By Greg Rushford
June 15, 2020
If all politics is local, as Tip O’Neill, the late Speaker of the House, used to say, it’s clearly the same for international trade politics.
This story begins with a definite local twist, involving Republican Party inside politics in rural Virginia. But international trade aficionados everywhere will appreciate certain ironies that stretch far beyond Virginia’s sprawling 5th Congressional District, which ranges from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains west of Washington, D.C., and down the Shenandoah Valley some 250 miles to the North Carolina border.
The gerrymandered district, which heavily favors Republican candidates, is larger than six U.S. States, including New Jersey and New Hampshire.
A sitting first-term U.S. congressman named Denver Riggleman has just been denied renomination by a handful of Virginia Republican activists. At first blush, this sure looks curious. Riggleman is a conservative Republican with a libertarian streak who boasts of voting with President Donald Trump more than 90 percent of the time. And he has supported international trade positions championed by the pro-market U.S. Chamber of Commerce and dozens upon dozens of small businesses in Virginia.
On June 13, a convention of 2,537 Republican insiders voted to replace Riggleman with a challenger named Bob Good. Good trounced Riggleman by 58.1% to 41.8. So Good, not Riggleman, will be on the ballot in the forthcoming November 3 U.S. national elections. He will run against one of four Democrats who will be competing for their party’s nomination in a June 23 primary election.
Good comes from southern Virginia’s Bible Belt. He’s a self-styled “Biblical Conservative” and a proud America First hardliner, even when it comes to legal immigration policies. He would deny automatic citizenship by birth. He would require immigrants to speak English. Good would deny women the rights to abortion, even when the mother’s life would otherwise be at risk.
Such “bright red” positions, as Good puts them, would hardly be winning in Virginia statewide elections — especially with moderate-to-socially liberal Republicans from Washington, D.C.’s northern Virginia suburbs, and cities like Richmond and Charlottesville (home of the University of Virginia). But in the rural 5th District, they have much support.
Moreover, the energetic Good simply outworked and outmaneuvered the hapless Riggleman at every turn.
Most local press reports have rightly noted that Riggleman first landed in hot water with his Party’s social conservatives after officiating last summer at a wedding of two gay conservative Republican men. His stance reflected a refreshing tolerance and a sense of personal decency, not to mention respect for Virginia law that allows for same-sex marriage. Riggleman said all he saw was two fine young people who were in love.
But many 5th District Republicans saw a Biblical travesty. While the Party insists it is inclusive, such inclusiveness seems to extend only to supporters of the Republican platform — which considers marriage strictly a religious matter between men and women.
But leaving the biblical politics aside, it’s the international trade ironies to this story that stand out.
A central part of his campaign was putting “Americans, American jobs, and America first,” Bob Good told reporter Charlotte Rene Woods, who interviewed him for a May 14 Charlottesville Tomorrow article. “We’ve got to place a greater premium on protecting American jobs, American workers and reducing the number of worker visas to only what is truly needed and doesn’t depress wages or eliminate job opportunities for Americans.”
To further explain his agenda, Good posted a stirring commentary on his campaign website that one of his strongest political allies from Rappahannock County, VA, had published in local newspaper, the Rappahannock News, on March 12.
Ms. Miller is a prominent 5tth District Republican who is well-known for bringing a passion to her political jousting. She is no stranger to hyperbole. “I am an avowed free-market capitalist living in a country that was sinking toward Marxism — then Trump began righting the ship of state,” Miller has tweeted.
And in her commentary that became a centerpiece of Good’s campaign, Miller didn’t pull punches in criticizing Riggleman’s record on immigration. Riggleman had been serving the interests of “the power elites and special interests” on Capitol Hill, not his own constituents, she declared.
In particular, Miller pointed to Riggleman’s vote for a measure last year aimed at increasing H2B visas for foreign workers. “This is for foreign workers to take the high-tech jobs your children and grandchildren are looking for,” Miller asserted.
