State Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield), a Republican gubernatorial candidate for 2021, called the Democratic Party of Virginia racist and said that the group hates white people.
On Friday night, Chase posted the statement to her Facebook page in response to an article about Virginia Democrats calling for Richmond General Registrar J. Kirk Showalter to either be removed from the position or to resign on her own.
“Make no mistake. The Virginia Democratic Party is racist to its core,” Chase wrote. “The Democratic Party of Virginia has asked for Richmond’s voter registrar to quit or be fired. They hate white people. They want the Richmond registrar to resign because she’s white.”
In a phone interview on Monday night, Chase doubled-down on her comments.
“I do think they are a racist party, I totally stand by my comments,” Chase told The Virginia Star.
“Listen, I’m just going to speak the truth,” Chase said. “It may not be politically correct and I know that there are some people in my party that can’t handle the truth, but that is the truth.”
Chase also said that she is using the platform of running for governor to speak her mind and will continue to do so regardless of whether or not that leads to votes come election time.
Sen. Emmett Hanger (R-Augusta), who is mulling a run for governor, said Chase’s statement was not quite fair.
“That’s a pretty broad statement and I would say Amanda, she is a colleague in the Senate and I get along with her fine, has a knack for making statements that make people notice I suppose,” Hanger said in an interview with The Star. “Of course the race issue is very relevant obviously nationally and here in Virginia and it’s something we all need to pay attention to, certainly in politics but also in everyday life.”
“I think that is just a broad generalization to make a statement like that because, while people of all races, creeds and political persuasions can have various degrees of racism within them, I think it would be unfair to just say Democrats are racists, or Republicans are racists for that matter,” Hanger continued.
Hanger added: “[Racism] is something that we all need to be aware of and we just need to learn to be a little nicer with each other, respect where we came from and just try to get along a little better.”
The Star reached out to Delegate Kirk Cox, another GOP candidate for governor, for comment, but did not get a response by press time.
The gubernatorial primary election is still several months away and will take place on June 8th, 2021.
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Jacob Taylor is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network. Follow Jacob on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected]
