Congressional candidate goes viral after posing for ‘happy family’ pics — with friend’s wife and kids
A congressional candidate in Virginia has gone viral after sharing photos of him ಌposing with a friend’s wife and three daughters — that critics claimed🔜 he’s trying to pass off as his own happy family.
Derrick Anderson, a former Army Green Beret running for an open seat in Virginia’s 7th District, posted a campaign video with a shot of him beaming alongs🐼ide a woman and three girls, along with another im🅷age of them at a dining table as if eating together as a family.
Grabs from the video quickly went viral — with one tweet — after Anderson’s campaign that the images showed him “with female supporters and their kids,” which the Times said were🤪 the wife and kids of one of his longtime friends.
The Republican candidate, who recently got enga🦹ged and has no kids, lives alone with h🅘is dog, according to his campaign website.
His ca༺mpaign blasted the suggestion that he was trying to portray them as his own family in a statement to the Times when the story was published.
His campaign then slammed🌳 the Times story in a statement to The Post on Tuesday.
“The New York Times intentionally misled voters by falsely reporting on Derrick — who is happily engaged and very proud of/vocal about his family — appearing in a video with female supp🏅orters and their kids,” a campaign spokesperson stated.
“It’s both hilarious and sad. Derrick’s opponent and every other candidate in America are in similar pictures and video with supporters of all kinds, and Yevgeny Vindman features similar shots in his own campaign b-roll — which shows how absurd this farce is.”
The video has not been used in an off♏icial campaign ad but can be found on Anderson’s YouTube channel and a website paid for by the National Republican Campaign Cℱommittee.
However, many used the viral images to slam Anderson, including the 🅘Dem💟ocratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which accused him of “misleading” voters with “deceitful” tactics.
“Derrick Anderson is so desper🦋ate to mask his anti-abortion views and look like a family man that he’s posing for fake family pict🃏ures,” DCCC spokesperson Lauryn Fanguen
“He’s clearly not abov🍬🌌e misleading Virginians and definitely can’t be trusted to represent them in Congress.”
This is Anderson’s second run for Co🎐ngress, after losing the 7th District’s GOP primary in 2022. The seat is occupied by Rep. Abi♏gail Spanberger, a Democrat who will seek the Virginia governor’s office in 2025.
Anderson is runn😼ing against fellow Army veteran and Democrat Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman, who﷽ served on the National Security Council under President Donald Trump.
Vindma꧃n gained national attention in 2019 as a whistleblower in the first impeachment attempt against the former president, which was sparked by the Ukrainian-born candidate’s reporting of a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Vindman campaign is over alleged illegal coordination between his ✱campaign and VoteVets, a PAC run by his twin brother. The complaint followed media scrutiny over the candidate’s military record, which led the
Anderson has called on Vindman to release his military service record after accusing him of misealing ♛voters about his time in the Army.
