will continue down the road of failure paved by Northam and McAuliffe,” said Lenze Morris, a spokesperson for the Snyder campaign.
Chase agreed with the Democrats, just not in the context they intended. “The Democratic Party is right. We are extreme…extremely right on all of the issues important to freedom-loving Virginians: eliminating mask mandates, investigating voter fraud, supporting law and order, restoring our monuments and history, restoring our constitutional rights and individual liberties, reopening our schools and businesses, and getting our economy going again,” Chase wrote in a text Thursday. “Virginians want leadership that doesn’t kowtow to criminals and murderers while simultaneously taking away their 2nd Amendment rights. Under a Chase administration, we will make Virginia great again.”
Kirk Cox’s campaign did not provide a comment for this story.
The statement from the Democratic candidates comes just one day after VPM News reported that Youngkin and Snyder spent a combined $2 million on ads that either directly reference Donald Trump, or mimic his rhetoric.
After Trump lost Virginia by 10 points, Democrats are not shy from tying the current crop of candidates to the former president. “As Democrats, we may have our differences, but we are united against allowing any of these Trump acolytes near the governorship.”
Rich Anderson, the chair of the Republican Party of Virginia said the statement from the Democratic candidates shows that they are out of touch with Virginians. “Today’s statement from Democrat gubernatorial candidates show how tone deaf and out of touch their entire field is with Virginians. While parents are demanding a return to 5-day education for their children, most of this field voted against it and has kept public education and kids in full shut down,” Anderson said Thursday night. “They spent most of the past two years attacking our law enforcement officers and making it easier for criminals to get back on the streets. They fought to make life easier for killers and more difficult for cops. And when Terry McAuliffe’s hand-picked chair of the Virginia Parole Board allegedly violated the law to turn even more killers out into our neighborhoods, each and every one of them turned a blind eye and voted against common-sense transparency legislation.”
Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Virginia said it was important for their gubernatorial candidates to unite and release this statement. “While Democrats may not agree on every issue, unifying against the racism and extreme loyalty to Donald Trump that have become the norm in the Republican primary is critical,” Bonder said. “The dangerous far right extremism that defines Virginia Republicans will be on the ballot this year, and we will work together to defeat these threats in November.”
Republicans have not won a statewide election since 2009 and lost control of both chambers of the General Assembly in 2019. But, after two years of total Democratic control in the state government, Anderson believes Virginians will be encouraged to show up for the Republicans this November. “Keeping school doors closed and prison doors open isn’t what Virginians want,” he said. “Voters will make that abundantly clear in November when they vote out these partisan and ideological extremists.”
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