Free Republic

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., will resign shortly as chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the chamber’s most conservative members, after losing his primary election. Good told reporters Monday that he had submitted his resignation to the caucus board, but didn’t provide a timeline for his official resignation as chairman. Sources familiar with the matter, however, told news outlets that Good’s resignation would become official by week’s end. In June, Good lost his primary in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District to his challenger, state Sen. John McGuire. McGuire had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump working on his...

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R) filed paperwork this week to run for governor next year in the state. Sears’s paperwork was accepted by Virginia’s Department of Elections on Wednesday, according to Nexstar’s Richmond affiliate WRIC. The Hill is owned by Nexstar Media Group. The development comes after Sears’s team said on Wednesday she would be making a “special announcement” in Virginia Beach on Thursday. Sears is the first Republican to jump into the off-year race that will likely dominate campaign news next year. Late last year, Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) launched her own campaign for the governor’s mansion. The...

Whole Woman’s Health, an abortion chain known for its widespread health and safety violations, has quietly opened a new facility in Virginia, hoping to be a mecca for abortion-seeking women in the South. Noting that many southern states have laws protecting preborn children, Amy Hagstrom Miller — the owner, founder, and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health — said her business is looking to attract abortion-minded women. “We didn’t open this only because of Florida,” she said in an interview with the Guardian. “We opened this clinic because we know how many people are traveling from the region.” In 2022, Roe...

Last week, two polls revealed that the Virginia election is a tight race within the margin of error. Roanoke College poll showed Kamala Harris leading Trump by just three points, a finding echoed by Quantus poll with the same narrow margin. Virginia, a traditionally blue state that last went Republican in the 2004 presidential election, was looking like a potential Trump pickup before Biden dropped out, however conventional wisdom was that with Kamala Harris topping the ticket, Virginia was no longer in play. That's clearly not true. Is another blue state that looked good for Trump before Biden dropped out...

A photography-related "incident" occurred at Arlington National Cemetery Monday during a visit by former President Donald Trump, leading to a report being filed, the cemetery said in a statement to ABC News. While the cemetery did not immediately provide specifics, NPR reported that a source had told the publication that two Trump campaign officials engaged in a verbal and physical altercation with a cemetery staff member during Trump's visit, which came on the third anniversary of the deaths of 13 service members during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The alleged altercation took place after the Trump campaign officials were asked...

The driver whose vehicle was rear-ended by U.S. Sen. John Fetterman is now sharing her account of what happened. Jennifer Campbell, 62, of Virginia, spoke about the collision in Maryland in a statement from her lawyer. Campbell said she was driving westbound on Interstate 70 in Washington County on June 9. She saw an SUV rapidly approaching behind her and braced for the impact. Her car ended up on the shoulder. The vehicle was severely damaged, with the trunk compressed into the back seat area. Campbell said Fetterman approached her after the crash to check if she was OK. She...

FALLS MILLS, Va. (WVVA) - A Good Samaritan shot a wanted man attempting to carjack a woman and her child on Friday. According to Major Harold Heatley with the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office, the incident happened at Lee’s Kar-Go when the suspect, identified as Cody Dailey, 30, “attempted to carjack a truck, assaulted the female driver of the vehicle and told her child that was in the vehicle, ‘I’m going to rape your mommy.’” Multiple citizens heard the victim screaming and came to her aid, and one of those citizens was armed with his 9mm handgun. The armed Good Samaritan...

The presidential campaign of Dr. Cornel West announced on Monday that it collected enough signatures to qualify for the Virginia state ballot. While the campaign did not specify the exact number collected, it said that it had surpassed the required threshold. In a press release, the campaign praised its volunteers for their efforts in collecting the signatures, with West’s vice presidential candidate, Dr. Melina Abdullah, calling it “a demonstration of the power of organized people.” Virginia requires independent presidential candidates to gather a minimum of 5,000 valid signatures to qualify for the general election ballot. The deadline to file the...

Naresh Bhatt, charged last week with a felony count of prohibition against concealment of a dead body after his wife went missing, will be held without bond. His wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, 28, went missing on July 31. The judge in the case found probable cause that Bhatt is a flight risk and a danger to the community, during a bond hearing Monday morning. During Friday’s arraignment, Prince William County Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Sarah Sami revealed new details about the case against Naresh Bhatt, including evidence of blood found in the main bedroom and shower of the Manassas Park...

Quantus Polls and News conducted a survey among 629 registered voters in Virginia between August 20 and 22, 2024. The survey, with a margin of error of ±4%, was carefully weighted to reflect the statewide voter demographics, including gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, voter registration, and turnout patterns. Using online panels, the survey aimed to provide a representative snapshot of the Virginia electorate's current preferences and opinions as the 2024 general election approaches. Electorate Demographics The weighted results of the survey reveal the following demographic breakdown: 36% of respondents identify as Democrats, 34% as Republicans, and 30% as Independents. The gender...

