Smith supports Chase’s 2021 gubernatorial bid

RICHMOND, VA – Virginia Attorney General candidate Chuck Smith announced this week that he is supporting 11th District State Senator Amanda Chase in her 2021 gubernatorial bid.
Smith, a former chairman of the Virginia Beach Republican Party, said that after meeting with Sen. Chase on June 9, he “came away convinced that she has the qualities and courage to be elected Virginia’s next Governor and restore Virginia values.”

Smith stated in a written release, “We have just witnessed the most destructive session the General Assembly has ever perpetrated. The Republicans stood idly as our freedoms guaranteed by our Constitutions were assaulted day after day.”

Praising Sen. Chase, Smith stated, “I see in Sen. Amanda Chase a warrior spirit and ‘never give up attitude’ so lacking in the Republican representatives. She stood tall as her Republican colleagues cowered. They snickered as she carried her weapon openly after receiving death threats. After all, if you sit idly you do not have to worry about death threats.

Smith said he felt compelled to support Chase because her actions sent the message, “Bring it” while her Republican colleagues said, “Take it,” something Smith said he felt that the liberal majority did.

The 2021 Attorney General candidate went on to state, “They are taking the lives of the unborn; they are taking the integrity of our precious freedom of choice at the polls and were well on their way to taking our 2nd Amendment rights. It was at this point that Senator Chase and the VDCL joined forces on the Capitol grounds, a show of force that moderated the 2nd amendment assault.
The successful gun sanctuary movement throughout the state consolidated their efforts.

Senator Chase’s courage in standing her ground against a double-barreled assault from both political parties is legendary. Her example encourages me to work even harder to return Virginia to its rightful Constitutional place. Senator Chase can count on my support.”

The second-term senator, a member of the Virginia Senate for the 11th District, representing Amelia County, the city of Colonial Heights, and part of Chesterfield County. cited Democratic gun control proposals as one of the reasons she is running.

In 2016, Chase co-founded the Transparency Caucus with Del. Mark Levine, D-Alexandria, who this year sponsored the assault weapons ban. Though they disagree on the gun bill, Chase has lauded their past joint efforts to add transparency to the assembly’s procedures.

Other potential candidates for the Republican nomination include Pete Snyder, a technology and marketing executive who made an unsuccessful bid for the lieutenant governor nomination in 2013, and Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, who bowed out of the race for the 5th District GOP congressional nomination in 2018, saying then that he would consider a run for governor or attorney general in 2021.

State law prohibits Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, from running for re-election in 2021. Virginia is the only state that bars governors from seeking consecutive terms.