Chase, who refuses to wear mask, stressed COVID safety in failed lawsuit to stop GOP convention

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Amanda Chase, who has previously bragged about being the only state senator who refuses to wear a mask, put COVID-19 safety concerns front and center as she unsuccessfully sought to force the Virginia GOP to switch its nomination method from a convention to a state-run primary.

“We are on a collision course with 10,000 people assembled in the time of COVID, and that’s just unacceptable,” Chase’s lawyer, Tim Anderson, argued during a hearing before a Richmond judge Friday. “That should be unacceptable to a court, not just because it violates the governor’s order, but it’s unsafe. It is unsafe, it is reckless.”

Richmond Circuit Court Judge Margaret Spencer rejected Chase’s request for an injunction barring the state GOP from holding a convention, not because doing so would be unsafe, but because she said Chase lacked standing to enforce Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order.

Chase, the frontrunner in early polls of the GOP field who describes herself as “Trump in heels,” has been pushing for a primary since she announced her campaign last year, briefly threatening to run as an independent after the state party’s central committee instead opted for a convention. Chase has said she believes a convention would be rigged against her.

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/blog-va/chase-who-refuses-to-wear-mask-stressed-covid-safety-in-failed-lawsuit-to-stop-gop-convention/