HARRISONBURG, Va. — Ken Cuccinelli II, the polarizing former Virginia attorney general, said Saturday that he will not run again for governor, scrambling the contest and opening the door for a far-right conservative to vie for the Republican nomination in 2017.
An active surrogate for Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential bid, Cuccinelli has been traveling the country in support of the senator from Texas while overseeing the campaign’s delegate-selection process in Virginia.
“I made my choice here, and it was to go all in on the Cruz campaign,” he told The Washington Post in an interview at the state Republican convention here. “There’s only so much that makes sense on an individual and family basis. . . . It’s better for our family not to do both.”
The decision left some wondering whether Cuccinelli might serve as attorney general in a possible Cruz administration or run for the U.S. Senate, both posts that would give him opportunities to rein in what he sees as federal overreach.
As Virginia’s attorney general, Cuccinelli built a national profile and became a hero to tea-party-influenced conservatives by waging battles against abortion rights, climate science and the Affordable Care Act.
Democrats successfully painted him as too extreme for Virginia in the 2013 race for governor, allowing Democrat Terry McAuliffe to narrowly defeat him with an unabashedly liberal message on gay rights and gun control.
More at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/cuccinelli-will-not-run-for-governor-in-2017/2016/04/30/3a89b3a2-0ef4-11e6-8ab8-9ad050f76d7d_story.html
