Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine is a heavy favorite to win a second term in blue-leaning Virginia next year, but Republican state Del. Nick Freitas may be about to jump into the race against him. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Freitas recently said in a radio interview that he would announce a decision "soon" on whether or not to run. Freitas posted on a Draft Freitas Facebook group that he "hope[d] to see you all at the Advance," which is an annual state Republican gathering on Dec. 8. Freitas is an Iraq War veteran who was first elected to the state House in 2015.
Republicans suffered major losses down-ballot in this month's state House races thanks in large part to GOP nominee Ed Gillespie's blowout loss to Democrat Ralph Northam in the gubernatorial race, and Republicans should rightly be worried about a repeat performance in U.S. House races next year if they nominate a disastrous candidate for Senate. Hard-right Prince William County Supervisor Corey Stewart is the only GOP candidate in the race so far, and his neo-Confederate sympathies almost allowed him to defeat Gillespie in a shocking upset in this year's gubernatorial primary. Freitas would presumably be running as the more establishment candidate, and he may have a tough time winning over a Republican primary electorate that has increasingly descended into extremism.
Stewart isn't the only reactionary Republican who could end up on the primary ballot, though. Christian minister E.W. Jackson's spokesperson recently said his boss plans to run, and Jackson himself tweeted, "Rumors are flying that I’m going to run for U.S. Senate in Virginia. Stand by for the official word sometime next month." Jackson was a fringe candidate who took just 5 percent in the 2012 Senate primary, but thanks to a fire and brimstone speech before Republican convention goers in 2013, the ultra-conservatives who dominated the convention chose him as their nominee for lieutenant governor in 2013.
Jackson had a long history of offensive statements, and he made no effort to temper them during the campaign. Some of his worst quotes included comparing homosexuality to pedophilia, calling LGBT people "sick," accusing the Democratic Party of being "anti-God," and urging black Virginians to become Republicans so they don't "betray God." Jackson himself is black, but he recorded a video in 2012 where he he told "black Christians" that Planned Parenthood "has been far, far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was," and that the "Democrat Party [sic] and Planned Parenthood are partners in this genocide."
Jackson predictably went on to lose in a blowout in the 2013 general election to none other than Northam himself after Republicans largely gave up on winning that race. While Kaine is heavily favored next year, winning a landslide over someone truly doomed in the general like Jackson or Stewart won't do the GOP any favors in terms of turning out their voters, which could cost them in crucial House races. Republicans have smartly settled on a primary to pick their 2018 Senate nominee instead of a convention, but Stewart's near-victory in this year's primary shows even that is no silver bullet for getting a more mainstream conservative to win the nomination.