When announcing that this blog had endorsed Patrick Forrest for Virginia State Senate, I reported that when asked “if supporting an openly gay candidate like Forrest will hurt him or other Republicans in rural parts of Virginia“, the Commonwealth’s Republican governor responded “emphatically” in the negative,
. . . pointing out that “Patrick Forrest is all about creating jobs, controlling government spending. He’s a fiscal conservative. He has his finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the Fairfax and Arlington communities. He’s a great messenger for the fiscal conservative message and that’s what people care about right now.”
Forrest has done a great job uniting the diverse factions in the Virginia GOP. Not only has he won the backing of Governor Bob McDonnell, often seen as a social conservative, he has also won the endorsement of moderate former Congressman Tom Davis, who, in 1999, was the first member of the House Republican leadership to address a gay gathering.
Former Governor and U.S. Senator George Allen is also a supporter. He and his wife each organized a fundraiser for the openly gay Republican. Washington veterans like Congressman Frank Wolf, first elected with Ronald Reagan in 1980, as well as Republicans in Richmond have joined Forrest’s team, with Virginia Board of Education Vice President Dave Foster offering his endorsement.
Does seem that if a gay Republican supports a small government, pro-growth platform, he can win the support of leading Republicans. These conservatives are more concerned with his policies than his private life.
If you haven’t already, please join me by contributing to this fine man’s first bid for elective office. And if you live in Virginia’s 32nd Senate district, make sure to vote for Patrick Forrest tomorrow, Tuesday, November 8.
Impossible. ‘The Narrative’ says that Republicans hate Teh Gheys. And when has a Democrat narrative ever been completely at odds with reality?
What is an “everything is about being gay” Democrat to do? I suppose that it is only a matter of days before Patrick Forrest becomes a self-loathing gay and conservative fifth-columnist hellbent on leading the round up the gays and sending them off to some fundamentalist compound to be sexually reoriented.
Well gee, that destroys the aforementioned narrative–unless the pundits in the MFM do what they did to Herman Cain. The old–“Republicans who back Herman Cain are racist and that’s why they are behind Herman Cain”. Only in this case, it will be “the Republicans are homophobic because they are supporting the openly gay candidate”. Oh the intellectual hypocrisy and dissonance of the Left is astounding. I’m sure the Virginia local media is busy trying to dig up some dirt or some scurrilous accusation to smear on this guy. Liberals don’t like it when one of their peeps wander off the reservation or leave the plantation. Any minority or gay Republican is anathema and must be destroyed–personally.
Let’s not be so quick in maligning just the democrats. As this post says, conservatives are more concerned with his policies than his personal life. Unfortunately, not all conservatives. Every year we go through the embarrassment of banishing GOProud from CPAC because organizations like the Heritage Foundation don’t want a gay organization at the event. There is a strong conservative streak in many gay people. We should welcome them at events, as candidates and as friends.
Interesting. Pity that we aren’t in the same district.
Personally, I don’t consider those people conservatives. They are collectivists who view people as members of a group and not as individuals, just like leftists. Of course, having a group representing gay conservatives probably doesn’t help (because it is group).
I meant to say that GOProud is a group whose members share a characteristic that shouldn’t be relevant. That doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t relevant (at the moment), but it shouldn’t be.