Childless Republican candidate borrows wife and children from friend to pose for campaign photos

A Republican congressional candidate posed for a photo with a woman and three young girls in what could be mistaken for a family vacation card.

But the image — which was posted on the National Republican Campaign Committee’s website to promote Derrick Anderson’s campaign and included in a video on his campaign’s YouTube account — is not a family photo at all.

They are the wife and children of Anderson’s friend.

Anderson, a former Army Green Beret running for a congressional seat in Virginia, was also filmed with the woman and her children in footage posted to his YouTube channel.

The candidate has no children of his own and is not married. According to his campaign website, he lives with his dog.

The source of the images appeared in a story by The New York Times titled “GOP candidates looking to soften their image turn to their wives,” which outlined how Republican campaigns are relying on their families while fighting for abortion rights and access to reproductive health care will be the focus of the 2024 elections.

The story noted that male anti-abortion Republicans who are “struggling to appeal to female voters concerned about their record on reproductive rights” are now “freeing up their spouses to run on their behalf.” .

Another picture of Anderson with a young girl appears in a campaign mailer.

Anderson celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade In 2022, she wrote on Twitter at the time that the justices had “finally gotten it right” and “overturned a 50-year-old decision federalizing abortion.”

That largely unpopular decision by the court’s conservative majority struck down a constitutional right to abortion care that the court had upheld in 1973, leaving it up to individual states to legislate abortion care, including deciding whether to criminalize access should.

Asked repeatedly whether he “supports a woman’s right to choose,” Anderson said at a candidates’ forum this month that “each state must make a decision that best suits their state.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s Vice President JD Vance is under constant scrutiny for misogynistic comments about “childless cat ladies” wielding political power, while his Republican allies have criticized Democratic rival Kamala Harris for her relationship with her stepchildren.

The Independent has reached out to Anderson’s campaign for comment.

The footage of the woman and three girls posing with Anderson has not been used in any campaign advertising, except for a video on Anderson’s official YouTube page and on a website funded by the National Republican Campaign Committee.

A spokesman criticized Anderson The times for focusing on the footage, saying his Democratic opponent Eugene Vindman and “every other candidate in America can be seen in similar pictures and videos with supporters of all kinds.”