The Daily Signal - Virginia GOP Chairman Announces He Will Step Down

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

“The Chair Recognizes” With November’s stinging election results not even a month behind the Virginia GOP, their chairman, State Sen. Mark Peake, announced that he will be stepping down. Peake told me that he’s leaving his post at the end of December because he wanted to make sure he could devote his full effort in the Virginia Senate to defeating the redistricting referendum before it needs a special election. He also said that the Republican Party requires a chairman who can devote a similar amount of energy to getting out the vote should it make it to a Spring special election, and beyond that, helping win whatever districts there will be come November’s midterms. Peake stepped in after longtime chair Rich Anderson earned a post as assistant secretary of the Air Force.  Cameron Hamilton has announced that he wants the State Central Committee to consider him. Hamilton mounted a challenge for the GOP nomination in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District in 2024 and his wife Karen was just elected to Virginia’s House of Delegates from the 62nd District, succeeding the retired Nick Freitas.  Some other frontrunners for the chairmanship include current chairs of Virginia’s 1st, 5th, and 6th congressional districts. They are Jeff Ryer, Rick Buchanan, and John Massoud respectively.  Ryer has helped Rep. Rob Wittman win reelection in a very competitive district while even outperforming statewide and national Republicans. Buchanan led the 5th District through the tumultuous (and expensive) primary battle between challenger John McGuire and incumbent Rep. Bob Good. Buchanan also pulled the district together to deliver a 15% victory for McGuire in the general election.  Massoud has helped Rep. Ben Cline build a strong base that supports him at a better-than-60% clip and has also managed to withstand out-of-state money attempting to flip Virginia House 34th District where incumbent Tony Wilt survived the 2025 “blue wave.”  Would Loudon County GOP chair Scott Pio try again for the chairman position? He has been vocal on social media about the need for a change and called for Peake to step down in the wake of the Democrat sweep of the statewide races and a 14-seat “flip” in the house. He was a candidate for the position when Anderson departed and lost to Peake at the State Central Committee vote.  Keep Up With The Daily Signal   Sign up for our email newsletters:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.dailysignal.com/email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠     Subscribe to our other shows:    The Tony Kinnett Cast: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL2284199939⁠ The Signal Sitdown: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL2026390376⁠   Problematic Women:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL7765680741⁠   Victor Davis Hanson: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9809784327⁠     Follow The Daily Signal:    X:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=DailySignal⁠ Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/thedailysignal/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Facebook:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/TheDailySignalNews/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Truth Social:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://truthsocial.com/@DailySignal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  YouTube:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and never miss an episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of The Daily Signal podcast. I'm your host, Joe Thomas, Virginia correspondent for The Daily Signal. Before we dive into today's interview, I want to thank you for tuning in today. If you're a first-time listener, The Daily Signal, brings you fact-based reporting and conservative commentary on politics, policy, and culture. and I hope you join our band of regular listeners to our podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and also take a moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcast. You can find additional content at DailySignal.com. Now, let's get started with today's conversation right after this.

He is the chair of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also one of Virginia's state senators looking forward to a January of some very interesting goings on in Richmond, and he is Senator Mark Peake. Good morning, Senator, and thank you for taking a little time out with me today. How are you doing? I am doing great today, Joe. Always great to talk to you. I have to ask this because I read these laws and Sharnel Herring's filing for the redistricting law in Virginia, regardless of legal battles over it or not. It specifically says, if any, other states redistrict. And we just saw the law, the judge saying Texas can't redistrict.

So does that mean we can't if Texas doesn't? Great minds, Joe. I was thinking the same thing after I heard about that court ruling. But unfortunately, I think North Carolina has redistricted. And you'll get California too. So my gosh. Well, yeah, and although California will. So I think North Carolina would be enough to do it. I think they've already done. Of course, there's going to be challenged as well.

So I don't, you know, that's going to be an interesting thing for these Democrats who all voted for bipartisan redistricting, supported for two years a constitutional amendment to do away with gerrymandering. And then they said they're doing it because of Texas. So if Texas isn't going through, are they still going to go through with partisan gerrymandering of all of our congressional districts in Virginia? And I sure hope that people will see this for what it is. And we are going to have a referendum in April that we have to win. So is that really the next line in the sand?

You're expecting this to fly through the House and Senate in January, I presume, very quickly. Can they do this fast enough to have the districts out there? I was talking to John McGuire, and he's preparing for a re-election campaign, but he's not even sure what district he's going to be in. That makes it tough. And I was just talking to somebody I'm recruiting in a couple of these other jurisdictions and tougher areas up in Northern Virginia-type area. But I know how do you get somebody to commit to running when they don't know what the district is going to be or what district they live in? And it's also hard to raise money when you don't know what district you're going to be in. That's true.

