Dave LaRock, who represented Virginia’s 33rd District in the House of Delegates for a decade before losing the primary in his 2023 bid for the State Senate, confirmed on Wednesday that he is considering entering the race for the Republican nomination for Governor of Virginia.
LaRock confirmed that efforts to collect signatures for his entrance to the race are underway in a Wednesday interview with Virginia Scope, calling it a “pretty good grassroots push,” before indicating he was reluctant to share many details about the effort.
Republican operative Wendy Woods told the outlet her phone was “blowing up,” calling it a “real grassroots movement” to push LaRock to enter the race.
The grassroots activists hoping to see LaRock added to the Republican primary contest scheduled for June 17 would need to gather at least 10,000 valid signatures supporting the former lawmaker’s candidacy, though Woods told the outlet she was undaunted by the challenge.
Should LaRock announce a gubernatorial bid, it would mark the first serious competition to Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, announced her candidacy last year and received an endorsement from Governor Glenn Youngkin after Attorney General Jason Miyares ended speculation about a possible gubernatorial bid by confirming he will seek reelection.
LaRock would likely have no trouble reaching Virginia’s pro-Trump Republicans, having been urged to resign over his attendance at the protests in Washington, D.C. on January 6.
Days later, LaRock told the press that those who entered the Capitol were likely led by paid agitators, but the “massive crowds in DC were law-abiding, patriotic, mom and pop, young adults pushing baby carriages,” who “shared distrust in the system that asserts Joe Biden won, an opinion shared [by] a growing number of members of Congress.”
According to a post to the social media platform X by Washington Post journalist Greg Schneider, LaRock confirmed he is “exploring” a grassroots effort to fill a “gap” in the race. While LaRock reportedly stopped short of attacking Earle-Sears, the reporter wrote the former lawmaker “called himself a big DOGE/Trump fan.”
By contrast, Earle-Sears broke with Trump over his contest of the 2020 election results, and recently told The Virginia Star publisher John Fredericks that she only resumed supporting the president after Trump credited God’s providence for his survival of the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania last year.
“I heard him say, after he was shot, after he was shot, I heard him say, ‘You know, God has saved my life, and He has saved my life for a purpose, and I am going to live for Him, and I humbly ask for your vote,’” Earle-Sears said last week during an appearance on “The John Fredericks Show.”
She told the host, “After that, we were good.”
Earle-Sears has lagged in early polling against former Representative Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA employee who is likely to become the Democratic nominee. The Democratic candidate also launched her campaign months before than Earle-Sears, helping to generate a significant fundraising advantage during the early months of the race.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Dave LaRock” by Dave LaRock.
