Even Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a fairly heavy favorite in his reelection bid against Democrat Beto O’Rourke, felt the need to defend a state audit of 2020 presidential election results in four counties. Recall that it was an audit demanded by Donald Trump, who had officially won the state by more than 630,000 votes.
Cao might be a political novice, but he’s taking a smarter approach. During his first live debate with incumbent Democrat Rep. Jennifer Wexton on Oct. 2 at the Dar Al Noor Mosque in Manassas, Cao was asked, “Do you believe the 2020 election was free, fair and untainted, and Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States? And do you feel confident about the election process this year?”
Cao responded clearly, emphatically and with a bit of a smile: “Sir, Joe Biden is the president of the United States. If you don’t believe me, go to your gas pumps or go to your grocery stores, and that’ll tell you who is.”
Boom! Perfection. People in the audience responded with whoops and applause. Even the most devoted MAGA-hat-wearing Trump fan could get on board with Cao’s reply without demanding to know where he stands on the legal theories of Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, or the menaces of Venezuelan hackers and bamboo in the paper of Arizona’s ballots.
Cao’s line wasn’t just a good zinger; an answer like that urges Republicans to refocus and stop thinking about the 2020 election and Trump’s delusional fantasies of being declared “the rightful winner.” Better to think about what should be done in the here and now.
In addition to the not-so-small point that the 2020 presidential election conspiracy theories aren’t true, for a 2022 Republican candidate, they’re a waste of time. Every minute spent on rehashing 2020 is a minute not spent making the case against President Biden and congressional Democrats’ economic policies, border policies, crime policies, and so on.
If Republican candidates are going to argue about what should have been done two years ago, they might as well spend time denouncing the invasion of Iraq or the bailout of General Motors or the cancellation of “Firefly.” What’s passed is past. Tell us what you’re going to do if you’re elected and you start work in January.
In a year when it seems Republicans nominated many candidates who are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, Cao might be the best of the lot. He brings a sterling résumé — immigrating to the United States in 1975 as a refugee from Vietnam, graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County and then the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Deployed in combat to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, serving alongside Special Forces and SEAL teams, and returned from his last deployment in January 2021.
In the Manassas debate, Cao also showed a flair for political theater, holding up a Wexton flier that labeled him an extremist and countering that the incumbent was stoking xenophobia.
“ ‘Extremist.’ Where have you heard this word before?” he asked the audience at a mosque. “Where have you heard this word before? I fought [for] and served this country. I bled for this country. And I’m being called an extremist. I’ve served honorably for every American. I know lots of people that served with me didn’t agree with my politics, and that’s fine. I served them anyway. I served them as a commanding officer, I served them in combat, to preserve life. And now I’m being called an ‘extremist.’ Where have you heard that before? This is how we tear people apart. I deserve to be called an American. I’ve earned that right. We’ve all earned that right.”
Cao is no shoo-in. While the redrawn district lines are a little friendlier to Republicans than before, Wexton has plenty going for her — she’s an experienced prosecutor and former state senator, elected to the House in the 2018 Democratic wave, comfortably reelected in 2020. She’ll almost certainly outspend Cao.
But win or lose, Cao has given Republicans in Northern Virginia and elsewhere a much better, and more competitive, model for campaigning — and for moving past the exhausted and pointless arguments about 2020.
