Republicans rally with Bannon in Henrico; Youngkin keeps his distance

Virginia Republicans who refuse to accept the 2020 election results rallied in Henrico Wednesday with one of the architects behind Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid. But Glenn Youngkin, the Republican nominee for governor, did not attend. Youngkin has tried to keep the election conspiracy theorists at a safe enough distance to not be associated with them, but close enough to keep them and their base willing to vote for him this November.

State Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield), the leader of the election fraud movement in Virginia, jumpstarted the conversation before the rally when she gave an interview Tuesday to conservative talk show host John Fredericks accusing Democrats of stealing elections.

“I know how they’re stealing elections, and we’re not gonna let that happen this year,” she said.

Chase has been advocating for a forensic audit of the 2020 election results since Trump lost. Nearly one year later, she is not slowing down. During the Innsbrook rally Wednesday with former Trump advisor Steve Bannon and Fredericks, Chase told the crowd “you need to cast your vote before someone else does.”

Eric Ditri, chairman of the Prince George County Republican Committee, defended the comments from Chase Wednesday night.

“Someone voting for you is entirely possible and happened in the 2020 election,” Ditri said, continuing to say that he knows of a specific example that happened within Prince George County but that it would take him a few days to provide it.

“I don’t have it on my phone, obviously,” he said.

Youngkin has stayed away from the election conspiracy theories as he is trying to win in a state that voted for Joe Biden by 10 points. He has called Biden the legitimate president and stayed far away from the Wednesday rally.

Chase has been present on the campaign trail for Youngkin, however, appearing at multiple rallies with the gubernatorial nominee in Central Virginia recently.

Trump himself called into the Henrico rally briefly. He urged Virginians to support Youngkin and called him a “great gentleman,” who will do “all the things that we want a governor to do.”

Trump has been continuing to push the election conspiracy theories and is refusing to admit he lost the 2020 election.

“If we don’t solve the Presidential election fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in ‘22 or ‘24. It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do,” Trump wrote in a press release Wednesday afternoon.

In a statement to Huff Post, Youngkin’s campaign said it expects to “have a clean, fair election.” It did not provide immediate comment to Virginia Scope for this article.

During the rally, Republicans pledged allegiance to an American flag that they were told was carried during the rally with Trump outside of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6. On Thursday, Youngkin called it “weird and wrong.”

Wednesday, Youngkin also went on the offensive by using old footage of the Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe discussing 2020 and his concern about voter machines being hacked ahead of that election.

In the video posted on Youngkin’s YouTube account, McAuliffe discusses hiring hackers during his first term as governor to test the machines prior to an election and finding that it took them only minutes to hack in and change a vote. McAuliffe said in the video that he decertified the machines when that happened.

McAuliffe did not provide immediate comment in response to the video.

Chase told Virginia Scope she liked the headline of the Huff Post article, but she had not yet read it and would provide comment at a later time on her thoughts about the upcoming elections in Virginia.

There has been no evidence of any voter fraud in Virginia’s recent elections.

In addition to governor, the lieutenant governor, attorney general, and all 100 House of Delegates seats are up for election this cycle. Election day is Nov. 2.

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This article first appeared on VirginiaScope.com. It is republished here with permission.