Disorganized Virginia Republicans Scramble to Capitalize on Democratic Scandals

The Republican Party isn’t immediately positioned to profit from its unexpected good fortune. The GOP’s state affiliate is in shambles, and the Trump campaign, although it has time to ramp up, isn’t entrenched on the ground. That could hinder Republican gains in upcoming elections, even as a Democratic meltdown loosens what appeared to be a liberal vise grip on Virginia voters.

“The state party is in no shape to take advantage of any of this,” said John Fredericks, a conservative talk radio host in southern Virginia who was chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign there. “But I’m going to make the case to the president’s 2020 team that Virginia is now a winnable state.”

Virginia politics was turned upside down this month when it was revealed Northam’s page on his mid-1980s medical school yearbook included a racist photograph of two people in costume, one dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member and the other wearing blackface. A few days later, Herring admitted to donning blackface as part of a costume, which also happened decades ago.

Read the full report from The Washington Examiner.