With a Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee still uncertain as ballots are being counted, candidate Pete Snyder jumped into general election mode with an ad attacking Democratic gubernatorial front-runner, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, on his relationship with teachers unions.
“Politician Terry McAuliffe stood silent while special interests and teachers unions locked our kids out of their classrooms,” said a narrator in the ad, first provided to the Washington Examiner. “Why? Because McAuliffe has raised millions of dollars in campaign cash from the same union bosses who shut down our schools.”
The six-figure television ad buy starts on Monday and will run on MSNBC and Fox News.
“This TV ad buy is just the beginning of a well-financed, aggressive campaign to prosecute and defeat corrupt Terry McAuliffe in November,” Snyder campaign manager Jim Hilk said in a statement. “Republicans are united around ending one-party rule in Richmond, and Pete Snyder is doing everything he can to stop the insanity and bring common sense back to the Commonwealth.”
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The message from Snyder, a 48-year-old entrepreneur, and philanthropist who previously ran for lieutenant governor in 2013, is a continuation of his open-the-schools main campaign message that he launched his campaign with and stressed in the final weeks of the Republican race.
But the gear-switch from Republican nomination battle to general election fight is unusual in that it launched before the Republican nominee is set. Republican delegates voted for a nominee on Saturday in a turbulent pandemic-era “unassembled convention,” in which registered delegates voted for a nominee with a ranked-choice ballot to simulate rounds in an in-person convention.
Those ballots are being counted by hand in Richmond, Virginia. Results from the governor’s race could be determined as soon as Monday, and a result in the attorney general’s nomination race was determined late Sunday night.
Other top Republican candidates for governor are Amanda Chase, a second-term state senator often called “Trump in heels”; Kirk Cox, a 30-year state delegate and former state House speaker; and Glenn Youngkin, former co-CEO of the Carlyle Group private equity firm and a first-time candidate.
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McAuliffe, who is running for a second term after a one-term break because the Virginia state constitution prohibits the governor from holding consecutive terms, is the front-runner to win the Democratic nomination. Democrats are holding a traditional primary on June 8, a month after the Republicans choose their candidate.
McAuliffe raised more than $36.7 million during his 2013 gubernatorial run and raised $4.2 million in the first quarter of this year, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks Virginia campaign donations.
