An Eye-Opening Call for Republicans to Move On from Trump

By Jim Geraghty

Wednesday, November 09, 2022

 

Virginia GOP state delegate Tim Anderson writes on Facebook that it’s time for the Republican party to move on from Donald Trump.

 

While it appears likely Trump will announce he is running for President – I will not be supporting him.

 

While Trump was President, we lost a supermajority in the House of Delegates, a majority in the Senate and in 2019 Democrats controlled all state government for 2 years – radically changing Virginia. After Trump lost, the GOP gained Delegate seats back and won all 3 statewide offices. I call this the Trump effect. One thing Trump does very well in Virginia is mobilizing the left to vote against him and anyone who supports him.

 

I care about Virginia more than anything. Trump running for President is the absolute worst thing that can happen to Virginia state politics. We must take a different direction and the Virginia GOP and Republicans must divorce from Trump – for the sake of Virginia and for the sake of the nation.

 

I am going to take the first step and say these things publicly that I know many of my colleagues think. It’s a new day. It’s time to move on.

 

Democrats held seats in the 7th and 10th this year because voters would rather the country be on fire than vote for Trump’s party. Never again.

 

Like Trump, Love Trump or Hate Trump – if you care about Virginia and conservative values – we must all move in a different direction.

 

Lest you think Anderson is some sort of knee-jerk NeverTrump RINO, he is just about the last state lawmaker you would expect publicly to declare it’s time for Republicans to move on from Trump. Here’s how the Norfolk-based Virginian Pilot described him in June 2021:

 

Tim Anderson, a criminal defense attorney who lives in Virginia Beach, doesn’t run from controversy. He sprints toward it, not only relishing the fight, but the media attention that comes with it.

 

It’s impossible to ignore that many of Anderson’s political melees involve race, undoubtedly the reason that Anderson, who is white, has been branded as an outspoken Trump Republican.

 

…Anderson found ways to be memorable. In a May Facebook video, he used a long-range fire torch to shoot flames at a sign listing what he considered the Democrats’ agenda. He now sells the fire torches on his gun shop website.

 

The Washington Post noted, “Tim Anderson, a 46-year-old lawyer, is on the Trump track — slinging high-profile political lawsuits against Democrats and standing up for state Sen. Amanda Chase (Chesterfield) when her colleagues censured her, in part, for calling the Jan. 6 insurrectionists’ patriots.’”

 

And the Virginia Democratic Party denounced Anderson as a “hardline supporter of the Big Lie” and a “far-right extremist.”

 

When a guy like that says it’s time for the GOP to look around for other options…