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In first campaign appearance after Youngkin’s attempted ouster, Reid wins applause from Republicans in Abingdon
On John Reid’s first campaign stop since Gov. Glenn Youngkin called for him to step out of the lieutenant governor’s race over nude photos on a disputed social media site, the Republican candidate said he is “doubling down” on running and won applause from a crowd in Abingdon. “I figure if I can’t fight for myself publicly, loudly and boldly how are you ever going to believe that I will fight for you? So that’s my plan going forward,” he said.
Youngkin asks Richmond radio host John Reid to withdraw from lieutenant governor race
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has asked Richmond-area radio host John Reid to withdraw as the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor after GOP researchers found sexually explicit posts online that they believe are connected to Reid, according to two sources familiar with the situation. Youngkin called Reid, the former host of a conservative talk show on WRVA, on Friday morning to ask him to drop out, the sources said. In a statement to The Richmonder, Reid denied that the images are connected to him. He confirmed that the governor called him Friday and said “there were salacious pictures on the internet reposted by an account that uses my Instagram handle.”
Virginia GOP candidate for lieutenant governor says he won’t exit race despite governor’s push
Republican John Reid said Friday he will continue his campaign to be Virginia’s lieutenant governor and denied he had anything to do with a social media account containing sexually explicit photos that had prompted GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin to call for him to quit the race. Reid, the first openly gay man to run statewide in Virginia and a supporter of Youngkin, posted a video response to the governor’s attempt to stymie his candidacy after the governor learned of the photos on a Tumblr account with a username matching the candidate’s Instagram handle. Reid said the account was a fabrication that comes as he grapples with increasing pressure to exit the race by members of his party.
Richmond Council’s limits on public comment likely violate First Amendment, lawyers say
Speaking during City Council’s April 14 public comment period, Egon Shroud invoked J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. “When he who shall not be named walked through (Westover Hills Elementary School) earlier this year, he learned … our staff work hard to get kids reading,” said Shroud, a Richmond Public Schools teacher arguing for higher pay for herself and her colleagues. “What he doesn’t know is that we have teachers getting hit, kicked, spit on and cursed out daily.” By “he who must not be named” — the alias for Rowling’s infamous villain, Voldemort — Shroud meant Mayor Danny Avula. But she couldn’t say that due to City Council’s rules of procedure ...
Could lieutenant governor furor give Republicans a do-over on N.Va. candidate?
Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity knows that his decision to drop out of the Republican primary for lieutenant governor won’t help his party in elections this year in Northern Virginia, a region deep in voters and economic challenges under President Donald Trump. Herrity, a five-term supervisor whose father, Jack Herrity, once dominated Fairfax and regional politics, withdrew from the race on Monday because of the lingering effects of heart surgery. It was a tough decision that he said was made more difficult by some conservative Republicans’ concerns about the alternative — John Reid, a longtime Richmond radio host who is openly gay with a longtime male partner.
Locke: Proposed SNAP cuts would leave Hampton Roads families hungry
Last month I spoke at a press conference at which Tamika Spears of Richmond shared how the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps her feed her children. Her family would be devastated if their food benefits were taken away, but a Republican-led budget blueprint making its way through Congress could do just that. Republicans are advancing a budget resolution that calls for massive cuts — up to $230 billion in cuts to SNAP over the next 10 years — to pay for massive tax handouts for the nation’s wealthiest individuals.
Yancey: Youngkin wants Reid out over disputed nude photos; Reid blames GOP ‘radicals.’ Here’s what to know.
One of the seven candidates for lieutenant governor took to social media Friday to criticize “radicals” in the Republican Party and say that he “deeply resent[s]” something that Gov. Glenn Youngkin has done. It wasn’t one of the six Democrats. Instead, it was John Reid, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor who now suddenly finds himself at odds with Youngkin, who wants Reid off the ticket, and, perhaps some members of the party’s Christian conservative base.
Williams: As Trump erases history, University of Richmond lays bare its own
To consecrate is to make something sacred — a bold act in a nation where lies are the currency of the moment and nothing, not even the Constitution, is inviolable. But consecration was the order of the day Wednesday at the dedication of a Burying Ground memorial in remembrance of those enslaved and laid to rest on the land that would become the University of Richmond campus.
Schapiro: Virginia GOP betting on a DEI ticket?
The GOP is OK with DEI after all. How else does one explain a 2025 Virginia Republican ticket led by a Black, Jamaica-born woman and rounded out with a gay man from a former white-flight Richmond suburb and the son of a Cuban refugee? Win or lose, it would be a history-making slate. But that it’s multi-hued, multi-cultural, multi-gender, multi-sexually oriented — even in a blue-trending, suburban-dominated state increasingly accepting of such distinctions — may mean little this year. That’s because of President Donald Trump.
Flouting Virginia’s open government law breaks public trust
There are two ways in which the Virginia Freedom of Information Act helps shape government in the commonwealth. The first is the letter of the law, which entails the specifics and procedures required of public bodies when they hold meetings and determine what records should be available for citizen review. The second is the spirit of the law, which is set forth clearly in the act’s preamble: “The affairs of government are not intended to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy since at all times the public is to be the beneficiary of any action taken at any level of government.”