Chase Concedes; Snyder Confident After RPV Convention
State Sen. Amanda Chase (I-Chesterfield) threatens third party run after conceding race on Twitter.
State Senator Amanda Chase (I-Chesterfield) is the first of the GOP candidates to concede the gubernatorial contest to Pete Snyder by means of fusillade, threatening a third-party run due to “clear corruption” should the election go Snyder’s way.
Clearly there is a great deal of anger here. And perhaps a confession of sorts that Chase knew she wasn’t going into this convention with either strength or confidence in her ability to turn out.
But it’s not the anger of someone who had something stolen from them. This tweet alone is a violation of the RPV Party Plan. This is someone who refuses to accept any outcome other than the one that anoints them as a victor — Republicans don’t behave like Democrats.
Bottom line? Republicans want a winner over a candidate who merely wants to fight.
84.56% of all Republicans want a candidate that can win.
Everything else is whining and a failure to commit to the process of fair play.
What The Early Numbers Are Telling Us
Heck if I know.
What we do know is that turnout was about 31,000 — much lower than the expected 40,000 many believed Youngkin and Chase would bring to the fight.
It just never happened.
Meanwhile, Snyder spent the moments after the convention revving up supporters and closing out strong with all the confidence of a frontrunner:
If you must prognosticate, the low turnout numbers suggest that Youngkin and Chase underperformed, while Snyder and Cox hit their targets. Add to it the fact that the weighted votes in the western parts of Virginia — where votes are harder to come by and where connections and relationships matter — all give advantages to Snyder.
Stack onto this the fact that Snyder turned in 17K delegate prefiles to Youngkin’s 18K and Cox’s 9K? As TRS polling indicated, Snyder and Cox simply had more outs whereas Youngkin and Chase had one path forward — brute force of numbers.
RPV Begins Counting AG Votes TOMORROW
So how are we going to find out who won?
RPV will be counting delegate votes starting tomorrow (Mother’s Day) at 1pm at the Richmond Marriott.
While this may sound a tiny bit frustrating, there is a great deal of logic behind it — first and foremost of which is that if there are any bugs on process? We will get to the bottom of it quickly with observers ensuring ballot integrity the entire way.
Chairman Rich Anderson — who has organized one of the most chaotic moments in modern history for the Republican Party of Virginia — is leading with a great deal of confidence that the vote tally will be fair, disciplined and transparent to all parties:
Meanwhile, the Democrats are pouncing on Chase’s early concession (or at least trying to). Republicans in contrast are starting to turn the guns back out where they belong, with Critical Race Theory, a crippled economy, “defunding our police” and five months of riots having gone unanswered for.
Hope you’re ready for this election.
Lest it needs to be repeated? Thank you.
You have put up with slicks, advertisements, endorsements, television and radio ads, positive campaigning, negative campaigning, attacks from the media, mocking from the left and all sorts of shenanigans.
Virginia Republicans are in a tough spot, no question. But with polling showing the generic ballot having slipped to a mere D+2 rather than the D+12 we faced in 2017? We are on the cusp of a George Allen ‘93 resurgency because of your resilience.
Now we move forward TOGETHER.
One Team; One Fight.
Shaun Kenney is the editor of The Republican Standard, former chairman of the Board of Supervisors for Fluvanna County, and a former executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia.