Constitutional lawyer Emord joins Virginia GOP primary field in bid to unseat Democrat Sen. Kaine

Constitutional and administrative attorney Jonathan Emord on Tuesday announced his bid to win next year's Virginia GOP Senate primary and challenge incumbent Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine for his seat.

Emord in his announcement sought to tie Kaine to President Biden and put the responsibility for such problems as inflation, record migration at the southern U.S. border and the related influx of the dangerous synthetic narcotic fentanyl at their feet. 

Emord argues fentanyl killed roughly 2,000 Virginians last year. 

Like Virginia GOP Gov. Glen Youngkin, who in 2021 crafted a winning gubernatorial campaign on public education reform, Emord has also set his sights on schools, which he argues "indoctrinate and transition rather than educate" students.

Kaine in recent days officially declared he will seek a third term. He so far has no official primary challengers, according to Ballotpedia.com, which also shows five Republicans already in the Virginia GOP Senate primary, not including Emord. 

Top election forecasters show Democrats as the early favorites to hold the seat. 

"Biden and Kaine are deaf to the pleas of hard-working Americans, but I hear them," Emord also said in his campaign announcement. 

"Our agenda is the opposite of the Biden/Kaine agenda. Ours is dedicated to freedom and progress. … Biden, Democrat leaders in Congress, Tim Kaine among them, have pursued a socialist agenda, endeavoring to replace individual liberty, freedom of choice, and free enterprise with government planning, government mandates, inflationary spending and regulatory burdens on the private sector so great as to invite economic collapse."

He also set out a five-prong campaign platform that focuses on improving the economy, curbing crime, improving education and enhancing border security.

Emord promises to curb high inflation with cuts to government spending and regulations, while encouraging economic growth through corporate and individual tax reductions.

While he follows fellow Republicans and others in the years-long mission to build a complete southern border wall, Emord also wants to establish a combined federal Customs and Border Patrol and state border protection force that will "arrest, incarcerate and eject all who enter our country illegally."