A long-awaited psychiatric evaluation showed “shopping cart killer” suspect Anthony Eugene Robinson wasn’t criminally insane when he allegedly killed and disposed of the bodies of two women in Harrisonburg, Virginia, WTOP has learned. Robinson is also suspected in two deaths in Fairfax County and one in D.C. — but hasn’t been charged in those cases. Defense attorney Louis Nagy says the psychiatric evaluation, ordered by a Rockingham County Circuit Court judge, in 2022, “was not helpful,” as he considered an insanity defense. On Sept. 23, Robinson is set to begin a five-day first-degree murder trial in the death of 39-year-old...

Polling out of Virginia shows Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump within the margin of error against Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. Before the Democrats executed their coup, Trump had jumped to a small lead over His Fraudulency Joe Biden in Virginia. With Biden out of the race, it was assumed (even by me) that Virginia would suddenly be out of Trump’s reach. It’s not, and the pollster, Roanoke, is not a right-leaning poll. In 2020, in the final poll of that presidential campaign, Roanoke had Biden up by 11. In the end, we were told Biden...

During an interview with CBS News on Monday, Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA) responded to criticisms of 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’ “price gouging” proposal by stating that when Democrats are in the White House, “costs go down.” Host Lindsey Reiser asked, “Harris is receiving some criticism for her economic proposals unveiled Friday, particularly when it comes to the proposed federal price gouging ban. The Washington Post editorial board published an op-ed saying, ‘The times demand serious economic ideas. Harris supplies gimmicks.’ Economist Jason Furman, who was in the Obama administration, told [The New York Times], ‘I think...

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's revenge tour is sputtering to an end this week, with just one primary win to show for it. Why it matters: McCarthy's former colleagues complain he's effectively lit millions of dollars on fire and made it harder for new leaders to do their jobs. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is expected to win easily on Tuesday despite a McCarthy-linked PAC spending more than $3 million against him. "McCarthy thinks about me a lot more than I think about him," Gaetz told us. Between the lines: Multiple House Republicans and senior staff took issue with McCarthy's public...

A former advisor to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claims his Virginia home was raided by FBI agents this week. Dimitri Simes, whose name came up over 130 times in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 report into Russian interference in the presidential election, told the Rappahannock News he was out of the U.S. and wasn’t notified ahead of Tuesday’s search. He also insisted he’s not aware of being the focus of any law-enforcement investigation. ... The raid “clearly is an attempt to intimidate, not only somebody from Russia, but just anyone who goes against official policies and particularly against...

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin took a public victory lap this week, claiming credit for managing the Old Dominion’s budget into a $1 billion surplus. In his annual Joint Money Committee Address before the Commonwealth’s relevant legislative committees, Youngkin, a Republican, laid out how, in recent years, most of the surrounding states’ growth had become attractive to longtime Virginians. Youngkin began by greeting the Democratic committee chairs: House Appropriations Chair Luke Torian of Prince William, House Finance Chair Vivian Watts of Fairfax and Senate President L. Louise Lucas, who serves as the upper chamber’s finance chairwoman. "Our neighbors in North Carolina,...

PETERSBURG, Va. (WRIC) — Four people were shot on Virginia State University’s campus Wednesday in the early hours. According to the Chesterfield County Police Department, at 12:36 a.m., officers responded to a reported shooting outside the university’s Daniel Gymnasium. When officers arrived, they found four people shot. All four were taken to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. Police say that no one involved in the shooting was a student, and no officers fired shots during the shooting. Multiple suspects have been identified by police, and charges are pending, though officials have not clarified the number of suspects.

County police are investigating an apparent burglary at the Trump for President 2024 campaign office in Virginia on Sunday. The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said the burglary took place at Trump’s campaign office in Ashburn, Virginia.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has issued an executive order to require all votes for the upcoming November election be cast with a paper ballot. Executive Order 35, signed on Wednesday, codifies the election security procedures put into place during Youngkin’s administration. The order outlines several election integrity requirements, including a “documented chain of custody” wherein ballots will be tracked through “every step of the process,” and that no voting machines will be used — just paper ballot-counting machines that are not connected to the internet. EO 35 also instructs the state’s Department of Elections to remove “non-citizens who may...

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order on Wednesday with the goal of establishing better election integrity in the state. The order calls for the exclusion of “noncitizens,” whom many refer to as foreign nationals or illegal aliens, while establishing better procedures to prosecute them. Executive Order 35, which was issued by Youngkin’s office, codifies election integrity in the state through a number of measures. These include improved voter machine testing, stricter ballot security protocols, and voter-list maintenance that fully detects and eliminates noncitizens from the voter registers. The action expands on his administration’s past attempts to maintain election...