Richmond, VA — This year’s Virginia GOP primary has been full of chaos and infighting, extreme rhetoric, and brutal intraparty attacks — but one key thing is missing: debates. As Democrats prepare to hold the first of four gubernatorial debates, Virginia Republicans are still refusing to hold a debate and answer questions about their extreme, unpopular positions.

Virginia Republicans may simply be hiding from answering questions about the extreme views that define the GOP primary. After all, their positions are completely out of touch with Virginia:

• Opposing the American Rescue Plan’s crucial relief for working families, small businesses, schools, and communities across the Commonwealth — which they say “absolutely is wrong” and call “absolutely insane.”
• Dangerously advancing Donald Trump’s deranged election conspiracy theories and rhetoric.
• Opposing the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion, both of which have made Virginians safer and healthier. 
• Opposing marriage equality.
• Opposing historic efforts to protect Virginians’ sacred right to vote.

Maybe, however, Virginia Republicans are also hiding from talking about their disastrous, rigged primary. As reported by The Washington Post, Pete Snyder and his campaign have been working aggressively to rig the Virginia GOP primary. From paying off central committee members to blocking other candidates’ delegates from participating in the primary, Snyder and his team of paid political insiders have engineered such a rigged primary that Amanda Chase has declared she will run as an independent if Snyder is the nominee.

“The Virginia GOP primary has been defined by far right extremism and the ongoing fight to prove their support for Donald Trump,” said Manuel Bonder, DPVA spokesman. “These Republican candidates owe it to all Virginians to get on stage and answer questions about the extreme views they have espoused in this primary.”

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