The blast radius from the controversy surrounding Virginia’s Republican lieutenant governor candidate expanded this week, when a prime political aide to Gov. Glenn Youngkin stepped down from his put up. His departure was the most recent occasion in every week of turmoil that has pitted Republican leaders within the state in opposition to the GOP’s grassroots, upending a celebration that was already confronting a tough election yr.
The battle facilities on the political way forward for lieutenant governor candidate John Reid, who resisted every week of strain from some Virginia Republican Social gathering leaders to step apart over allegations that he maintained a social media account with sexually express pictures of males. Reid, the primary brazenly homosexual candidate for statewide workplace in Virginia, denied that he was linked to the pictures and has argued that efforts to take away him from the Republican ticket are rooted in discrimination in opposition to his sexual orientation.
When Republican Social gathering leaders in Virginia grew to become conscious of the pictures, some tried to power Reid out of the race. Youngkin requested Reid to drop out final week, confirmed by POLITICO. However the makes an attempt to oust him backfired. Matt Moran, who ran Youngkin’s political operation, stepped apart as he was accused of pressuring Reid to take away himself from the GOP ticket — one thing Moran has denied publicly.
Moran didn’t reply to a request for remark. A consultant for Youngkin pointed to feedback from the governor Friday the place he declined to say if he would marketing campaign on behalf of Reid however mentioned he’ll “support the nominees and their ticket. And at the end of the day, Republicans need to win. And that’s the bottom line.”
The fallout has created a rift throughout the state occasion because it faces an uphill battle in November. President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s battle on the federal workforce has hit onerous in a state the place greater than 150,000 federal staff stay. The controversy, Republicans conceded, may tarnish Youngkin’s efforts to place himself as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, and it’s extensively considered as a misstep.
“If John Reid is conservative and he’s being trashed by his own political party, you need to go out there and support him,” mentioned Scott Pio, who chairs the Loudoun County GOP, which has began promoting “In John Reid We Trust” mugs, with proceedings going towards Reid’s marketing campaign. “You need to lean in and support the guy instead of run away from him.”
One Virginia Republican operative, who like others on this article was granted anonymity to talk freely, shrugged off the pictures as “just a bunch of penises,” whereas one other mentioned of the episode, “This is insane.”
The second operative mentioned the day earlier than Moran’s departure grew to become public, “The only winners here are Democrats and then a bunch of losers who are Republicans and starting with the governor and going on down to the rest of the ticket.”
But GOP guide Rory Cooper dismissed the drama as a “purely Virginia thing” that has primarily captured the eye of political insiders and sure received’t have any impression on an election six months away.
“Candidate choice matters, the party being united matters, and I think they’ll get this stuff behind them because they really have no choice,” Cooper mentioned. “A fractured party is not going to be able to beat a moderate Democrat who has high favorables going into the general, and so they’ll figure it out.”
That message of unity seems to be echoed by Reid’s marketing campaign.
“John is proud to be the Republican nominee and he looks forward to campaigning across the state over the coming months,” Reid’s marketing campaign mentioned in an announcement. “He has been very clear that he welcomes the support of the governor, full ticket, and all Virginians who are committed to unity around our ticket and a positive future for our home.”
Worry that the controversy may weaken the GOP ticket just isn’t restricted to strategists contained in the GOP. Winsome Earle-Sears, the presumptive GOP gubernatorial nominee, in a public assertion Tuesday quoted from the E-book of Matthew and known as the concentrate on Reid a distraction from what she solid as a mission of uniting Virginians. “It is his race and his decision alone to move forward,” she mentioned. Earle-Sears didn’t reply to questions.
Earle-Sears, who authored a Christian self-help e book, holds socially conservative beliefs. In 2024, when fulfilling her duties as lieutenant governor to signal laws, she handwrote her private objections to a invoice that prohibits officers from denying marriage licenses based mostly on intercourse, gender or race.
Reid held a solo rally in Henrico, Virginia, on Wednesday night, after plans for Youngkin and all the GOP ticket to seem collectively have been scrapped. Going through a big crowd, Reid railed in opposition to the “Richmond swamp” that “does not like it when they encounter a different type of person who they can’t control.”
The truth that Reid is drawing fervent grassroots assist within the GOP represents one other marker within the ongoing populist transformation of a celebration that, for many years, made social conservatism and, specifically, opposition to same-sex marriage, a key a part of its platform. This shift, embodied by the election of Trump, a thrice-married New York actuality tv star, has led to Republican major voters focusing extra on “fighting” than on “family values.”
The try and oust Reid, and the turmoil that adopted, could partially be as a result of the operative class has not fairly caught as much as the grassroots on this problem. A 3rd Republican operative conversant in the state of affairs mentioned there was the sense that some Virginia Republicans have been panicked that Reid’s sexual orientation could be an electoral drag after which used the social media account to work backward and justify dropping him from the ticket.
U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Republican, mentioned that having a various GOP ticket — a Black lady, an brazenly homosexual man as effectively Lawyer Normal Jason Miyares, the son of a Cuban refugee — ought to assist Republicans’ odds in November. “That’s a good, feel-good story, no matter what,” he mentioned, referring to the candidates’ backgrounds. “And that story should override, assuming that those pictures aren’t a whole lot worse than it was depicted.”
On Thursday morning, Reid guest-hosted a four-hour conservative radio present, and a sequence of callers spent their morning bashing Youngkin and his allies. Reid, who mentioned he had secured the visitor spot earlier than he was requested to go away the race, was filling in for host John Fredericks, who described Reid as “a friend.”
“Everyone who is trying to come out against you really learned a lesson last night of what not to do,” mentioned a Virginia caller named Casey. One other caller went straight after Youngkin, calling the governor “nothing more than a RINO.”
The backlash doesn’t bode effectively for Youngkin, who’s term-limited within the state and in search of his subsequent alternative. How he navigates this case along with his personal state occasion may have main implications for his political future.
Reid’s solely major opponent, longtime Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity, dropped out of the race late final month as a consequence of well being issues, locking in Reid because the nominee.
“If you were that worried about (me being gay), why didn’t you run a bunch of other people?” Reid mentioned on the radio present Thursday morning.
However staying on the ticket is one factor. Successful in November is one other.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, who represents a part of Northern Virginia, mentioned it doesn’t matter who the GOP nominates for lieutenant governor, as a result of the Trump administration’s overhaul of the federal authorities has created a tricky atmosphere for down-ballot Republicans in a state the place many federal staff stay.
“Virginians are mad right now,” Subramanyam mentioned. “Whoever the Republican nominee is in November is going to pay a price for what’s going on in D.C. right now.”
Ally Mutnick contributed reporting.
