John Curran, the James City business consultant who launched his campaign to become Virginia’s next lieutenant governor last year, said on Monday that he is the Republican candidate most closely aligned with President-elect Donald Trump, and vowed to use the platform associated with the elected position to challenge Democrats who obstruct bipartisan progress in the General Assembly.
Curran made the remarks during an appearance on “The John Fredericks Show,” telling host John Fredericks, who is publisher of The Virginia Star, that he hopes to use the lieutenant governor’s “soapbox” to challenge career politicians.
“I feel there’s too much partisanship going on within our State House, and the Lieutenant Governor is offered a very large soapbox to break that up,” Curran told Fredericks. “I’m planning on going in more as an influencer, to bring that to light.”
The business consultant said the current political paradigm in Richmond allows inexperienced people to be “shoved into committees they’re not really supposed to be on” and bills to be blocked “just out of spite to somebody.”
He told Fredericks, “We’re basically in a moral hazard with government. The politicians make rules without thing of what the unexpected consequences are, they don’t look past what the headline will be. We pay for that, and then they get bailed out, sometimes even promoted at that.”
Though Curran is focused on Virginia politics, he told Fredericks he considers himself the Make America Great Again candidate in the race for lieutenant governor.
“I’ve always been, since 2016, a Donald Trump supporter,” said the candidate, pointing to a red MAGA hat he said was obtained during the 2016 presidential election. “I look at it as a business stance. You look at what’s going on in government, everybody would be fired if it was a private company. The stockholders would pull out if they could actually do so.”
Curran (pictured above) is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for lieutenant governor in a race against Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity, who celebrated Trump’s victory last November but said in 2021, “I think the party needs to move past President Trump and come together, and we’ve got a great opportunity to do that here in Virginia.”
Both Herrity and Curran are seeking the party’s nomination to run after Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears declared her gubernatorial campaign in 2024. With Governor Glenn Youngkin unable to seek a consecutive term, he endorsed both Earle-Sears and Miyares, and the lieutenant governor is statistically tied with potential Democratic challengers in two early polls.
“I think we have a great team right now,” Curran told Fredericks. “Winsome Sears is leading out, you have Attorney General Jason Miyares, who has proben to be a fighter in court.”
Watch Curran’s full appearance on “The John Fredericks Show”:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “John Curran” by John Curran.
