Despite the Washington Post‘s attempts to paint him as an anti-woman radical, Republican nominee for the House of Delegates 21st District John Stirrup of Prince William County makes a compelling case for his District to elect him to the open seat this November.
According to The Washington Post, “Stirrup told a woman who had approached him after a Republican primary debate on May 18th” … that he would … “support a 100 percent ban,” according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post. In another recording, made June 20, he told a man he met outside a polling place that “I’d like to see, you know, [a] total ban.”
Made surreptitiously by two abortion rights supporters posing as abortion foes, the recordings seem intended to pin Stirrup down on an issue that Republicans in some swing districts would like to sidestep but Democrats hope to make a rallying cry in Nov. 7 General Assembly elections.”
Balancing one’s personal views with the views of a constituency is a game that elected officials have to play often and well.
Stirrup’s remarks shouldn’t be seen as a backtrack, regardless of the attempts to paint him as a flip-flopper by the Post.
When a representative is elected, they are first nominated by their party, then elected most often by a majority coalition of a minimum of “50% plus 1”.
When the Post confronted Stirrup with the recordings, he “did not dispute the authenticity of the recordings, which his campaign said he was unaware of until contacted by The Post Wednesday. But he said in a text message to The Post that he does not expect to find support in Richmond for outlawing abortion entirely and that he would push instead to ban the procedure after 15 weeks, with some exceptions.
“I’m a practicing Catholic who believes in protecting life,” Stirrup wrote in the text message. “While there are differing opinions on this issue, I believe we can bring Virginians together around a consensus position to protect life at 15 weeks — when an unborn child can feel pain — with reasonable exceptions after that point for rape, incest, and life of the mother. This is a far more reasonable position than Democrats have staked out, which is one of no limits whatsoever at any time.”
When Representatives govern, they represent the entirety of their constituency, even those that do not vote them into office.
The Post also reported that “on the recordings, Stirrup calls the 15-week ban that Youngkin has pursued a more politically “acceptable” goal than an outright ban and “a starting point,” but he is also dismissive of that cutoff, saying it “really doesn’t save that many lives.”
That is even more of a reason to elect him, as thats a sign he is willing to put his personal beliefs aside for the good of all Virginians, present, and future.