GOP Candidate Likens VA Coronavirus Plan To 'Communist Regime'

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — The four leading candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the 10th congressional district in Virginia, at an online video candidate forum Saturday night, denounced what they view as a move by the Democratic Party toward socialism and what they describe as the "fringe left" policies of incumbent Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D). The Fairfax County Republican Committee hosted the online forum.

The Republicans are not holding a primary to select a candidate to run against Wexton, who won election to her first term in Congress in 2018. Even before the coronavirus, the party had planned to hold a convention instead of a primary. But due to the coronavirus crisis, the 10th Congressional Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia has chosen to have a drive-thru convention to nominate its congressional candidate.

The convention will be held on June 20 at Shenandoah University in Winchester. The drive-thru voting will take place at the university from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. The 10th congressional district includes all of Clarke, Frederick and Loudoun counties and parts of Fairfax and Prince William counties.

At Saturday night's candidate forum, the Fairfax Republicans held 15-minute interviews with each candidate and then had an online Q&A segment. The candidates who participated in the forum were Rob Jones of Middleburg, Aliscia Andrews of Aldie, Jeff Dove of Manassas and Matt Truong of Fairfax County.

During the interview part of the forum, Truong accused elected leaders of improperly handling the coronavirus crisis, or what he calls the "CCP Virus" in reference to the Chinese Communist Party. During the forum, Truong said America's "mortal enemy" is the Chinese government.

As part of his anti-Chinese agenda, Truong said he wants to reduce the number of H1B1 visas offered to Chinese professionals to come work in the United States.

Truong also criticized how Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has tackled the coronavirus. He attacked the Northam administration's decision to close certain businesses but allow certain essential businesses to remain open, describing the state's strategy to contain the spread of the coronavirus as “communist regime” action.

"When you stand in line to get your groceries, that's socialism," he said. "Going back to work and not going back to work, that's socialism."

With regard to schools in Virginia and plans to reopen them, Truong said: "Having your kids go back to school and indoctrinating them and all that, that's socialism."

In a question about how socialism has lost its scare factor among many Americans, Truong said socialism has gained in popularity in the U.S., mostly among young people, because they don't understand it.

"When they hear socialism, they think that, well, we've got to be social, we've got to be kind, we've got to be gentle to people," Truong said. "That's totally wrong. Socialism means that the government, the party, owns everything."

Aliscia Andrews said she decided to seek the Republican nomination after seeing the "extremist left side of the aisle pushing so much of their crazy agenda onto us."

Andrews accused Northam of "abandoning the state of Virginia with anything morally right."

As for the protests against police brutality across the nation, the Republican candidates denounced the current movement. "Instead of defund the police, we need to defend the police," Truong said during the forum.

Andrews characterized the incumbent in the district, Wexton, as "so far left" because she sides with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) on many issues. During the Democratic presidential primaries, though, many supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign accused Pelosi of siding with centrist and more conservative Democratic candidates and criticized her for refusing to push for progressive policy changes such as Medicare for All.

Andrews said if elected to serve the 10th district, her main agenda will be focusing on economic issues that have been ignored by Wexton and her "fringe left" supporters.

Jeff Dove said President Donald Trump's victory in 2016 motivated him to run for office. "I feel like I'm the one who has the experience to go up against [Wexton] and take her down," he said.

Dove conceded that Democrats inside the 10th district have a strong grass roots apparatus. He said that Republicans have not done a good job with their "ground games" in terms of going door-to-door to speak with voters.

Dove denounced the protests in Manassas where police fired pepper spray on protesters. During the protests, some businesses were damaged. He said that Wexton has failed to denounce the protesters.

Rob Jones said his campaign will focus on using his background in the military to attract support.

Jones also outlined how his campaign will try to convince voters that Wexton's "socialist policies ... are going to be terrible for us." He said his strategy of labeling Wexton as a socialist has attracted the attention of Republicans like the White House Office of Political Affairs and the National Republican Congressional Committee. Jones said he is being looked at by these groups as a candidate they want to support.

Jones also described himself as a "law and order candidate," explaining that his policies on policing are why Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman endorsed him in the campaign.

"My opinion is we need to provide more funding for the police ... and they need political support from our representatives," he said.