Senator Amanda Chase, candidate for the GOP nomination for governor, says she will run as an independent if Pete Snyder is nominated. Chase appeared on The Jeff Katz Show on Tuesday, where she said that the convention process selected by the Republican Party of Virginia is rigged.
“After all the conventions that I participated in for over a decade, I can tell you, that these conventions are rigged. It’s voter suppression,” Chase said.
“What I’m telling you is that if Pete Snyder is chosen as the nominee, I will probably run as an independent, because his campaign, and other campaigns feel this as well, they’re just not willing to be as vocal as I am, it is Pete Snyder’s campaign that is running a rigged election. And they have bought out a lot of the unit chairs across the state of Virginia,” Chase told Katz.
Katz said, “So just so we’re clear: so if Pete Snyder gets the nomination Amanda Chase definitely runs as an independent in November?”
Chase said, “Absolutely.”
Chase told Katz that the convention was rigged because RPV Legal Counsel Chris Marston is Snyder’s campaign treasurer. Marston provided technical guidance during the months of Zoom meetings where the RPV battled over the nominating process.
“He’s the referee for the State Central Committee. He is not a neutral arbiter,” Chase said. “Second thing: The unit chair of Craig County is a paid staff member of Pete Snyder’s campaign. In other words, my delegates, people who are supporting me, are turning in their delegate forms to a paid member of Pete Snyder‘s campaign. He was the acting unit chair.”
As another example, Chase said she was left off of an email distribution list. “I kept wondering, you know, ‘Why am I not getting invitations to these GOP meetings?’ The RPV political director left my name off. Intentionally or not, it happened,” she said.
“They are constantly trying to cripple my campaign,” she said. She told Katz that she already had enough signatures to run as an independent candidate.
“We had heard that she had collected signatures to run as an independent in November and I wanted to ask her about that,” Katz told The Virginia Star. “I followed up by asking her, ‘Are you going to hold to that pledge?’ In fact, she brought it up, the pledge that all of the Republican candidates signed that indicates that they will support the nominee even if it’s not them. And that’s when she said, well, she would, unless it were Pete Snyder, and then she would definitely run as an independent.”
“I was surprised,” Katz said.
“If in fact you were going to put yourself out and say, ‘I’m a Republican, I want the Republican nomination,’ and really at the same time say, “Oh, by the way, if this other guy wins, then it’s an indication that everything is rigged and then I’m going to run as an independent,” Katz said. “And of course, my fear, as I think many Republicans across the state, I think conservatives across the state would have the same fear, and that is if she runs as an independent, you’re taking other votes away from Republicans and you wind up handing everything back to the Democrats.”
The Jeff Katz Show appears on News Radio WRVA 96.1 FM and 1140 AM Monday through Friday from three to six p.m.
The Virginia Star Publisher John Fredericks said, “It’s irrelevant what your position is on Pete Snyder. Those people that want to vote for him should not be threatened. I would take the same position if she made the same statement against Glenn Youngkin, Kirk Cox, or Pete Snyder. This isn’t about Pete. It’s about threatening voters that might want to vote for the candidate of their choice with a third-party run. It’s outrageous beyond belief.”
The Snyder campaign did not return a request for comment by press time but Snyder supporter Martha Boneta told The Star, “Any candidate that vows to run as an independent in the general will destroy our chance of a Republican becoming Governor in Virginia. This behavior is very disappointing to us all. This is her fourth excuse for wanting to be an independent.”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Virginia Capitol” by Mike Fonseca CC2.0
