The Virginia GOP and the local NAACP protested a fundraiser Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam was supposed to attend this weekend until he opted not to show up. Despite the calls for his resignation after an inappropriate photo of him surfaced months ago, the protest at the event this weekend did not gain much national media attention.
In a statement to WTOP, Northam cited safety concerns for not attending the event. The embattled governor was planning to raise money for Democratic state Sen. Dave Marsden at an event in Burke, Virginia. (RELATED: Virginia Senate Minority Leader Doubles Down In Support Of Northam)
“If it was a Republican, then I could see hundreds of thousands of people there and you know, every outlet and you know, CNN, Fox, everybody would be down there with a, with a TV camera,” Virginia GOP Communications Director John March told The Daily Caller on Monday. “If he tries to do a fundraiser with any Democrat anywhere in the state, all the way down to Lee County, we’ll be there.”
Join us this Sunday! pic.twitter.com/30hCHAOLUf
— Fairfax County NAACP (@FairfaxNAACP) April 11, 2019
March also compared the case of Northam to Florida Secretary of State Michael Ertel. A week before the Northam photo resurfaced, Ertel resigned after a photo of him in blackface imitating a victim of Hurricane Katrina was published by the Tallahassee Democrat. He used the examples to claim that a Republican “wouldn’t survive” this type of scandal.
He claimed that Democrats were willing to stand by Northam once “they figured out that the next two in line were mired in scandal as well.”
Northam faced a significant calls for his resignation after a medical school yearbook surfaced in February that showed a picture of one man wearing blackface, and another wearing Ku Klux Klan garb. Despite the picture appearing on his yearbook page, Northam has repeatedly denied that he is either of the men in the photo. The governor has also been defiant in his refusal to resign, despite months of outrage from both sides of the aisle.
As March brought up, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax would likely replace Northam, should he resign. Fairfax is facing his own scandal after having been accused of sexual assault by two different women. Like Northam, Fairfax received calls for his resignation and defied them. (RELATED: Second Woman Accuses Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax Of Sexual Assault)
In the event both of them were to step down, the state Attorney General Mark Herring would assume the position of governor. Following the surfacing of the Northam photo, Herring admitted to wearing blackface at a party back in 1980.
The Fairfax County NAACP didn’t respond to a request for comment.
