This Woman Wants To Be Governor of Virginia

The Virginia State Senate just censured Amanda Chase. The vote was bipartisan, 24-9, with several Republicans either voting "yea" or abstaining to signal their disapproval of her.

"Trump in High Heels,"
Amanda Chase.
Photo: Bob Brown, Richmond
Times-Dispatch

She's a long story. She was initially famous for wearing a .38 special on her hip in the Virginia Senate chamber. Check. You recognize her willingness to bully, right, as the hallmark of a Trumpist (even before there was a Trump on the national scene)? She especially savored, like Trump, defecating on the Republican "establishment." 

She was subsequently removed from three of her Senate committee posts last year "after her decision, in late 2019, to quit the Senate Republican Caucus to protest the reelection of caucus leaders who had criticized her after a string of controversies, including cursing at a Capitol Police officer over a parking spot."

A week ago she lost her last committee. The full Senate voted to dump her ass.

And now this. Censure, by a vote of 24-9, with at least eight fellow Republican senators aligned against her.

The censure resolution catalog: "Chase accused Democrats of 'treason' for their role in a 'stolen' presidential election; dismissed the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic; used social media to launch attacks on members of both parties that allegedly led to threats from the public; and said Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan (D-Richmond), who is also running for governor, couldn’t represent all Virginians because she helps lead the Black Caucus."

One of Chase's fellow Republican senators, who abstained from the vote, said that Chase's actions “represent to me a bit of a call for help, and I hope that she gets that help.”

 

She attended the Stop the Steal rally with President Trump at the Ellipse on January 6th but is said to have left before the storming of the Capitol. After she heard about the riot, she called the participants "patriots" and otherwise blamed all the violent acts on Antifa (who were presumably "in deep cover").

Shortly before the censure vote yesterday, and

at the urging of other lawmakers, Chase did, finally, denounce any white supremacists who might have had a role in the attack on the Capitol. And she said she was “sorry that I’ve hurt a lot of your feelings.”

But it was not enough to head off the vote.

 

Her Campaign for Governor

She first announced for the governorship almost a year ago, in February of 2020.  “I can’t take it anymore,” she said at the time, referring to “the liberal, socialistic agenda that has taken control of the Capitol.” Since then, she's expanded the things she can't take any more to establishment Republicans, and perhaps sensing that maybe she's a total longshot in a Republican primary, she says she'll run as an independent if the Republicans don't want her.

The Republicans of her Senate District 11 (mainly Chesterfield County, south of Richmond) seem to want her. They returned her to Richmond for a second 4-year term in 2019 with 54.5% of the vote. She attributes her staying power to being Trump "in heels" and plays to the authoritarian mindset: “People look at me and they say, ‘You know what? This girl’s got some brass balls,’ ” she said to laughs. “So you can throw whatever you want at me. ... I know with God, all things are possible and I won’t back down for anybody.”

As far as I can find, she has no campaign website (yet?), but she does have a Twitter account, where she suggests that we can best follow her on Parler.

Here's the Proposition and the Question

Looks like a purge of Trumpism by the Republican establishment in Virginia. If Virginia traditional Republicans get away with this, without suffering either physical or electoral damage, it would send a message to other Republican establishments in other purple-to-blue states that there really can be an end to "Trumpism" after all.