The Truth About Myself and Ben Cline

Lately, there have been rumors going around the social media swamp suggesting that myself and those on my team are not only Never Trumpers, but we are also anti Ben Cline.  These are coming from a desperate out of touch establishment who are desperate to hold onto power in the 6^th Congressional District.  

I am sorry to say this, but these claims could not be farther from the truth.  The facts are as follows:

1. I personally knocked on over 600 doors for Team Cline and Team Corey Stewart in 2018.  According to the Cline for Congress Campaign, this made me the 3^rd ranked volunteer with the campaign.  
2. I personally organized door knocking teams for Ben Cline in Shenandoah County.  Randy Gilbert (Shenandoah County GOP Chair) and I organized teams of volunteers to knock on doors for Team Ben Cline
3. My family and I donated in excess of $1,000.00 to Ben Cline in his race for Congress and in his race for Congress in 2020.  This includes a $500.00 donation to Ben Cline for Congress made in January 2020. Odds are this amount is more than the people calling me and my team Anti Ben Cline has donated total.  
4. Again, under the leadership of Randy Gilbert and myself, a team of letter writers made up of Dave Christovich, Ros Poplar, John Chroniger, and Dennis Barlow have started a letter writing team on the Northern Virginia Daily – this letter writing team was put together in large part to support Ben Cline while he is doing the People’s work in Congress.  This letter writing team that Randy Gilbert and I put together has done such a tremendous job that the Daily News Paper has changed their submission rules so that Cline supporters can only submit one letter to the editor per month, where it was one letter per week prior to our taking over the Op-Ed page of the Daily.
5. Under the leadership of Randy Gilbert – who is on my “team”, a fundraiser was organized for Ben Cline for Congress – in which over $30,000 was raised for Team Cline.  
6. Steve Kurtz of Warren County organized door knocking teams in Warren County in September and October 2018 for Team Cline.  One of these events brought out at least 30 volunteers to door knock for Ben Cline.  
7. In his weekly email, SCC Member Doc Troxel endorsed and encouraged everyone to get out and vote for Ben Cline in 2018 and has endorsed Cline for Congress in 2020.  
8. Every member of my 6^th District Team has publicly endorsed Ben Cline for Congress in both 2018 and 2020.  And each member of my team has spoken out on behalf of, donated, or done some type of work to get Ben Cline elected.  
9. Last but not least, Ben and I consider each other personal friends above and beyond the idea of 6^th District politics.  We talk quite frequently and share many mutual interests.  

Now for the record, I did not endorse during the nomination race to replace Bob Goodlatte.  This does not mean I was pro or anti Ben Cline. It does mean that I was busy running a race for the Strasburg Town Council and was not really thinking too much about the Congressional race.  I was privileged to meet each of the 8 people who ran to replace Bob Goodlatte, and think rather highly of most of them on a personal level. I also was not overly concerned with the “plurality” rule in the 2018 convention, and thought that a bigger deal was made of this rule than was necessary.  Odds are Ben Cline would have won either by majority or plurality. And to keep bringing up old wounds just helps to further divide the party – when we need to unite the most.  

Quite frankly it is hard to see how we are “anti Ben Cline”.  Only an intellectually dishonest person would suggest that any of my “team” are anti Ben Cline.  Wanna help Ben Cline win by an even larger margin than he did in 2018? Help us by knocking on doors or organizing volunteers or do LTE campaigns or making phone calls – being a social media drama queen helps no one – especially Ben.  

To those who are not supporting my race for 6^th District Chair, I appreciate that you are supporting someone else, but in trying to consistently rub salt into old wounds which are trying to heal, you do nothing to build the party at a time when we need it most.  To the contrary, in rubbing others’ faces into the proverbial mud, you are only further dividing an already weakened party that needs all the help it can get.

#MakeThe6thDistrictGreatAgain