The War Between Virginia Republicans
It’s from the NYT, behind a paywall, so I’ll quote:
The Republican Party of Virginia has voted four times since December to nominate its candidates for this year’s statewide races at a convention instead of in a primary election. But in a sign of the Trumpian times of denial and dispute in the G.O.P., nearly half of the party’s top officials keep trying to reverse the results and get a primary.
The refusal of these Republicans to admit they have lost, or to agree on a set of nominating rules, has fractured a state party already in upheaval: Republicans haven’t won a statewide election since 2009, and they now find themselves with legislative minorities for the first time in a generation. Even the broken windows at the state party’s Richmond headquarters haven’t been fixed for months.
and from Tom Davis, who basically used to have Rep. Gerry Connolly’s northern VA seat, before the suburbs turned Blue
“It’s very much about not accepting the results and trying to change the rules and game the election,” said former Representative Tom Davis, a moderate Republican who won seven terms in Congress from a Northern Virginia district. “The reality now is even when Republicans pull together, they have a hard time winning, and when they’re divided, they have no shot of winning.”
What Davis is saying is that even in 100% Republican vs. Republican votes, the Trumpista GOP element still does not accept the election result, unless the “Own the Libs At All Costs” GOP faction wins. So the Virginia GOP is thrown into a state of paralysis, at this time unable to set a sure formula for their 2021 primary process for statewide elections.
Elements of the Virginia GOP have internalized a lesson Trump taught them: a vote is only valid if you like the outcome.
This whole thing is about the gubernatorial candidacy of Amanda Chase, the gun toting sociopath called “Trump in heels”. Who really has more in common with Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert than with Trump. In that her entire existence seems devoted to owning the libs.
I say this: I don’t want the GOP to nominate this woman for governor. After the 2016 election cycle and Don Trump, I will never for strategic reasons root for a GOP candidate I think is most likely to lose a general election again.
Breaking news Friday evening from the Washington Post:
Virginia Judge Rules Against Amanda Chase
Saying that Chase lacks standing to sue, so the possibility that the Virginia GOP will have a primary is now almost nil. Note that the Virginia GOP has settled on a course of less democracy in going with a convention. That being the only way for them to prevent the Trumpistas from nominating a sure loser for governor. There’s still a chance that the infighting combined with COVID restrictions will result in them not even having a convention, and just having the state committee pick the nominee, with no voter input at all.
That doesn’t sound like a formula to increase GOP turnout to me.