A number of people sent us screenshots of a text message around 7:30pm on Friday 6/16 from apparently the Tara Durant campaign that says “Matt Strickland can’t win in November. Don’t waste your vote on a LOSER, vote Tara Durant”. Here is the screenshot one of our readers received.
This is a violation of Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.” Tara Durant is acting like a Wokey when she smears Matt Strickland this way.
In the VA-27 Senate GOP Primary, Tara Durant has raised over a half million dollars in her battle against Matt Strickland. Durant’s major donors are PACs, businesses, and special interest groups. Strickland’s donors are primarily actual people.
A lot of late money is being thrown into the Durant campaign. On Thursday June 15th, Durant received an in-kind contribution of $3500 from the Governor’s PAC Spirit of Virginia. In addition, Durant received $5000 in cash from 3 individuals and $3000 from businesses.
The donations to the Durant campaign tell the story. Why would a PAC or business donate money unless they expect something in return? How could this not be “pay to play” or “quid pro quo” with Durant and her donors?
One of the central tenants of conservative principles is that the free market is the best mechanism to promote innovation and efficient exchanges between parties. We find it interesting that so called “conservative” Tara Durant was a co-sponsor of HB 1469. HB 1469 contains an anti-free market provision that prevents the direct sale of vehicles from manufacturers to consumers. It requires the automobile dealership to serve as the middleman.
Why is this a problem? The law strengthens the artificial monopoly for car dealerships that stifles the efficiency of the free market. The dealership serves as a mandatory middleman instead of allowing direct sales from the manufacturer to the consumer. By promoting HB 1469, Durant artificially and unnecessarily raises the costs for the consumer.
Why would Tara Durant promote anti-free market policies? We think Durant was bought and paid for by her donors in the auto dealership industry. On VPAP, Durant has received $10,000 from the Pohanka Auto Group, $10,000 from Tim Pohanka himself, $7396 from the VA Auto Dealers Association, and $5000 from Michelle Radley. There so happens to be a Pohanka and a Radley that operate car dealerships in Fredericksburg. What an amazing coincidence. Thats over $32000 in donations from car dealerships in 2022 and 2023.
Dealerships can make the argument that they are important in the sales process to the consumer. If that’s the case, why is a law necessary to maintain their monopoly status? Could it be that dealerships are afraid of market innovation that would cause them to go out of business?
The reason the free market produces innovation and wealth is because its efficient. Party 1 has something they want from Party 2. Party 2 has something they want from Party 1. Both parties voluntarily make an exchange. Both parties are now better off. When you inject a middleman propped up by a government law, you get higher costs for the consumer because the government interferes in the voluntary exchange mechanism of the free market.
VA-27 Senate candidate Tara Durant’s money connections make us question her conservative principles. Dominion Energy donated $39,500 to Tara Durant over the past 13 months. Dominion is associated with the woke extremist group called Equality Virginia. Matter of fact, Dominion is a platinum level sponsor of one of Equality Virginia’s fundraisers. Birds of a feather flock together!
Below is a screenshot of Durant’s campaign contributions on VPAP from Dominion Energy. There is also a screenshot on the Equality Virginia webpage with Dominion listed as a sponsor. Finally, we include a screenshot of the Strickland campaign flyer.
VA-27 Senate candidate Tara Durant received a campaign donation from Joel Griffin on November 17, 2022. Who is Joel Griffin? Griffin is the recently declared democrat candidate for the VA-27 Senate seat. Griffin is also a big money donor to far-left causes. Since 2021, Griffin donated just under $76000.00 towards far-left candidates. The only “republican” Griffin donated to was Tara Durant. Isn’t that a strange coincidence?
Following the money can reveal many things about a candidate. Griffin donated to the Ralph Northam campaign, the Josh Cole campaign, and the Democratic Party of Stafford. See the screenshots below. Griffin clearly has a strong belief in far-left causes and willfully donated money to Tara Durant. Isn’t that strange? Birds of a feather flock together….
Matt Strickland’s campaign mailer is absolutely right. Durant is a hypocrite. To quote the Strickland campaign’s mailer – “Hypocrite (hip-uh-krit): A fraud or phony person. Example: Tara Durant – A politician who says one thing and does another”
Tara Durant and Matt Strickland are in the Republican primary for the Virginia 27th senate district. Durant has sent a number of mailers attacking Strickland as a liberal. Some of our readers report receiving at least 3 mailers a week for the past month or so. We find it comical that Durant has resorted to gaslighting the voters. We believe Durant must be desperate because we believe her internal poll numbers show she her behind in the primary.
Here is a great example on why Strickland is far more conservative than Durant. Strickland made the case for smaller government when he stood up to the government bureaucracy that prevented him from running his business. Strickland didn’t just talk. He put his life, business, and financial position at risk to stand up for individual rights against government tyranny. We do not remember Durant doing something like that.
We do not remember a time when Durant or Youngkin spoke out against government tyranny against Strickland’s business. Perhaps it’s because their behavior is more in line with the establishment RINOs and democrats. It makes us laugh when Durant accuses Strickland of being a liberal when Durant does the same things liberals do by gaslighting the public.