Virginia Foxx: Gearing Up For 2010 With A Million Dollar War Chest
Matthew Shepard’s Hate Crime Murder Denier Just Doesn’t Know When To Quit
Virginia Foxx (R- NC), has been quietly amassing a large campaign war chest, and reportedly has cash on hand of $942,195, according to Internet watchdog OpenSecrets.org and the Center for Responsive Politics. The Congresswoman, who back in April was nationally excoriated for calling Matthew Shepard’s hate crime murder a “hoax”, is evidently gearing up for another election. Her seat, which she has held since 2005, is up for reelection next year. Foxx did not win her home county the past two elections.
Voters across the country were outraged for weeks when Foxx, a staunch conservative, stood on the floor of the U.S. House in opposition to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill, and said,
“The hate crimes bill that’s called the Matthew Shepard Bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay. This – the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it’s really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.â€
News of her comments flooded the Internet and the cable news channels. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann named her “Worst Person in the World” twice. This blog, while reporting on Rep. Foxx’s refusal to apologize several times, created FireFoxx, a Facebook group, now with almost 2000 members, in response to Dr. Foxx’s comments. The Representative has yet to respond to a letter sent directly to her May 23. Previously this year, The Washington Post reported Foxx used “the racially charged term ‘tar baby’ during a House floor speech,” referring to Democrats’ plan to ban bonuses of TARP recipients.
While all politics may be local, funding isn’t necessarily. Foxx’s largest campaign contributors this cycle (2009-2010) are big corporations, including American Crystal Sugar, AT&T, UPS, regional bank BB&T, and glass giant Corning. AT&T and BB&T were two of Rep. Foxx’s largest contributors during the 2008 election cycle, and BB&T also was during 2006.
Foxx, who has voted with her party 93.3% of the time in the current Congress, voted against the credit card bill. The bill, which put major restrictions on banks and credit card companies, was a major Democratic reform, and passed by a 367-61 margin. Winston-Salem, N.C.- based BB&T, the third-highest contributor to Foxx’s Congressional campaigns, was adversely affected by the bill. The NRA, a strong Foxx supporter, although not a top contributor, supported the bill because it allows concealed, loaded firearms to be carried in national parks.
According to the most-recent Federal Election Commission data available, Foxx, whose personal net worth is estimated at $3,188,046 to $9,972,000, has on hand more money than she spent in the 2008 election, and zero debt. The secret to her campaign success? Consistently out-spending her opponent many times over. In the 2008 election, Foxx spent 3.5 times what her opponent did. In 2006, Foxx spent 7.5 times what her opponent spent. And in her first election, Foxx spent almost three times that of her opponent. Since her 2004 Congressional campaign, Foxx has out-spent her opponent by an average of almost four times.
Matt Comer of Charlotte, N.C.-based Q-Notes, reported that openly gay South Carolina politician Jim Neal met with Foxx’s constituents last month:
“Running a campaign portraying Foxx’s actions as counterproductive for the district will be the key to success. “We can elect a moderate democrat here,†he said. “It is a question of presenting somebody who is palatable to the people who have voted for Virginia Foxx, to the Democrats who have voted for her.â€
Neal understands the frustration of district Democrats. Although he doesn’t live there, he’s more than happy to help constituents find a way to bring new representation to the area, replacing the “out of touch†elected official they currently have.
“She isn’t only reflecting poorly on herself, but she’s up there to represent the people of the Fifth District, to represent North Carolina,†he said. “She’s an embarrassment. She needs to be fired.â€
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