It's a very tough situation. Mark Peek is on with a state senator, and so he's going to see it from the inside out, but also RPV chair. And you just said you were talking to some folks recruiting, hoping to run. I made a case and I haven't been laughed out of town for it. I wrote it up for a column here in the Daily Signal that I published that I said, you know, if you look at how they've stretched these very safe Democrat districts like Scots and such that are 14 to 28 percentage points plus Democrat and stretch them so far that they cover all of Virginia, there's part of me that says.

they've taken some very safe districts and made them into a whole bunch of much more perilous districts, much more closely divided, 52-48 maybe, and things were a really good candidate like a Ben Klein or a Morgan Griffith, Rob Whitman, these incumbents, I mentioned John McGuire, could, you know, not only win their districts back, but you could see some of these districts flipped if you if you really hit the ground hard and ran, you know, as hard as you could for them. Am I wrong about that? You're 100% correct, and I've seen several articles about this as well. And I can't remember the exact state, but I think they went back to, you know, 50 years ago or 100 years ago,

some party tried to do this and they weakened a bunch and the tide turned on them. And they lost them all. So, you know, let the Democrats do this. The people have spoken by a two-to-one majority. They don't want partisan gerrymandering, and they pass this. They weaken some of their incumbents and create weaker seats. And then Donald Trump's got the economy humming along and everybody's cruising, doing well next November. And then all of a sudden, they lose three or four.

So, you know, when you start playing games like this, you never know what made. happen. It's a very dangerous thing to do. We have good, evenly drawn districts done constitutionally and to go trying to change the constitution in a haphazard manner on the spur of the moment and not following the laws like they should be followed. I think people will be extremely irritated and can take it out on the Democrats in 2026. Well, we'll see how that plays out. I know that when we were talking about this long before the nonpartisan redistricting commission came about. I was talking to, I was on an event. I think George Allen was there. Several of folks who were promoting the redistricting effort. And I said, how in the world would you draw a district around the city of Charlottesville to be 50-50?

What would it even look like? How far would you have to go? Now I'm seeing a map and my worst nightmares are drawn. I mean, we've got maps that go from Fredericksburg all the way down to Nelson County. and it's crazy to see it. But like you said, it's very possible that you see these flips. That being said... They're going to try it. The other thing, you know, that's not viable under the Virginia Constitution, which requires that they be contact and compact and contiguous.

So there will be a number of lawsuits, and any one of these lawsuits could say, oh, this is rushed. There's no time. The lawsuits might not have time to hear the evidence. The court could easily put a stay on this gross partisan political grab by the Democrats to change all of our congressional districts. Are there still legal challenges going on? I know we covered the three court clerks or clerks of the counties. And I know the Senate had a suit as well.

Are they done or and now it's just a matter of waiting to. we see what's drawn? I think ours, we tried to get an injunction. So the injunction wasn't granted. So there will be ultimately hearings and evidence, et cetera. Now, the concern I have is, of course, going to say right now, it's all speculative until the citizens vote and pass it. And so I hope that we won't pass something this terrible.

but, of course, might have to, might wait because there's really, nothing's been done yet. So they might say it's anticipatory. And so the suits might not be heard until May, June, July. Oh, my gosh. It's just, you know, it's a terrible, terrible thing to do to our citizens. But that's how the Democrats are acting right now. Yeah, you talk about throwing everything into uncertainty. I thought they claimed that the Republicans were the party of chaos.

and it seems to be just the opposite. Yes, it does. And they talk about political power grabs and things like that and look at what they are doing. It's sad. Mark Peek, Republican Party of Virginia chair, switching hats with you to that with us this morning. And again, thank you for talking with us a little bit. We talked with Scott Pio, the chairman of the Loudoun District, not all that long ago. and he's very upset.

Have you had a chance to talk with him? I can tell you this, Joe. I've spoken to him once back in April, and I hope to never speak to him again. He is, you can't have a sane, rational conversation with that guy. I have seen the stuff that he's been saying, and I will say there is one person that really should resign their position, and it is him.

he is a fraud and a hoax he goes on and says all this stuff he has lost everything he has done a horrible job in loudon county this guy's talking to like how he's a great organizer and changing the electorate the guy ran for the house of delegates in 2021 and got beat like a dog in his own county that he's supposed to be organizing and just got crushed then and that's when we won all three statewide races. And Joe Biden was in the White House. That guy who claims to know how to run, get people organized into the polls, got crushed himself. He then becomes party chair. And what's he done since he's become party chair in 2023? We had the crucial state Senate elections and House of Delegates. Juan Pablo Segura, one of the most best-funded candidates in a crucial

