This is hilarious:
A severe case of buyer’s remorse appears to have set in among some conservatives over electing Glenn Youngkin as the next Republican governor of Virginia.
Over the past week, outrage has bubbled over among right-wingers and TrumpWorld allies alike, who are under the impression Youngkin has insufficient MAGA loyalty, citing his hiring of an LGBTQ staffer and his refusal to block COVID-related local mandates.
The hits started pouring in against the fleece-clad governor-elect earlier this week after he declared he would not attempt to block local vaccine and mask mandates across the Old Dominion—a break from more hardcore Republican governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis.
Right-wing media figures almost immediately began publicly bashing the governor-elect. Judicial Watch founder Tom Fitton railed against Youngkin for refusing to stand up against “abusive” mask mandates, while right-wing outlet The Federalist tossed him under the bus for not being a “strong conservative governor.”
Right-wing talk radio hosts fumed as well. John Fredericks, who hosts a radio show on fringe channel Real America’s Voice, suggested Youngkin had turned on the Trump base that helped elect him. “Two weeks, post his election, here we go: Once again with another RINO alert,” he declared, accusing the millionaire Virginia gubernatorial victor of being a “Republican In Name Only.” Fredericks proceeded to slam Youngkin over only appearing on his radio program when he “needed” votes from the Steve Bannon sidekick’s hardcore MAGA fan base.
Elsewhere, right-wingers turned on Youngkin for the offense of having a staffer who identifies as part of the LGBTQ community.
Joshua Marin-Mora, a recent Georgetown University graduate turned Youngkin press assistant, faced a flurry of right-wing hate this week over “he/him” pronouns displayed in his Twitter bio.
“So, Youngkin chose a guy with pronouns in his bio to do his comms who also served on the Georgetown Latinx Leadership Forum and supports virtually everything Youngkin's voters voted against,” blared Pedro L. Gonzalez, a writer for the influential conservative think tank Claremont Institute, in a series of tweets. When other Twitter users unearthed pictures of Marin-Mora wearing LGBTQ Pride clothing, Gonzalez snarled, “The new GOP is actually worse than the old GOP.”
The lengthy thread attacking Marin-Mora was elevated by the likes of Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec and far-right activist Lauren Witzke, while notably Fox News contributor Guy Benson came to the young staffer’s defense, writing that the staffer is “Latino & LGBTQ [and] holds some heterodox political views (as do most of us) but is proudly center-right. And he worked his ass off to help Youngkin beat McAuliffe, especially among Hispanics. Good hire by Glenn.”
Nevertheless, the existence of Marin-Mora on Youngkin’s team was enough for Gonzalez to declare that the incoming governor “is sinking the knife into people's backs.” And former Newsmax host John Cardillo lamented that the LGTBQ staffer was proof that “Youngkin will turn out to be another establishment disappointment.”
Friendly reminder, the MAGA base didn’t pick Youngkin as their nominee. The GOP Establishment did:
An estimated 54,000 delegates will choose a nominee for the Republican candidate for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general at the 2021 Virginia GOP Convention on May 8.
“I think Republicans are ready to start winning again,” said Rich Anderson, Virginia GOP Chairman.
There will be 39 polling locations across Virginia on Saturday, but only those who have pre-registered as a delegate can go and vote. Those who wanted to be a delegate for this convention applied through 126 local GOP committees. Delegates can vote between 9 a.m. and 4 pm. Anderson says those still in line after 4 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
“Kind of the old-fashioned way of doing it and the reason is number one, our candidates and campaigns wanted to do it. Number two, many rank and file members of the party had asked we considered doing that,” said Anderson.
We also still have a chance to block Youngkin from enforcing his agenda:
Control of Virginia's House of Delegates comes down to two races in Virginia Beach and the Peninsula.
While Republicans have so far claimed 50 seats, state-funded recounts are on the way for Districts 85 and 91, which both fall under a differential of less than half a percent.
"Holiday season's coming up pretty quickly, so there is a lot of time pressure on us to get this recount completed," said Jeff Marks, chair of the Virginia Beach Electoral Board.
Delegates Alex Askew and Martha Mugler-- both Democrats -- officially announced Tuesday they'll file petitions for recounts from the November election.
As it stands, Askew trails opponent Karen Greenhalgh by 127 votes, and Mugler trails A.C. Cordoza by even less: 94 votes.
With the vote count in both those races being so close, it could flip either way but we have to be ready. Click below to donate and get involved with the recount efforts for these two Virginia Democrats:
Martha Mugler
Alex Askew
