Analysis: Can John Reid survive a ‘Nazi Porn Scandal’ and become Virginia’s next lieutenant governor?

Reid, an openly gay Republican, has denied ownership of a Tumblr account that reportedly shared sexual fetish content.

Wednesday marks three weeks since news broke that a blog account seemingly tied to John Reid, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of Virginia, reposted sexual content from accounts that shared Nazi imagery and graphic sexual violence. 

In a previous era, such a story may have ended—or at least severely weakened—a campaign. But in today’s era of sharply polarized politics, information overload, and online noise, the scandal has gone largely unnoticed. 

Here’s a recap, in case you missed it: 

The story, reported by American Journal News, revealed that a Tumblr account with the username JRDeux—the same username Reid’s used on Instagram—shared explicit images from other accounts, including a 2015 repost of an image of a male college student in only his underwear from an account with a racial slur in its username. 

That account also reportedly posted several pictures of men with white supremacist and Nazi tattoos, including one of a swastika, though JRDeux did not repost those images. 

According to American Journal, the JRDeux account also shared sexually explicit fetish content from another user named “slaveandy,” including a picture of a man in bondage gear using a necktie to suffocate someone, and another of a man pushing someone else’s face into his armpit. This user also posted sexually violent content, though JRDeux did not reshare those posts.

Reid, who is openly gay, has denied ownership of the Tumblr account, which was first reported on by other news organizations earlier this year. In the spring, Gov. Glenn Youngkin called on Reid to step down as the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor after he learned that the Tumblr account allegedly tied to Reid shared graphic photos of naked men.

Reid refused to step down, accused Youngkin’s political action committee (PAC) of extorting him, and said he was being targeted because of his sexual identity. 

The JRDeux Tumblr account was deleted after it was first reported on in the spring, but American Journal recovered multiple posts using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. 

While Reid withstood the pressure to withdraw from the race and consolidated support among the Republican base, polling has still consistently shown him trailing his opponent, Democratic State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, for most of the summer and fall. 

But the race remains competitive, and with just two weeks to go until Election Day, it appears Reid has withstood a second blog-related imbroglio. 

Reid’s campaign did not respond to the handful of stories about the blog, and he ignored criticism from Democrats who called on him to withdraw from the race. Among the outlets that covered the story, The New Republic in particular did not pull its punches, saying Reid was “Caught in a Nazi Porn Scandal” in their headline. But it failed to break through in a meaningful way. 

In the Trump era, simply ignoring a negative story until the news cycle turns over and moves onto something else has proven to be an effective strategy for many politicians.

That appears to be the bet Reid and his team made as well, and on that front, they got lucky. Published on Oct. 1, American Journal’s story was quickly drowned out by the start of the ongoing federal government shutdown and other scandals plaguing statewide candidates in Virginia.

Youngkin tried to push Reid out of the race for lieutenant governor because he and his advisors feared Reid would sink the rest of the Republican statewide ticket. That fear has not come to pass. If fellow Republicans Winsome Earle-Sears, the party’s nominee for governor, and Jason Miyares, the incumbent attorney general, lose their races, it won’t be because of Reid, but their own shortcomings.

If Reid loses, it could owe to many factors—a political environment that favors Democrats, a strong opponent, and yes, potentially his blog. 

If he wins, which remains possible, he’d be just the latest in a growing list of candidates to not only survive scandals that would have once ended campaigns, but emerge victorious from them. 

Call it the “Trump effect,” call it what you will, but if Reid—or Jay Jones, for that matter—win on Election Day, it will further signal that we’re in new territory politically, and that the old rules of campaigns and what defines electability are out the window.