Generally, we here at BD like Justin Higgins, we follow JHPolitics and link to him on a regular basis. Which makes articles like he posted yesterday hard to read.
Justin put out his concerns with Christopher Stearns, who’s running for re-election as the 3rd District Chairman.
Repeat: 3rd District Chairman.
Maybe you can understand why I repeat it after reading this:
Republicans in the 3rd District will have an opportunity to stake their own claim in this fight on Saturday. Chris Stearns is a self-proclaimed libertarian first, and his positions show it:
Chris Stearns is pro-choice, not pro-life.
Chris Stearns wants to legalize almost all drugs, not just marijuana.
Chris Stearns ascribes to a foreign policy that’s flat out dangerous. He has advocated for massive cuts to our national defense and opposed even the most common sense of actions to defend our nation against terrorism.
Finally, Stearns ascribes to a religious ideology known as pantheism, which fundamentally rejects any Judeo-Christian definition of a Living God. That’s a tough sell in a party that still directly appeals to God in our party creed.
Justin backed off of the pro-choice claim after Chris’s Facebook update later yesterday, but it’s also important to note there’s a drastic difference between ‘legalization’ and ‘decriminalization’, and also not having the federal government dictate to states which drugs should be legal. That distinction is where Chris falls, not blanket legalization.
But more importantly, Chris is running for re-election, again, for the 3rd District CHAIR.
Not State Senate. Not Congress. Not United States Senate. Not President.
An intra-party leadership position.
What abortion legislation will Chris be voting on? What national security decisions will he be asked to write a bill for? What drug policy will Chris be pledging to his constituents?
Right… none of the above. Because he’s running for reelection as the Chairman of the 3rd District.
The ironic part is Justin is very clear he supported Chris when he ran for State Senate unsuccessfully a year ago. So when Chris ran for elected office, everything was fine, yet when running for a intra-party leadership position, suddenly some personal policy preferences become an issue?
Further, Justin’s central point is that there’s libertarians who view the Republican Party as ripe for being ‘taken-over.’ The merits of this are debatable, but there’s not one piece of evidence that Chris 1) feels that way 2) is trying to ‘take over the party.’ Nor does Justin cite any specific way Chris personally has tried doing this, despite having been in Party leadership now for more than three years, including two on the State Central Committee Executive Committee, the absence of which makes Justin’s article 100% both irrelevant and wrong.
Let’s be real.
Let me tell you about Christopher Stearns. There’s a reason when I left Norfolk to move to Harrisonburg and finish my education at James Madison, I left leadership of the Young Republican group I started from scratch in his hands. I trusted him, as a leader and as a Republican to continue the group’s success. We talk policy, on a personal and party basis frequently. He’s someone I know has the Party’s best interests in mind, and while he may not agree with every policy positions our nominees have (who ever does?), he has never given less than 100% to getting Republicans elected to office.
Chris Stearns has worked tirelessly for the Republican Party in every leadership position he has held, whether it be for Ron Paul (Republican), Mitt Romney (Republican), Dean Longo (Republican), George Allen (Republican), Scott Rigell (Republican), Rand Paul (Republican), Ken Cuccinelli (Republican), E.W. Jackson (Republican), Mark Obenshain (Republican).
If Justin would like to point to any example of Chris NOT working on behalf of a Republican candidate since coming into the Republican Party, that would be relevant to his reelection on Saturday. Instead, Justin points to some of Chris’ personal views, that have no reflection or bearing on his candidacy for Third District Chairman.
I served in and on the 3rd District committee. I know the joke it was from 2009 to 2011. Decisions were made by one person, the committee was limp and vapid and lacking any form of leadership from the top, while making shady financial decisions that left the committee thousands of dollars in debt. It was only after Chris was elected that the committee began turning around, and he actively sought support of every Republican official in the state to help get the committee out of debt, including Ken Cuccinelli AND Bill Bolling.
It’s important to realize that in the entirety of Justin’s article, there’s not one reference to a failing of Stearns’ leadership as 3rd District Chair in his now completed two-year term.
Justin got it very very wrong, and it needed to be set correct.
