VA GOP Nominee Defends Slams on Gays and Abortion
Running to represent the fourteenth century
Virginia's newly minted Republican lieutenant governor nominee E.W. Jackson says his faith and values inform his conservative stances on issues such as abortion and marriage — and some of his past statements critics are now highlighting as extreme and offensive.
"I say the things that I say because I'm a Christian, not because I hate anybody, but because I have religious values that matter to me," Jackson told reporters at a campaign stop in Fredericksburg. "Attacking me because I hold to those principles is attacking every church-going person, every family that's living a traditional family life, everybody who believes that we all deserve the right to live. So I don't have anything to rephrase or apologize for. I would just say people should not paint me as one-dimensional."