Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate and state senator Amanda Chase announced on Feb. 10 that she would be suing the state Republican Party over its refusal to hold a primary election.
The Virginia Republican Party announced on Dec. 5, 2020 that it would hold a convention to choose the Party’s nominee for governor, according to the Virginia Dogwood. The Party prefers to hold nominating conventions to prevent Democrats from voting for the Republican candidate, due to the fact that Virginia holds open primaries.
Chase claimed in a tweet that the Republican Party chose “an illegal nomination method and have yet to remedy the situation.”
It’s official; I just filed a lawsuit against the Republican Party of Virginia. They’ve chosen an illegal nomination method and have yet to remedy the situation. Unless something changes;the SCC not the people will chose our statewide candidates. We the People know best.
— Senator Amanda Chase (@AmandaChaseVA) February 9, 2021
Chase is one of five Republican candidates hoping to become the Party’s nominee, and often refers to herself as “Trump in heels,” according to The Hill. (RELATED: Female VA State Senator Open Carries On House Floor—Calls Gun Her ‘ERA’)
The lawsuit against the state GOP is the second one Chase has filed in the last two weeks. Chase filed a federal lawsuit against the Virginia State Senate after the body voted 24-9 to censure her for calling Capitol rioters “patriots,” according to the Virginia Mercury. That lawsuit requests that a federal court order the censure expunged from the Senate record and Chase’s seniority returned, according to The Virginian-Pilot.
Chase called the vote from the Senate a “politically motivated censure hit job.”