McGuireWoods Consulting senior vice president and law firm partner Mike Reynold was quoted in an Oct. 27 Wall Street Journal story about this year’s race for governor in Virginia.
In the closing days of the contest between Republican Ed Gillespie and Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, Gillespie’s ties — or lack of them — to President Donald Trump have become a contentious issue, The Journal reported. Gillespie hopes to enjoy an enthusiastic turnout by Trump’s ardent backers in the Nov. 7 election without rousing voters equally ardent in their opposition to the president, the publication noted.
Reynold was the campaign political director in 2009 for Bob McDonnell, the most recent Republican elected governor in Virginia. When asked by The Journal whether Gillespie is a “Trumpian” or an establishment Republican, Reynold replied, “I think he’s a conservative Republican.”
Virginia is the only southern state Trump did not win in last year’s presidential election.
Gillespie is a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Virginia and one of Washington’s most successful lobbyists. His opponent is a physician who served in the state Senate before his election as lieutenant governor in a 2013 Democratic sweep of Virginia’s top three statewide offices.
The full story can be read here.