Senate seat lost with Pio as chairman Loudoun County. He won Falk Year, but where Pio was chairman in 2023, he lost, and we didn't win that Senate seat. Let's go to 2024. President Trump's election. Did Pio deliver Loudoun County? No. Let's go to 2025. A crucial House of Delegate seat. Gary Higgins. Did he deliver Loudon for Gary Higgins? No. No. Did he deliver it for Winsome? No. Did he deliver it from Jason or John Reed? No. The answer, Joe, is I beat him like a dog for the chairmanship. I beat him 65 to 13. 13 is a very unlucky number for him. And he has been obsessed since that crushing defeat at the State Central Committee. I got elected in the middle of April, five months to early voting. And in seven months. months to the end of the election. He's been there for four years. He can't deliver his county. Half of his precincts, he didn't even have anybody working in 2025. So if you asked me about talking that, I got, no, that guy's a stone cold loser. And we're going to take him out. I'm already

talking to people. They can't stand him in Loudoun County. He's not going to be a chairman anymore. So one of us won't be a chairman. He won't be a chairman after February's elections. We're going to get somebody competent in Loudoun County because we have to win Loudoun County. We have to be competitive in Lownd County. Some of his precincts, he went down by 10% from the year before, which was a loss. I mean, we've got to get somebody competent in Loudoun County, and I'm committed to doing that. So is there anything in the postscript? And I know the RPV has its advance coming up where people get together, but I know that you guys talk about this.

of, are there things that you need to be done, you know, to going forward? There are tons of things that need to be done. Yes, tons of things that need to be done. And we are talking about them all voter outreach. And, of course, get out to vote, voter turnout. And those are the two things that we have to do. And of course, we've got a special election coming up in April. So we have got to get the message out now. We've got some national groups who are going to, to be working very hard to defeat this referendum on the constitutional amendments. We'll be working hand in glove with them.

They've got the financial resources. We need the resources. We need the boots on the ground. We'll be working with our unit chairs. And we did this and there are numerous articles. You know, we've got some folks who only show up when Donald Trump's on the ballot. And we tried that this time.

We've got to get them motivated and to get out and vote. Well, I can tell you, Donald Trump, his administration, everything is on the line for them. They are fully committed to defeating this referendum. So I think we will be able to motivate the Trump-only voter because if we don't, if the Democrats take the House, his presidency is they're going to, the first thing they're going to do is impeach it. So we have got to win this referendum. So every Trump voter should be motivated. and that will be our, you know, number one mission will be to get them, to inform them

what's going on and get them to the polls. Yeah, without question, you know, you see that millions of people who voted for President Trump in Virginia there. And with that referendum, it becomes bigger than just Virginia, Mark, and it becomes almost the future of Virginia going forward. do you think that that's a message that can be made loud enough? And now with guys like Nick Freitas on my side of the microphone, you know, can the word get out? Because I know that the legacy media, I think, is what is become the phrase, fake news, as Donald Trump calls it, is loving to point fingers and try to drive wedges in the Republican Party.

Is there enough time to make it clear to the rank and file voters that's not the case? Well, is there enough time and is there enough money and is there enough volunteer support to get it done? That's what we're going to be working on. The Democrats have the same amount of time we do. But as you've seen, I mean, Trump derangement syndrome is real and it is a motivating factor for a lot of these Democrats. that's in the Commonwealth. And our Republican, common sense, conservative voters, Trump supporters, they have to realize this is it for the Commonwealth and for Trump's presidency.

If we don't defeat this at the ballot box, we're going to have 10 to one Democrat congresspeople and one Republican for the entire state. And then if they get the majority, Democrats get the majority, they're going to impeach the president. He's going to have to go through all of that. again so that it's going to take you guys we've got to get it out conservative talk radio all the pundits social media the podcast everybody is going to have to spread that message and it takes money and it takes time and it takes commitment and it takes our you know state our republican party of virginia with the whole state central committee it takes all of our unit chairs it takes all of the members of

our units, and we've got to reach out, get more members, and we've got to get them motivated to vote. Unfortunately, the outcome of this election, Mark, and I hope you can muster the crowd. Everyone says Virginia votes every year. 2026, it sounds like we're going to vote twice in a year, so we're doubling down on that RPV. And primaries. So we're going to have statewide referendum in April, primaries at whatever time they finally

fit the calendar, and then the general election. It is going to be another year full of elections. Virginia.gop is the website. He is the chair of the Republican Party. Mark, just follow you on Facebook for the state senate stuff, or is it? Yeah, state senate, Mark Peake, senator, something like that will bring up all the social medias. He is a genteel, southern gentleman, but he can get fired up too. So I appreciate your time.

I'm about had it with some people, Joe. We can't afford to do all of this stuff. We've got to defeat this referendum in April. And then they're coming after our Congress folks, Jen Kiggins and Rob Whitman. We have got to get together and win those two congressional seats no matter what. And we don't have time for all this other stupid stuff. Well, it sounds like he's rallying the herd.

Then good luck at the advance mark. And if I don't talk to you before then, happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. Same to you, Joe. Always good to talk to you. Thank you. That'll do it for today's show. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button, so you never miss out on new episodes from The Daily Signal.

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