Former RNC chair Ed Gillespie is in desperation mode. As poll after poll began showing him trailing in his bid for governor of Virginia—which just happens to be this fall’s biggest election—he shamelessly switched campaign mode from his natural “dullsville establishment conservative” to “reactionary fearmongering racist” as if birthed by Steve Bannon himself. Just check out his recent TV ad, in which he berates his Democratic opponent, Ralph Northam, for letting “dangerous illegal immigrants back on the street” while featuring scary photos of men with tattooed faces … who were in fact photographed in a prison in El Salvador, just a short 56-hour, 3,093-mile drive from the state capitol in Richmond.
But you know who just loves Gillespie’s new hate-filled stylings? Oh, you know who!
Trump obviously thinks he’s helping Gillespie with this loony-toons naked bigotry heaped atop a steaming pile of bullshit, and frankly, Gillespie can hardly complain. Trump sounds just like a narrator in one of Gillespie’s ads, after all. If anything, Gillespie’s probably grateful. After nearly getting upset in the GOP primary earlier this year by Confederacy-worshipping Trump fanboy Corey Stewart, Gillespie seems to have concluded that activating that frothing base of Trump-Stewart voters is his only path to victory.
But it comes with a huge penalty, of course: Normal people are absolutely revolted, and for every nutter Gillespie might win over, there’s a decent person now eager to come out for Northam, if not more. And even if it’s an even trade, that doesn’t help Gillespie, because again, he’s trailing. And while Gillespie might try to narrowly target his trash at specific groups of voters he thinks will be receptive, Trump just put his whole campaign strategy on blast, for all of Virginia to see.
It’s a huge opportunity for Northam to expose Gillespie for the garbage person he is. Let’s give him a hand.
Please give $3 to Ralph Northam so that he can tell Trump and Gillespie where to shove their racist crap.
