As a lifelong Republican who voted for Trump twice, I’m truly dismayed by our party’s reliance on false narrative and grievance-driven politics. Virginians deserve a Gubernatorial contest that’s an intellectually honest contest of ideas between Youngkin and McAuliffe.

I’m obviously speaking of the Big Lie. I wish Trump had won, but he simply didn’t. Who says? He lost the Nov. 4 election. He lost multiple recounts in battleground states. He lost an effort to prevent Congress from certifying the election. He lost no fewer than 86 election fraud lawsuits covering Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, including rulings by 38 Republican judges, some appointed by him. In what universe of reality is this record not dispositive?

Just the other day I heard Trump talk about “untold thousands of dead people voting,” so I checked. Georgia has 2 confirmed illegal votes in 2020. Pennsylvania confirms only 1 attempt to cast a ballot on behalf of a dead person. Michigan reports no confirmed cases. You get the idea.

I’d hate to see Virginia become a national embarrassment like Arizona. Arizona election auditors found 182 cases of potential voter fraud out of more than 3 million ballots cast. That's a fraction of 0.00006. Of the 182 cases, only 4 have led to charges. Of the 4, 2 votes favored Biden and 2 favored Trump. The Arizona “audit,” cloaked in secrecy, was supposed to conclude in April. I strongly suspect they’ve found nothing material and are working to concoct “inconsistencies” to muddy the debate, satisfying whoever’s paying them.

The Commonwealth has such a storied history, politically speaking. Our state is the home of giant political intellects such as Jefferson, Madison, Mason, Henry, etc. We would dishonor them and diminish ourselves to let Virginia become Arizona.

John Christmas

Alexandria