Gay-porn scandal ensnaring GOP nominee John Reid splits Virginia Republicans ahead of key election

Virginia Republicans are splintering over GOP Gov.Glenn Youngkin’s call for the party’s lieutenant-governor nominee to step aside — after the hopeful was accused of posting gay porn on Tumblr.Youngkin asked embattled candidate John Reid, a radio host in the Richmond area, to withdraw as the nominee upon learning of the images of naked men posted on an account using Reid’s Instagram handle last month.Reid has denied the account is his and refused to step aside — leaving party faithful scrambling to unify about six months out from the state’s bellwether 2025 off-year election.“That’s not my account,” Reid insisted after the scandal was unearthed by the Richmonder.

“Anyone on the Internet can open accounts with the same or similar names as other people.“I’m not going anywhere.”Allies of Reid have accused Youngkin and his allies of targeting the candidate because of his sexuality.Reid is Virginia’s first openly gay statewide nominee.

But Youngkin has deemed the gay-porn scandal a “distraction” that will likely hurt the party if allowed to continue.“One of the reasons why I called John last Friday morning was because these kinds of situations, where there is just a historical recognition that social media and explicit, explicit social media content like this is a distraction,” Youngkin told reporters last week.“It’s a distraction for campaigns, and it’s a distraction from people paying attention to the most important issues, and here we are today talking about fentanyl and saving lives, and the distraction is present,” he said.“He and I had a very serious personal conversation.”Several key Republicans in the state quickly hit back at the governor for being so quick to turn on Reid.If this is how the Governor’s political operation wants to close out his term in Richmond — by tossing a grenade into the statewide Republican ticket — it’s truly a shame,” Arlington GOP Chair Matthew Hurt said in an email blast. V...