Short version: Aaron Rouse, the winner, ran as a Democrat, but… might not actually be a Democrat in the way we might expect a Democrat to be. First some details. Rouse beat Republican Keith Adams. 19,430 (50.41) to 19,082 (49.50). Rouse raised $899,574 to Adams’ $851,808. For the GOP business interests, they would win either way. For Rouse, running as a pro-Choice Democrat was his path to victory in a 2023 race for the open seat vacated by Jen Kiggans when she went off to Congress this week.
A little about the district, which has a slight Republican lean. In 2019, Kiggans first won the district against Democrat Cheryl Turpin after incumbent Republican Frank Wagner was appointed deputy director of the state lottery. Her victory was razor-thin— 29,609 (50.36%) to 29,098 (49.49%). In November the part of the congressional district that overlaps with the senate district went for Democrats Elaine Luria by 4 points. (Biden had won the senate district by 10 points in 2020 and the following year Youngkin won the district.) So very swingy.
So a little about Rouse. The city council election is non-partisan and he ran as a kind of Republicrat— friendly with the GOP business interests in hospitality and real estate development, but vaguely Democrat-ish (as George Santos might say). Friends of the Elephant is a Virginia Beach GOP operation, as you might guess from the name. The day before his city council election, Rouse contributed $10,000, making him the 3rd biggest donor that year, after Jimmy Cohen (the group’s CEO— and recently a candidate for Virginia Beach Republican Party chair) and Curtis Dixon Colgate, one of the GOP’s top money-bags in the region.
What was that all about, you might wonder. It was a payoff for Cohen to slander Republican Dee Oliver, Rouse’s opponent in that race. And when I say “slander,” I mean SLANDER. In fact a jury later forced Cohen to pay Oliver $5 million in damages.
Because Oliver was a candidate for public office at the time and considered a public figure, the jury had to determine Cohen, a real estate investor who’s been active in local politics for decades, acted with reckless disregard of the truth. Oliver claimed the comments, which included allegations about her sex life and morals, depicted her as “a woman of ill repute.”
The information was published on the popular Facebook page “Vintage North End Virginia Beach an Illustrated History Archive” on Nov. 4, 2018— two days before voters were set to elect new City Council members.
…Cohen suggested Oliver had sex with a physical fitness trainer in a hospital bathroom while the man was there for heart surgery— and with his family in the next room. He also wrote that Oliver’s first husband “died in the middle of the night a few days after she got her boobs done.”
But by then, of course, Rouse was already on the city council.
Once it became clear Jen Kiggans was giving up the state Senate seat, it was obvious that Cheryl Turpin, a former member of the House of Delegates, would run again for the seat she lost by just 511 votes. But the local establishment didn’t want her— they wanted either Republican Keith Adams or Republicrat Aaron Rouse. So the Democratic wing of the establishment managed to get her disqualified and then handed the nomination to Rouse. (Turpin is suing the party, election officials, Democratic Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas and Youngkin.)
Rouse will be a needed vote against the anti-Choice mania that Youngkin has stirred up. Beyond that… just another business-friendly conservative Democrat is about to take a seat in the legislature. But… speaking of the Virginia state Senate, Blue America has endorsed two spectacular women running this year, Elizabeth Guzman and Victoria Luevanos. Elizabeth is a delegate and the House is in session, so we can't raise money for her through ActBlue... but we we can raise money for Victoria. (And small contributions go a long way in these state legislative races.)