Virginia’s GOP nominee for Governor, Glenn Youngkin endorsed the removal of Richmond’s 131-year-old Robert E. Lee Monument, while the GOP nominee for Lt. Governor, Winsome Sears, celebrated the statue’s destruction at the hands of far-left Governor Ralph Northam and the state’s Democrat packed Supreme Court. The reactions of the two candidates put them sharply at odds with Virginia’s grassroots GOP base, as well as with 45th President Donald J. Trump who praised General Lee in a statement blasting the statue’s removal.
A campaign spokesman for Gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin, who has been hounded with serious conservative credibility issues, reportedly told The Washington Post that Youngkin “agrees with the decision” to remove the statue, following a radio appearance in which the candidate suggested Lee’s monument be moved “someplace like a battlefield or a museum.”
Speaking with National File, a Youngkin spokesman reiterated the candidate’s support for removing Confederate monuments, though Youngkin says that local communities, not Richmond, should have the final say in the matter. “Glenn Youngkin believes these decisions should be made by the local community, not dictated from Richmond,” the spokesman said.
The campaign of Winsome Sears, the Republican Party of Virginia’s nominee for Lieutenant Governor, flat out celebrated the statue’s destruction, issuing a statement that parroted left-wing talking points and labeled General Robert E. Lee and Virginia’s Confederate heroes as oppressors.
“Today is the day where the historic symbols of Oppression [sic] by the Democratic Party are over,” said Sears spokesman Mike Allers, parroting the establishment Republican narrative that destruction of monuments represents destroying Democrat history. “We must move Virginia forward in a brand new inclusive direction full [of] opportunity and promise for ALL Virginians!”
Though some in the GOP base have been surprised by Youngkin’s most recent turn to the left, Winsome Sears has a history of being anti-monument, staging a write-in campaign in 2018 as part of an effort to upset pro-history GOP Senate nominee Corey Stewart, who made the defense of Virginia’s heritage a centerpiece of his campaign. According to Sears, no “true Republican” would support the existence of Southern heritage items and monuments.
Much like President Trump, who issued a scathing statement against the monument’s removal, America First conservative and candidate for Congress in Virginia’s 2nd District, Jarome Bell, blasted the erasure of Virginia and America’s history in a statement made to National File, while also pushing back on Youngkin, Sears, and other GOP establishment members, like his primary race opponent Jen Kiggans, who have sided with the radical left.
“The history of the United States, good or bad, is OUR history and it should never be hidden!” Bell told National File.
“It’s time to rid the Republican Party of the old GOP establishment and these RINOs,” said Bell. “Join my new conservative revolution of true America First patriots in order to save America from the Marxist and Communist take over we see happening right before our very eyes,” he continued before taking a jab at his opponent, Kiggans, and warning voters that he expects her to take a similar path as Youngkin and Sears when the going gets tough. “Jen Kiggans is a member of that group and a vote for her is a vote for Marxism and Communism. All you have to do is look at her state voting record.”
Bell then addressed the racial hysteria surrounding Confederate monuments and others, pushing back on the faux civil rights activists of the radical left who claim the existence of historical monuments is oppressive, instead drawing attention to the national disservice done to black children in public schools.
“I don’t think taking down a Robert E. Lee statue has anything to do with why little black boys and girls can’t read or do math on their grade level,” Bell said. “We are worrying about the wrong things.”