How a Gay Wedding Fractured Virginia Republicans

Alex Pisciarino and Rek LeCounte’s wedding day last July was hot -- the kind of soupy mid-summer heat that slows the South to a crawl.
“We warned everybody to wear seersucker and some light fabric,” LeCounte said. “And some folks didn't listen to us and you could tell how they wish they had.”
At the time, the couple had no idea their day would make national headlines. They met at a Log Cabin Republican event in Washington, DC, and later volunteered for Congressman Denver Riggleman (R-Nelson). Asking Riggleman to officiate the wedding felt like a natural move.
But the wedding sparked a backlash and nomination challenge from former Liberty University athletics director Bob Good that may cost Riggleman his seat. For Good, a born-again Christian, Riggleman’s laissez-faire approach to same-sex marriage is emblematic of failings that make him unfit for office.
It may not matter that President Donald Trump Tweeted in December that Riggleman had his “Total Endorsement,” or that Riggleman has so far raised eight times as much money as his challenger.
Thanks to the unusual option in Virginia of holding nominating conventions rather than primaries, Riggleman’s fate rests with roughly 3,500 party activists at a drive-in convention set for Saturday. And in a campaign that has turned increasingly bitter, Good claims he’s secured the majority of their votes.