GOP Rep. Tom Garrett used a long and rambling Thursday press conference to announce that he would run for a second term in Virginia's 5th Congressional District after all. Garrett's declaration capped a very confusing 24 hours that began when his chief of staff quit and Politico reported that Garrett was thinking of dropping out of the race. The congressman soon only said he would not be resigning, and he promised to say more later. Republicans began openly speculating about whom local party leaders would pick to replace him.
Garrett began his speech by saying he had spent more time on it than he has “on anything in a long time” does because he wanted to “get this right,” and well ... maybe he should have hired an editor. Garrett spent several minutes talking about his work in the state Senate and in his one term in Congress and declared several times, "I did that," which left most viewers think he was about to declare he was leaving the political stage. But he instead went on to describe how furious he was that the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies made it difficult for University of Virginia women's basketball coach to adopt a young girl from Senegal and exclaimed, "This is the worst country in the world except for the other ones."
And he didn't stop there. Garrett, who frequently banged his speech against his hands, ranted about an unnamed person who considered challenging him whom he said called him "a cancer on our nation" and said that the real cancers were people who used that kind of vitriol. Garrett also complained that a would-be foe (it’s not clear if it's the same person) had lied and said he hadn't condemned the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, which is in his district.
Garrett continued and said that Thomas Jefferson was someone who "did bad things, but had good ideas," and talked about the civil rights movement. Garrett admitted that, "Yesterday, in frustration, I said I don’t know if I want to do this anymore," before declaring, "There's no way in heck I won't be back here in 2019."
GOP leaders may be wishing he had just left the stage and let them pick a new nominee. While this seat went from 53-46 Romney to 53-42 Trump, anonymous House Republicans have complained all year that Garrett has been not taking his re-election campaign seriously. Garrett has been a weak fundraiser, and Democratic nominee Leslie Cockburn held a $271,000 to $133,000 cash-on-hand edge over him in mid-April. Garrett admitted on Thursday that his fundraising hasn't been great, but said he'd post better numbers in the next quarter.