Listen to “Virginia GOP Candidate Calls Dem Scandals ‘Insult to Dumpster Fires'” on Spreaker.
Campaign season is revving up in Virginia with all legislative seats on the ballot this year and a prominent Republican challenger is warning Virginia of what Democratic control of the commonwealth would look like while blasting state leaders for their current racism scandals.
Over the past three weeks, all three of Virginia’s statewide elected leaders found themselves mired in scandal. Gov. Ralph Northam gave a radio interview that seemed to condone infanticide and then was discovered to have a photo on his page of a medical school yearbook that showed one person in blackface and another in KKK dress.
Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax is accused of sexual assault by two women, and Attorney General Mark Herring admitted to wearing blackface in college just days after declaring Northam needed to step down.
D.J. Jordan is a longtime public relations expert on Capitol Hill and beyond. He is running to unseat first-term Democrat Elizabeth Guzman in Virginia’s 31st district. He says the Democrats have covered themselves in disgrace.
“I would call our executive branch leadership right now a dumpster fire but I think that would be an insult to dumpster fires,” said Jordan. “As a black conservative, I’ve been saying for a long time that Democrats don’t hold any moral authority on the issue of race. I think the nation is now seeing that in Virginia with Gov. Northam and his scandal.”
Jordan is especially galled by the Northam revelations following Northam’s aggressive labeling of Republican rival Ed Gillespie as a racist in the 2017 governor’s race “for things that were definitely not even close to racism.”
“Our country will never move forward on the issue of race unless we stop weaponizing race issues and actually create a different culture where we respect and trust each other,” said Jordan.
But Jordan says he’s mystified at how Northam has not gotten as much grief over his late-term abortion comments.
“I am disappointed that Northam’s blackface controversy has gotten more attention than his support for late-term abortion and infanticide. Both of these issues in my opinion are connected. They are both an assault against human dignity – racism and abortion,” said Jordan.
Removing abortion restrictions was just one bill pushed by Democrats earlier this year. They also called for numerous gun control measures, a $15 minimum wage, and a repeal of right to work laws. Jordan says the narrow GOP majorities in the legislature stopped all of those measures, but it will be a different story if Democrats control the legislature next year.
“All of the crazy left-leaning bills that you have seen that are introduced that have been stopped would become law next year,” said Jordan.
That’s why Jordan is running to unseat Guzman, who he says is simply too far left to properly represent the district.
“Elizabeth Guzman is very, very liberal. Her policies are very far to the left. She takes a lot of cues and direction from the national liberal progressive movement, whether it be introducing a bill to prohibit plastic straws in the state of Virginia or whether it be her belief in Medicare for all,” said Jordan.
Jordan says he’s running to stop the socialist mindset from gaining the upper hand in Virginia.
“I’m running to defend freedom and opportunity in Virginia. I believe the principles that helped my father escape poverty in the Tidewater area of Virginia – and then he went on to build a small business for himself and provide a life for me. I feel like those principles are under attack in Virginia,” said Jordan.
Calling himself an “opportunity conservative,” Jordan says he wants to champion education and economic opportunity. He says his earlier service on Virginia’s State Board of Social Services proved to him that endless government programs do not solve poverty.
“I saw a lot of policies that helped low-income people, but I saw way more policies that actually hurt poor people because it created government dependency,” said Jordan.
Listen to the full podcast to hear more of Jordan’s opportunity agenda, why he thinks Republicans can find a receptive audience among black voters if they make the effort, and why he thinks the 2019 elections in Virginia will not resemble the Democratic waves of 2017 and 2018.
