Gay, Christian Republican Runs for Lt. Gov. of Virginia

Plus, Rubio on ‘Hamas animals’; Catholic schools on the nation’s report card

John Reid, seen here in an image shared on his campaign website, was an intern for President Reagan in Los Angeles after Reagan concluded his presidency.

Television reporter and radio talk show host John Reid announced this week that he is running for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor of Virginia.

Reid said he is running “to help create a society where free people can live and work as they see fit,” I discovered by watching some video clips of Reid’s campaign launch via the “Stu” account on X.

So many people told him they can’t vote Republican because the party is racist and homophobic. As half of an interracial gay couple, Reid handles that comment, he says, by passing it off to his partner: “It got to the point where I just said, ‘Alonzo, you want to take this one?’ .. I blow up the whole narrative…”

“My fellow Christians, and yes, I am not afraid to say it, that I am a person of faith, I’m not telling you that I am a perfect person…I am not standing up here trying to be holier than thou or better than anyone else…I am trying to get closer to being the good man that I am meant to be, and my fellow Christians have embraced me….I am going to be honest about who I am and how I feel,” Reid, an Eagle Scout, said in the video clips from the launch event. “Look at Donald Trump, look at Glenn Youngkin, two very different men, but the faith community is discerning and they know that God uses different types of people to achieve his greatest goals.”

At the launch, Reid denounced antisemitism on college campuses: “I stop being nice when they allow Jewish students to be attacked and abused verbally and physically on our college campuses.”

If Reid wins the nomination, Virginia Republicans could have a black woman candidate for governor in Winsome Earle-Sears, a Cuban-American candidate for attorney general in Jason Miyares, and a gay candidate for lieutenant governor. I know the trend is away from identity politics and to de-emphasize diversity, and probably for the best. Yet it’s also probably a healthy thing for the country to have a Republican Party where these attributes aren’t obstacles to advancement. That way no one’s talents are wasted, and people don’t feel like their freedom and dignity are contingent on one party or another having political power.

Catholic schools and the nation’s report card: The results released this week by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the test known as the “nation’s report card,” were pretty grim, but one bright spot was the performance of Catholic schools.

Catholic schools outperformed charter schools and traditional public schools in national standardized testing results released this week, according to a chart made by education advocate and researcher Marc Porter Magee.

Marc Porter Magee has a chart showing students in Catholic schools “are 1 to 2 grade levels ahead” in 4th grade and 8th grade math and reading. It could be that Catholic students in public schools are also overperforming in math and reading—there are no data distinguishing whether the cause of the overperformance is the Catholicity of the students or of the school. But because Catholic schools in many cases serve plenty of non-Catholic students, and frequently do so with per-student spending that is significantly lower than traditional public schools, it’s likely that the results are at least partly attributable to the school. Back in 2020, I wrote for Education Next about “How Boston-Area Catholic Schools Opened for In-Person Learning Amid the Pandemic.” Part of the overperformance may relate to the fact that the schools were more likely to be open for in-person learning, but the Catholic schools were also overperforming even before the pandemic.

Rubio on ‘Hamas Animals” and American opportunity: Secretary of State Rubio gets the pronouns correct, in a January 30 interview with Megyn Kelly: “I mean, we’re talking about a ratio of one to – you get a teenage hostage in exchange for 250 killers, Hamas killers that are released from prison. So just think about how unfair that trade is, but it tells you how much we value life compared to what the other side, the Hamas animals, view this.”

Rubio also reflects a bit on opportunity in America:

QUESTION: It’s pretty your parents were from Cuba. They immigrated here in the late 1950s, I think. Your dad was a janitor.

SECRETARY RUBIO: May 27th, 1956.

QUESTION: Your mom works in a hotel as a maid. And here you are, Secretary of State. Final thought on what that says about the United States of America?

SECRETARY RUBIO: That it remains the only place where anyone from anywhere can achieve anything. And I think from our example is what other countries we hope will try to emulate in their own nations. And so it’s a testament not just to the country but to the people of this country.

And the greatest gift my parents ever left me is they never discouraged – never did my parents ever say, “You can’t be that. People like us can never be that.” They’ve always encouraged us to have big dreams and pursue them, whatever they may lead, and if you work hard, you can achieve what they are. For some people that dream is I just want to have a really good job and raise a family and be able to leave my kids better off than themselves, and for others it’s professional dreams as well. And I am blessed to be a citizen of the only place in human history where that’s happened for so many.