'Gay Democrat' Text Spurs Republican Candidate To Sue 'Jane Doe'

VIRGINIA — A Republican candidate for Virginia lieutenant governor filed a defamation lawsuit against an unknown defendant over a text message sent to voters registered for the GOP’s convention, which is being held Saturday to choose the party’s nominees for statewide offices.

Del. Glenn Davis (R-84th) announced Tuesday that he is going to court in an effort to find out who is responsible for an anonymous text message last week that called him “a Gay Democrat” while supporting one of his opponents.

The message criticized Davis’ voting record, called him gay and said, “Help Glenn come out of the closet by not ranking him on May 8th.”

“These unethical, illegal and scandalous tactics are detrimental to our party, civil discourse and the efforts underway to win back Virginia for Republicans in November,” Davis said in a statement Tuesday.

“I want it to be very clear that we will soon discover which campaign and bad actors were behind this text and they will be sued to the full extent allowed by Virginia law,” he said.

On Saturday, 53,000 delegates will cast ballots for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general at the Republican nominating convention. The contest is ranked choice, requiring candidates to get a majority of votes to win.

The lawsuit, filed in Norfolk Circuit Court, names “Jane Doe” as a defendant and asks for $450,000 in damages.

The lawsuit identifies the registered user of the phone number from which the text was sent, a Minnesota-based telecommunications company called Onvoy.

Davis, who has been married to his wife, Chelle, for 16 years, said his attorney will ask a judge to force Onvoy to reveal who paid for the blast text, which used a photo of him at an LGBTQ festival and called former delegate Timothy D. Hugo (R-40th) “the only conservative running for Lt. Governor.”

The other Republican candidates seeking the nomination for lieutenant governor are business consultant Puneet Ahluwalia, U.S. Air Force veteran Lance Allen, attorney Maeve Rigler and former Del. Winsome Sears (R-90th).

Davis said the text message violated Virginia election law requirements and crossed the boundaries for a defamation violation.

“For far too long, this type of behavior has gone unchecked and unchallenged within Virginia’s Republican Party and today that ends with me,” he said.