John Reid (Virginia politician) – Wikipedia

Virginian Political candidate for statewide office, former delegate in Virginia

John J. Reid Jr. (born 1970/1971)^[1] is an American radio host and politician who was the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of Virginia in the 2025 election, he lost to Democrat Ghazala Hashmi by 11 points. He is a radio host at WRVA in Richmond and a former communications director for then-U.S. Senator George Allen. Reid is the son of former state delegate Jack Reid.

Reid grew up in Tuckahoe Village with his older sister, Lisa, and their parents, Judi and Jack Reid. His father served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1990 to 2008 and was the principal at Robious Middle School.

Reid attended Carver Elementary in Henrico and Byrd Middle, now Quioccasin. Then he graduated from St. Christopher’s School in 1989, where he was an Eagle Scout and president of the student government.^[2] He graduated with a BA in Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Reid served as a television news anchor and investigative reporter covering murders, consumer affairs and government corruption from 1994-2004.^[3][4]

Reid became a radio host at WRVA in Richmond starting in 2017.^[4]He won multiple best local media awards including first place in 2020 and 2021.^[5][6] During his time as radio host he had interviewed several notable politicians like Amanda Chase, Levar Stoney, Douglas Wilder, Hung Cao, and John McGuire.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

John Reid was the founder and chairman of the Virginia council in 2021, an organization that leads a team of educators and activists who focus on preserving Virginia’s cultural heritage.^[12][3] In September 2023, Reid appeared at a community event with right wing author and influencer Andy Ngo.^[13]

Following incumbent lieutenant governor Winsome Earle-Sears‘ announcement that she would run in the 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election, Reid announced that he would run for the Republican nomination in the elections as well.

On April 21, after the filing deadline, Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity announced he would withdraw from the race due to health reasons. This made Reid, the only other candidate who had filed, the Republican nominee.^[14] Four days later, The Richmonder reported that Governor Glenn Youngkin, also a Republican, had asked Reid to withdraw from the race, citing sexually explicit images and posts allegedly published on Reid’s page on the microblogging platform Tumblr.^[15] Reid denied making the posts and pledged to remain in the race, arguing the effort to remove him from the ticket was due to his sexual orientation.^[16][17] Later on Reid was linked to a tumblr account that engaged with Nazi porn accounts.^[18]

Following backlash from within the Republican Party, Youngkin stated he would “support the nominees and their ticket”.^[17] Youngkin staffer Matt Moran, whom Reid’s campaign accused of being behind the effort to remove him from the ticket, resigned as a result of the controversy.^[19][20]

He faced Democratic nominee state senator Ghazala Hashmi in the general election. Throughout the race, Hashmi and Reid did not agree to attend any debates. In response, Reid held a 40-minute debate without the involvement of Hashmi.^[21][22] Hashmi was represented by a computer monitor depicting her face, with responses delivered via artificial intelligence speech synthesis.^[22] The Reid campaign stated the responses delivered through speech synthesis were compiled and written by the Reid campaign, through information from interviews and Hashmi’s website. The Virginian-Pilot noted that the on-screen attribution for the statements delivered occasionally listed far-right websites such as The Gateway Pundit.^[22]

He lost the November election to Ghazala Hashmi by 11 points in a landslide. Democrats overperformed election polls and expectations of a close race here. Hashmi overperformed both Harris and Biden’s margin.^[23]

Reid is opposed to the marriage equality constitutional amendment that is proposed in 2026 because “it does not contain language saying religious organizations and clergy may refuse to officiate such unions”. Rather, he supports the repeal of the same-sex amendment ban from 2006.^[24]

John Reid supports Youngkin’s Pro-School choice expansion programs.^[25]

Reid is opposed to a constitutional amendment providing automatic voter rights restoration for former incarcerated felons. ^[25]

Back in 2022 Reid criticized Biden’s Student loan forgiveness policy, accusing his actions as unconstitutional.^[26]

During his time as a talk show host, Reid took several Anti-abortion positions. On November 1st, 2024, Reid compared abortion to slavery and repeated lies that abortion is performed up to and on the day of birth. In July of that year he compared out of state patient traveling for seeking a abortion to the slave trade.^[27]

Reid is openly gay and lives in Richmond with his partner of eight years, Alonzo Mable.^[28] They attend St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond.