RICHMOND — A Republican state senator who bills herself as "Trump in heels" and lost the GOP nomination for governor this week had another defeat Thursday, when a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit she had filed attempting to overturn her censure by the state Senate.
Chase, who this week placed third in a field of seven Republicans seeking the party’s gubernatorial nomination, received the formal rebuke for a pattern of “unacceptable conduct,” her fellow senators declared at the time.
Chase fought back with a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Richmond, contending that all of the remarks and actions in question were protected by her right to free speech and political expression. It requested that her censure be overturned and expunged.
Along with the full Senate, the suit named Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) and Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar as defendants.
In a written ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne said that the defendants were protected by “legislative immunity” and could not be sued. He granted a motion to dismiss filed by Attorney General Mark Herring (D), who represented the defendants.
Chase’s lawyer in the case, Tim Anderson of Virginia Beach, referred questions to her. Chase, who went on vacation shortly after Saturday’s Republican nomination convention, declined to comment in a text message, saying, “I’m off the grid til Monday.”
A vocal supporter of former president Donald Trump, Chase has made a name for herself in state politics with provocative statements and flamboyant stunts. She’s worn a holstered handgun on the Senate floor, marched through downtown Richmond alongside far-right “boogaloo boys” with an AR-15 strapped across her chest, and called on Trump to hold on to power after November’s election by declaring martial law.
She has repeatedly echoed Trump’s false claim that Democrats stole the presidential election, including in a speech in Washington hours before the crowd stormed the Capitol.
The censure resolution criticized Chase for praising the insurrectionists who breached the Capitol. It also noted that she had cursed at a Capitol Police officer in Richmond over a parking space; accused Democrats of “treason” for their role in a “stolen” presidential election; dismissed the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic; used social media to launch attacks on members of both parties that allegedly led to personal threats from the public; and said Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan (D-
Richmond), who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor, could not represent all Virginians because she helps lead the legislature’s Black Caucus.
A censure is a formal rebuke with no other penalties, but legislative leaders separately stripped Chase of her lone committee assignment. The General Assembly has censured just one other member in modern times, in 1987.
Despite her legal effort to reverse it, Chase wore the censure as a badge of honor on the gubernatorial campaign trail, touting it as proof that she was challenging the establishment in both parties.
This week Chase had a respectable third-place showing in the race for the Republican nomination for governor, despite being vastly outspent by the two multimillionaires who came in first and second — Glenn Youngkin, former co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group, and business executive Pete Snyder.
Chase, who won 25 percent of the vote in the second-to-last round of a ranked-choice contest, spent less than $600,000.