Virginia Republicans Oust Far Right Incumbent For Not Being Far Right Enough

Virginia's 5th congressional district-- 21 counties plus the blue cities of Charlottesville and Danville-- has a PVI of R+6... a tough race for Democrats, but not impossible, especially not in an anti-red wave cycle. Trump won the district in 2016, 53.4% to 42.3%. Two years later a progressive, Leslie Cockburn, won the nomination and the DCCC did what it always done when a progressive wins in a purple district-- told themselves only GOP-lite candidates can win and shut down the race. GOP groups like Club for Growth ($358,502), Paul Ryan's Congressional Leadership Fund ($$608,618), the NRCC ($95,000), the Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund ($320,051), FreedomWorks ($55,832), the NRA ($65,012) and a dozen other right-wing groups, poured over $1.5 million into the race. The DCCC and Pelosi's Super PAC responded with a very begrudging $48,000 and $10,000, respectively. Assholes! Cockburn still did better than Hillary had in the district (46.7%) but Denver Riggleman was elected.

This cycle the DCCC is pushing a very right-wing Blue Dog, Roger Dean Huffstetler, while EMILY's List is trying to buy the nomination for their own status quo candidate, Claire Russo ($356,961 in IEs so far). The progressives in the race are John Lesinski and Cameron Webb. Democrats will pick their candidate at a district convention a week from Wednesday (June 23). Meanwhile, the Republican district convention was Saturday.

Despite endorsements from Señor Trumpanzee and Jerry Falwell-- whose fake university is in the district-- Riggleman, a neo- fascist, was ousted in favor of a full on fascist, Bob Good, who won with 58% of the vote. Riggleman had become a target of lunatic fringe GOP hate-mongers after officiating a same-sex wedding last year. Good, who was endorsed by former Congressman Tom Garrett, seems to be running for a church position rather than for a political one. He seeks to end both birthright citizenship and LGBTQ equality and the "convention," which was held in the parking lot of a church, was filled with the kind of radicals and extremists who are turning the Republican Party into a irrelevant, anti-American, Confederate party. Lincoln must be rolling over in his grave!

After the convention concluded but before results were announced, Riggleman said his campaign had received unspecific reports of “voting irregularities” and “ballot stuffing.”

“We are evaluating all our options at this time,” Riggleman tweeted late Saturday night.

Good's response? "That’s what losers say."