In the ever-running saga of the 6th District Congressional race and the disaster of a candidacy from Cynthia Dunbar, it seems that she cannot answer questions from Young Republicans. According to multiple sources close to the situation, the Lynchburg Young Republicans met on Saturday night. There were over 11 candidates in attendance, including US Senate candidate Corey Stewart and four of the Sixth District Congressional candidates that were there to speak.
The chairman of the Lynchburg Area Young Republicans (LAYR), Isiah Knight, had emailed the candidates to offer the opportunity to speak at the LAYR meeting. Apparently, the Dunbar campaign asked that a form be submitted by the chairman to give them information about the event. The chairman stated to be very surprised that he had to submit a form to request the appearance of a congressional candidate at a meeting that had 40 Young Republican activists. The only thing asked of the candidates was a Q&A portion of their speeches so that his members could get to know more about the candidates they who would be on the ballot.
Then, there’s what happened at the actual meeting. I’ll let Chairman Knight’s words speak for themselves:
“On February 11, I submitted an email to all of the Congressional Candidates, inviting them to come to the LAYR meeting that occurred yesterday evening. Mrs. Dunbar’s campaign responded saying she’d speak, and that I need to fill out a Scheduling Information Checklist, which I complied with, informing her campaign that there will be other candidates speaking and and we had to keep the time limited. I hadn’t heard from her campaign since I sent that on February 12.
Yesterday, Mrs. Dunbar came to the meeting, approached me (I am Chairman of the Club), and asked that I re-arrange the speaking schedule as she had another commitment. I told her no out of respect to the others in attendance. Now, I’ll add it’s not uncommon that candidates have packed schedules, for example, Mr. Freitas was unavailable that night so he sent a representative to speak on his behalf. Instead, when Mrs. Dunbar was told “no”, something that I don’t believe she hears enough from party leadership, she and her Husband, and someone from her campaign, immediately left.
It’s rumored she was told she wouldn’t be allowed to speak until the end and didn’t know all these other speakers were going to be there. To quash that rumor, none of that is true. We had everyone speak in alphabetical order, and went from Party Office, to Local, to Congressional, to Senate. She would have been heard in the middle.”
According to sources that were also in attendance, Ms. Dunbar immediately left after she was told no.
Now here’s the part where I give my two cents on the situation.
It is becoming apparent that Mrs. Dunbar likes to keep her campaign events scripted. It’s getting to the point that almost every single event has to fit her schedule, the specifics of her speech have to be laid out perfectly, and the events have to be scripted to the last detail. None of the candidates, not even Ben Cline or Corey Stewart, required that a scheduling request be submitted to their campaigns for them to attend. They just showed up if their schedules permitted.
Doesn’t this remind you of another candidate who also had their party nomination process rigged for them and had problems with being too scripted?
Also, think about this. She walked out on a group of Young Republicans. Not just any group of Republican activists, Young Republicans. She didn’t want to spend time cultivating the future leaders of the Republican Party. Her views are out of step with most of the millennial leaders of the party, but she still could have had the courage to speak to them.
If she were to be the nominee of the Sixth District, the Young Republicans and the College Republicans will be the “boots on the ground” of the campaign. The YRs and CRs will be the kids manning the victory offices, knocking on the doors, planting the lawn signs, handing out literature at the community events, and making the phone calls. Would you do all this work for someone who thumbed their nose at you and left your meeting before you could even ask them a question?
Mrs. Dunbar’s diva attitude is not going to do her any favors with younger voters. Her bizarre views on government and her demeanor are what will be her political downfall.