On Saturday, June 2, the Fifth District Republican Committee selected Denver Riggelman to be on the ballot in November, replacing Tom Garrett, who will not run for re-election. Riggelman's resumé includes time as an Air Force Intelligence officer, as a consultant to the DOD, and presently as a co-owner of Silverback Distillery in Afton. In a statement last Friday, he announced that if elected:

I am pledging that I will join the House Freedom Caucus. The House Freedom Caucus is not about opportunism, or manipulating people and process for a specific end. The House Freedom Caucus is about always supporting liberty, transparency, and resisting any control measures foisted on constituents by outside actors.

I am running for Congress to represent the 5th District. I will listen to the people of the 5th District. If the 5th District and I differ on an issue, unless it violates my core principles of freedom and transparency, I will yield to the will of the 5th District… because that is the next Congressman’s job. I am not going up there to join “the team.”

This raises a couple of concerns (not to mention the unlikelihood of "the Fifth District" speaking with a unified voice about any significant issue). The Freedom Caucus is entirely ideological. It was founded a few years ago for the purpose of acting as a unified bloc, pulling the Republican congressional delegation to the right. Members pledge that if 80% of the group agree on a position, all will follow and vote together.

And it is our understanding that membership is by invitation; members names are not published (although 36 members have been pretty well identified), and meetings are held in secret.

Riggleman has said he has no qualms about gay marriage and that he believes abortions should be permitted in cases of rape, incest and when a mother's health is in danger. So if he winds up taking Tom Garrett's place in the Congress and in the Freedom Caucus, he may find his independent-libertarian nature constrained.

Who will show up?

The Fifth District skews Republican. But the fervor among Democrats seems strong, motivated by opposition to President Trump personally and on his policies and actions. Turnout in mid-term elections is generally light, and fed by the more activist members of the parties--more progressive Democrats and more conservative Republicans, along with single issue voters on both sides of cultural issues like abortion rights, gun control and immigration policy.

The race at the top of the ticket

Three people have qualified to seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, to oppose incumbent Tim Kaine. They are Corey Stewart, chair of the Prince William BOS; Senator Nick Freitas of Culpeper; and E.W. Jackson, a clergyman from Chesapeake. The nominee will be chosen in a Primary election June 12.

From the UVa Center for Politics Crystal Ball:

all three candidates are ardent conservatives on most hot-button issues. Stewart summed up his campaign in a May 27 tweet: “Vote June 12th to defeat radical leftist Tim Kaine and I'll fight to build the wall, bring jobs to Virginia, and defund Planned Parenthood.”

A Freitas speech in response to efforts to pass new gun control legislation went viral earlier this year. In it, the delegate defended the Second Amendment, castigated the “the abortion industry” and “the welfare state” as causes of declining social cohesion, and blamed Democrats for Japanese-American internment in World War II, resistance to women’s suffrage, and racial segregation.

An evangelical minister, Jackson has a history of controversial statements, ranging from saying that gays and lesbians are “very sick people” to connecting yoga to Satan.