VA-05: Threading the needle in a GOP district
The Riggleman-Good fight laid bare fissures within the GOP, perhaps creating an opportunity for Democrats in a district Donald Trump won by 11 percentage points in 2016 but that could be a toss-up — if you believe internal Democratic polling leaked this past month to get the attention of the party’s donor class.
It’s not just Republican-on-Republican cannibalism that could help Good’s opponent, Cameron Webb. There’s an early 5-to-1 fundraising advantage for Webb that’s likely to diminish with big checks for Good from national Republicans. There are issues eroding Republican enthusiasm, including the COVID-19-wracked economy.
And there is the call of history.
Webb is a Black candidate running on a Democratic ticket with Kamala Harris, the first woman of color nominated for the vice presidency. These could be powerfully appealing in a district that, because of record Black turnout in 2008, dumped a conservative white Republican, Virgil Goode, for a liberal white Democrat, Tom Perriello, who cleaved himself to Barack Obama, who would become the nation’s first Black president.
“This district is not hard, all-in for Donald Trump, not hard, all-in for Joe Biden — it’s a purple district,” Webb said via Zoom. The GOP disagrees. The National Republican Congressional Committee in a snapshot of the campaign in July said Webb has “absolutely zero chance of winning.”
Riggleman is watching Good’s contest with Webb — a doctor-lawyer who teaches at the University of Virginia — from his home in mountainous Nelson County. Riggleman does not like what he sees.
Riggleman, who refused to endorse Good, is alarmed by Good’s introductory television commercial — one that links Webb to everything that should terrify Republicans in the Trump era: a government takeover of health care, post-George Floyd unrest and cutting police budgets.
Webb is punching back, running a commercial that includes sheriffs and prosecutors speaking on his behalf. Webb, the son of a DEA man, says Good, as a supervisor in Campbell County, backed a budget in 2016 that reduced spending on public safety.
https://richmond.com/news/schapiro-threading-the-needle-in-a-gop-district/article_f3e92bfd-931d-5c80-bf1c-1eee70c3f8ef.html