Scott Parkinson wants to cast Tim Kaine, who he hopes to face in the 2024 election cycle, as a “career politician.”
Problem there being, Parkinson is, if not a career politician, only because he hasn’t been able to get elected to anything, at least a career politico – his resume has him having worked for three U.S. senators, serving as Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff, most recently working for the Club for Growth as its vice president for government affairs.
Gotta love those self-loathing conservatives who hate government and yet somehow have no problem spending their lives working in government.
“Sen. Kaine is a well-funded incumbent, and it’s going to be a lot of hard work to defeat the money-machine of George Soros, Act Blue, and the Swamp. But we are going to fire Kaine on Nov. 5, 2024, and save the middle class, restore parents’ rights in the classroom, and increase public safety,” Parkinson said in a statement in a press release from his campaign that attempted to tout his fundraising prowess, such as it is.
Parkinson is lapping the early GOP field, at least, but that’s relative. In the second quarter, Parkinson raised $362,000.
Kaine announced last week that his second-quarter haul was over $2 million, and that his campaign has more than $6.3 million in cash on hand.
The money gap reinforces the big problem on the Republican side, which is lacking the emergence of a serious challenger at this stage, and it’s getting kinda late in terms of getting into the race.
The best-known from the group that has announced to date is probably Hung Cao, whose best-known status is the result of his five-point loss to Democrat Jennifer Wexton in the 10th Congressional District race last year.
The lack of a serious challenger is something of a surprise. You might have thought after the 2021 GOP sweep that ushered Glenn Youngkin into the governor’s mansion that Kaine, in the next statewide race, could be vulnerable, but Democrats were able to rally a bit in the 2022 midterms, holding on to win in two of the three 50/50 U.S. House races – with wins by Wexton in the 10th and Abigail Spanberger in the Seventh – to maintain a 6-5 majority in representation in the House.
That may be why we’re not seeing any of the more serious possible contenders from the Republican side jumping into the 2024 Senate race.
Which is why the best options right now are a guy who lost a winnable U.S. House race or an unknown who hates government but has not held a job not involving government.
I do admire the gumption from Parkinson that is evident in this press release quote:
“I am incredibly honored and humbled by the level of support I received over the first three months of my campaign to defeat career politician Tim Kaine and elect a new conservative leader to the United States Senate.”
“Career politician.”
This from a guy who has not held a real job in his life.
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Chris Graham