Miller also called Riggleman to task for voting for H.R. 1044, a House bill titled the “Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act,” aimed at increasing U.S. immigrant visas for high-skilled foreigners. The measure had been sponsored by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, an “ultra liberal Democrat from California’s Silicon Valley, the home of tech giants Google and Facebook,” Miller wrote.
Miller asked: “Why is the Republican congressman from the 5th district of Virginia doing the bidding of Democrat Zoe Lofgren’s Silicon Valley masters of the universe? Why isn’t he listening to his own constituents?”
One would expect a savvy incumbent congressman to shoot back that there definitely was another side to that story. That he had been listening to Virginians who wanted to be globally competitive. And that he had voted in the best economic interests of his constituents.
For openers, Riggleman could have pointed out that H2B visas are not for “high-tech” jobs. He could have said that dozens of Virginia’s small businesses — notably including landscapers — depend upon H2B visas to bring in temporary workers from Mexico and Central America — only after American workers cannot be found.
These temporary foreign landscape artisans work during the growing seasons, pay their U.S. income taxes, and then return home to their families. Riggleman could have argued strenuously that such legal immigration is entirely defensible, and that it discourages illegal immigration. That the visas are not only good for the American economy and American enterprises — but very Republican.
The congressman might also have reminded Good and Miller that the H2B visa legislation was strongly supported by a long list of such mainstream pro-market business advocacy organizations as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Virginia Forestry Association, the Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association, the National Fisheries Institute, and the Seasonal Employment Alliance. These are top-notch outfits, and respected on both sides of the aisle in Washington.
As for H.R. 1044, which does bring in high-tech foreign workers, Riggleman could have explained that it was simply wrong to accuse him of doing the bidding of the “ultra liberal” Zoe Lofgren from the Silicon Valley. (Lofgren is not regarded as a leftist firebreather on the Hill; she enjoys a reputation as a sensible lawmaker who is respected across party lines.)
In truth, H.R. 1044 was clearly bipartisan; it was co-sponsored by Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck, a lawmaker with strong conservative credentials. It passed the House last summer with a substantial bipartisan majority of 365-65. Every Virginia Republican congressman voted for it. But only Riggleman will be soon be out of a job because of his vote.
There’s a lot more: The measure’s companion bill in the Senate is being supported by such Republican stalwarts as Sense. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tom Cotton of Arkansas. These legislators are hardly “ultra liberals.”
In sum, there were plenty of opportunities for Riggleman to have reminded his constituents that he had been supporting measures designed to promote legal immigration in the interests of helping American businesses to compete for talent in the global marketplace.
But the congressman never effectively made the case to his constituents, essentially ceding the political territory to opponent Good. (In the weeks before the June 13 convention, Riggleman’s press secretary did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this article.)
That political naiveté — a certain back-footedness, if you will — goes a long way toward explaining why the June 13 Republican convention delegates who voted outside the Tree of Life Ministries in Lynchburg enjoyed chucking Riggleman out.
Miller declined to comment for this article. But she told a reporter for the Rappahannock News after last Saturday’s vote that she had been “disappointed” in Riggleman’s performance in Congress. And the newspaper quoted a triumphant post-convention e-mail written by another ardent Rappahannock County Republican named Ron Maxwell. “Vote for more foreign workers and you’ll be voted out of office!”
The late Speaker Tip O’Neill, who said that all politics is local, would understand (and lament) the current polarized political atmosphere in America. So would former Republican President Ronald Reagan. Reagan touted what he called the Eleventh Commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Any Fellow Republican.”
Despite their differing political philosophies, conservative Reagan and the Democratic liberal O’Neill operated with mutual respect for each other. They knew how to forge political compromises in the best interests of their country.
Republican candidate Bob Good doesn’t seem to be interested in Tip O’Neill or Ronald Reagan. “I’m not going to Washington to compromise for the Democrats,” he told reporter Tyler Hamilton of the Daily Progress earlier this month. “I disagree with the Democratic Party on everything.”