Politico: “The blast radius from the controversy surrounding Virginia’s Republican lieutenant governor candidate expanded this week, when a top political aide to Gov. Glenn Youngkin stepped down from his post. His departure was the latest event in a week of turmoil that has pitted Republican leaders in the state against the GOP’s grassroots, upending a party that was already confronting a difficult election year.
The conflict centers on the political future of lieutenant governor candidate John Reid, who resisted a week of pressure from some Virginia Republican Party leaders to step aside over allegations that he maintained a social media account with sexually explicit images of men. Reid, the first openly gay candidate for statewide office in Virginia, denied that he was connected to the photos and has argued that efforts to remove him from the Republican ticket are rooted in discrimination against his sexual orientation.”