Virginia is for lovers, all right — just not necessarily lovers of Donald Trump.
One of the former president’s longtime haters is rising from the political grave to add her name to the list of still-self-identifying Republicans supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock revealed in a CNN interview Sunday she won’t vote for Trump for the third time, falling in line with a fellow former Virginia rep, Denver Riggleman, now a Republicans for Harris groupie.
“I think it’s important to turn the page. That’s why I will be voting for the vice president,” Comstock said, citing Jan. 6, “threats against democracy” and the former president’s legal battles.
“This is the most misogynist ticket we’ve ever had. It’s not just Donald Trump,” she said, pointing to controversies over J.D. Vance’s cat-lady comments and the RNC introduction from Dana White, who was recorded having a physical altercation with his wife last year.
“This is not something that my party should accept,” Comstock concluded.
Above all, it seemed Barbara’s beef was less with the ex-prez’s policy platform than the PR problems he’s posed for the Republican Party, particularly among Northern Virginia’s suburban women who were responsible for both electing and ejecting Comstock from her congressional seat.
Comstock first rode into Congress on the red-wave midterm elections of 2014 and served two terms until a shellacking from Democrat Jennifer Wexton in 2018, who took 56.1% of the vote to Comstock’s 43.7% in Virginia’s 10th District.
Wexton is vacating her seat in the battleground district after receiving a diagnosis of Parkinson’s last year, which has accelerated into a rare brain disease called progressive supranuclear palsy. Democrat Suhas Subramanyam and Republican Mike Clancy will compete for the seat representing the DC exurbs.
Comstock’s career has been largely defined by her vocal criticisms of Trump dating back to 2016, when she called for him to drop out after the unearthing of an Access Hollywood tape with audio of the then-first-time-candidate making vulgar comments about women.
In 2021, after leaving Congress, she was one of about two dozen former GOP reps urging House Republicans to back Trump’s second impeachment.
“I would challenge all of my Republican colleagues to do this, do it swiftly and take that vote to make sure he cannot run again,” she told MSNBC.
Comstock was also a signatory that year of a letter of about 100 former government officials at the state and national levels who threatened to leave the GOP amid House Republicans’ ouster of former Rep. Liz Cheney.
Appearing on CNN this weekend, she was still identified as a Republican, despite her announcement of support for Harris.
