Delegate Jason Miyares (R-Virginia Beach) — long considered a rising star among a new generation of conservatives — congratulated the Republican Party of Virginia for choosing a convention as its method of nomination today in a tight 39-35 vote.
It is now finally official. The Republicans will be nominating their statewide candidates next year by a convention. They will take up the matter of the logistics of the convention at a later date.
— Brandon Jarvis (@Jaaavis) December 5, 2020
The vote — contentious at times — signaled a reluctance to trust the Democratic-controlled Virginia Department of Elections the final say over the outcome of any primary contest, mostly in the wake of President Donald J. Trump’s legal disputes over the outcome of the 2020 presidential elections.
Miyares, who won in a historic first as a Cuban-American in 2015, was optimistic about the decision:
Meanwhile, State Senator Amanda Chase (I-Chesterfield) made good on threats to run as an independent should the Republican Party of Virginia choose not to run in a primary contest, stating that she would be running in an “independent primary contest” and begin gathering signatures in 2021.
As an independent candidate, Chase would be running in the general election and not in a primary contest — ostensibly against both the Democratic and Republican nominees — beginning with 10,000 signatures with a minimum of 400 in each congressional district.
At present, there are at least 15 different names being floated for statewide office in Virginia, with at least four notable candidates for the Republican nod for governor: former Speaker Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights), State Senator Emmett Hanger (R-Mount Solon), Disruptor Capital CEO and longtime conservative leader Pete Snyder, and newcomer and former Carlyle Group CEO Glenn Youngkin all either announced or close to doing so.
Delegate Tim Hugo is considering a run for lieutenant governor in what will almost be guaranteed to be a crowded field.
Other candidates are rumored to be in the hunt for Virginia’s top law enforcement officer against Democrat Mark Herring, whose enfeebled response from this progressive wing to “defund the police” are complicated by his own blackface scandal on par with that of Governor Ralph Northam.
Republicans in Virginia are optimistic not only for their chances to retake the House of Delegates this year, but also about their opportunities to capture statewide office for the first time since 2009 after Virginia Democrats limped through the COVID-19 pandemic response.