In the end, John Reid just couldn’t outrun the political “blue wave” that crashed on the shores of Virginia on Tuesday. A radio host for Richmond-area talk station WRVA, Reid had sought to become Virginia’s lieutenant governor. He fell short to State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Richmond) by almost 11 points.
“We did not win tonight,” Reid said during his concession speech at an election night party in Glen Allen, Virginia. “I did not win tonight, but we did not lose this fight. The ‘Real Virginia Agenda’ was never about one campaign or one candidate. It’s about a movement for families, for freedom, and for the future of the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Throughout the race, polls showed Reid — the first out LGBTQ person in Virginia to earn a major party nomination for statewide office, a fact he downplayed — within striking distance of defeating Hashmi.
In a bid to draw attention, Reid — frustrated that Hashmi refused to join him for a televised debate — staged and live-streamed a debate with an AI-generated version of his Democratic opponent. Democrats mocked the stunt.
Reid — whom Gov. Glenn Youngkin had tried to push out of the race earlier this year after allegations that he’d reposted sexually explicit photos on a Tumblr account matching his social media handle — managed to weather attacks from both sides of the aisle.
Despite pressure from some Republicans to replace him with a more socially conservative firebrand appealing to right-wing Christians, Reid stayed in the race and kept the general election competitive.
But Reid’s refusal to engage in identity politics — downplaying the significance of his historic candidacy and missing an opportunity to set himself apart from the Republican “brand” on LGBTQ issues — may have ultimately hurt his ability to persuade voters to split their tickets.
Though he personally supports marriage equality, Reid defended fellow candidate Winsome Earle-Sears’ opposition to it and pledged to vote against allowing a measure to repeal Virginia’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage from appearing on next year’s midterm ballot if called on to break a tie in the Senate, where he would have presided as lieutenant governor.
Reid adopted a more nuanced stance on transgender issues — at least compared with most Republicans, including former President Trump — acknowledging that transgender identity is real and that adults should be allowed to transition. However, he opposed allowing minors to access gender-affirming care and called for sports teams to be divided by sex assigned at birth.
But in the end, Abigail Spanberger’s 15-point rout of Lt. Gov. Earle-Sears in the governor’s race sealed Reid’s fate. He needed a sizable number of crossover voters who backed Spanberger to also support him. But with Virginians reeling from the ongoing government shutdown and widespread furloughs of federal workers — and anti-incumbent anger largely aimed at the party in the White House — that task would have been nearly impossible for any Republican.
Some Monday-morning quarterbacks — particularly the social conservatives who tried to push him out of the race — may argue that Reid was a flawed candidate. But the tight polls until the campaign’s final week, along with his steady defense of fellow Republicans, suggest he was a loyal team player — if an underappreciated one — to the end.
Reid closed his concession speech by vowing to keep fighting for conservative values.
“I am not packing up, and we are not going away,” he said. “Tomorrow, I will get up, just like I always do, and we will go back to our jobs and our families, our schools and churches. We’ll roll up our sleeves and keep fighting for the values that make our Commonwealth strong — for the Commonwealth of Virginia that raised us. So please do not walk out of here hanging your heads tonight. I’m not going to.”
Oregon State Rep. Cyrus Javadi announced last Friday that he's switching from the Republican to the Democratic Party, blasting GOP leaders for obstructing legislation that would have benefited his constituents and for pursuing an anti-LGBTQ agenda that "isolates minority communities when politically convenient."
Javadi, who confirmed on Substack he will seek re-election next year as a Democrat, boosts his new party's margin in the Oregon House to 37 seats out of 60.
In his Substack post, Javadi said Republicans blocked his efforts to help his district at every turn, prioritizing opposition to Democratic bills as a strategy rather than judging proposals on their merits.
The Netherlands has elected an openly gay prime minister -- and its youngest ever -- following a surprise political upset.
Rob Jetten, 38, made history when his centrist-liberal D66 party defeated right-wing populist Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom. Wilders, an anti-immigration firebrand and longtime EU skeptic, had been heavily favored to win. But D66 ran up margins in the country’s major cities to overcome his lead, reported the BBC.
“We are the biggest party in the Netherlands! Now we’ll get to work for all Dutch people,” Jetten wrote on X.
President Donald Trump has commuted the 87-month prison sentence of former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), the openly gay congressman who pleaded guilty in August 2024 to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
By commuting his sentence, Trump allows the 37-year-old former congressman to walk free and resume his life. Before his imprisonment, Santos had been earning money on Cameo, charging up to $350 for personalized video messages -- from birthday greetings to shout-outs for special occasions.
Elected in 2022 amid a Republican "wave" in New York, the one-term congressman admitted to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of nearly a dozen people -- including relatives -- to fund his campaign.
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