A former Republican candidate for lieutenant governor who said internal sabotage cost him a spot on the primary ballot, announced Monday he is re-entering the race but this time as a GOP-aligned write-in.
“Today, I am announcing my WRITE-IN campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia as a Republican,” John Curran said in a statement. “My decision is not to split the ticket but to save it.”
John Curran’s announcement reignites tensions in a turbulent race following his exit in April, when he failed to qualify for the ballot despite claiming to have far surpassed the 10,000-signature requirement.
“Unfortunately, a person(s) associated with my campaign conspired to steal most of my signatures and then attempted to extort money for them,” Curran wrote in a Facebook post after the filing deadline passed. “Disappointingly, the Virginia Department of Elections and the Republican Party of Virginia did nothing to correct this wrong.”
Mark Peake, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, dismissed Curran’s write-in bid as entirely unofficial, distancing the party from his campaign according to Virginia Mercury.
“He is not running under the GOP banner whatsoever,” Peake said. “We have a GOP candidate, and that’s John Reid. He failed to get enough signatures to get on the ballot,” he said. “He is 100% not a Republican candidate in this upcoming election.”
Andrea Gaines, a spokeswoman for the department, confirmed in an email that since write-in candidates do not appear on the ballot, “they do not have party affiliation.”
Curran said in his statement that his campaign is fueled by “grassroots organizations, religious and family groups, and collegiate groups” and not designed to divide the party. But by positioning himself as an alternative to Reid, the GOP’s official nominee, he risks deepening an already visible rift within the party.
Reid, a conservative commentator and longtime Richmond radio host, became the GOP’s nominee by default after Pat Herrity, a longtime member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, dropped out for health reasons.