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A protester holding a sign with the image of Richard Cox, a man convicted on child sex charges, appeared at Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger’s campaign stop in Annandale on Sunday. The protester sought to criticize Spanberger’s stance on allowing transgender students to use school bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
The issue for which Cox was called the “poster boy” has again roiled the campaign trail in Virginia, as Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears has continued to press Spanberger to state whether biological males should solely use the men’s bathroom.
The protester appeared in front of Spanberger’s parked campaign bus during a Sunday stop in Annandale, an upper-middle-class suburb about halfway between Fairfax and Washington, D.C.
“Abigail supports men in girl’s locker rooms,” the sign read, and the camera remained focused on him for several moments before a Spanberger staffer appeared to engage with members of the press about how the candidate would be exiting the home she was visiting.
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The staffer mentioned the “narrow streets” the bus would have to navigate upon leaving.
A Fox News journalist onsite recounted that it appeared staff did not want the protesting man to be further recorded.
Cox was scheduled to appear in court in neighboring Arlington County on Monday on more sex-crime-related charges — as Fairfax’s elected Democrat prosecutor has been under fire for declining to pursue Cox as vigorously for similar allegations in his ongoing case.
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Cox, born male and holding a sex-crime rap sheet going back more than 30 years, recently began identifying as a female – and complained to Arlington school district officials about being ostracized for his choice of restroom at a school-run aquatic center.
During their only debate in Norfolk in October, Earle-Sears repeatedly pressed Spanberger to take a position on the issue and to explain her refusal to call for scandal-plagued attorney general candidate Jay Jones to withdraw.
“If your little girl comes home and said she was forced to undress in a locker room with a biological boy, what would you say? She’s crying. What would you say?” Earle-Sears said to Spanberger, who ignored the question.
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“Abigail Spanberger voted for the so-called Equality Act. That vote says a grown man can walk naked into your daughter’s locker room and if she’s uncomfortable, she’s the problem,” the Republican said in an October statement citing Spanberger’s congressional record.
“Virginia, our daughters are not the problem, politicians like Abigail are.”
Spanberger said in September that Virginia had a “process in place where, on an individual, one-by-one basis, schools, parents, principals, coaches were making decisions based on fairness, competitiveness, and safety where a child might be able, or might not be able, to play in a particular sport.”
When asked about Cox, Spanberger spokeswoman Libby Wiet told The Federalist that the sex offender is a “predator who should be in jail.”
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“Abigail is a parent of three daughters in Virginia public schools and a former federal law enforcement officer who went after child predators — nothing is more important to her than the safety of Virginia’s kids,” Wiet said.
The election is Tuesday.
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