It looks like a family holiday card except that the woman and children posing with Republican Derrick Anderson are not his wife or his offspring.
Anderson, who running in a close race for Virginia’s seventh congressional district, was seen in another image seated around the dining table with the same woman and three girls.
The images came to light in an article by The New York Times, headlined “G.O.P. Candidates, Looking to Soften Their Image, Turn to Their Wives,” which reported how “male Republicans struggling to appeal to female voters concerned about their records on reproductive rights are unleashing their spouses to make the pitch on their behalf.”
However Anderson, who is childless, engaged to be married and lives alone with his dog, sought to borrow the wife and children from a longtime friend in an apparent effort to appear as a family man.
A spokesman for Anderson criticized The New York Times for focusing on the footage and said that “Derrick’s opponent and every other candidate in America are in similar pictures and video with supporters of all kinds.” The spokesman said the video simply showed Anderson “with female supporters and their kids.”
However, comments by vice presidential candidate JD Vance making fun of “childless cat ladies” and a push by Republicans to roll back abortion rights have not been popular with the electorate.
In 2022, Anderson praised the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that provided women with abortion access, saying “SCOTUS finally got it right.”
His decision to pose with a family that was not his own was widely mocked on social media.
