Pro-life Republican Party candidate Derrick Anderson, running for Virginia’s seventh congressional district, has faced heavy ridicule on social media after his latest controversy involving a campaign photoshoot in which he posed with a woman and children who are not his own in an apparent attempt to appeal to voters.
In what looks like a typical family holiday photo, Anderson, who is childless and engaged, is seen with a woman and three young girls. However, the woman and children are not his family—they are, in fact, the wife and kids of one of his longtime friends.
Anderson, who lives alone with his dog, seemingly opted to borrow the wife and children of a friend in an attempt to project a family-friendly image.
While it is strange that Anderson and his team thought that they could somehow make this charade work in the age of internet, it is even more stranger that one of the spokespersons for Anderson has even gone on to defend the photo shoot, dismissing the focus on the footage. “Derrick’s opponent and other candidates across America are in similar pictures with supporters,” the spokesperson claimed, as he even went on to insist that the images simply showed Anderson “with female supporters and their kids.”
New: Republican candidate for Congress Derrick Anderson posed for photos with the wife and children of one of his friends, apparently to appear like they are his family.
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) September 28, 2024
They are not his family.https://t.co/wIzrEnKKdi pic.twitter.com/jNxORdlUJd
The irony of Anderson’s situation is hard to miss, given that his own party’s vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, has made a habit of criticizing childless adults. While Anderson, who is unmarried and childless, attempts to project a family-oriented image by posing with borrowed kids, Vance has been under fire for disparaging comments about those without children.
In a resurfaced 2021 clip, Vance claimed that “childless cat ladies” are running the country to its detriment. Though he later brushed off the remarks as “sarcastic,” a 2020 podcast revealed a pattern of inflammatory remarks. In one instance, Vance even said that adults without children, especially those in leadership positions, are “more sociopathic” and “less mentally stable” than parents.
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“You go on Twitter, and almost always the people who are most deranged and most psychotic are people who don’t have kids at home,” Vance said in the podcast.
Unearthed video: JD Vance says people who don’t have children are “sociopathic,” “psychotic,” and “deranged” pic.twitter.com/jaqL6BsXXF
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) July 30, 2024
He further criticized childless Americans in fundraising emails, claiming they are “miserable in their own lives” and “invested in NOTHING because they’re not invested in this country’s children.”
Republicans and general voters must ask themselves a couple of questions before deciding if Anderson is truly the right candidate for them. Firstly, should they vote for someone who has been indirectly labeled as more sociopathic and less stable by his own party’s vice-presidential candidate? Secondly, is someone whose political campaign hinges on portraying traditional family values, yet has to borrow a family to fit that persona because they are single and childless, really aligned with the voters’ family values?
In 2022, Anderson voiced strong support for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed access to abortion, declaring, “SCOTUS finally got it right.”
Despite the defense from Anderson’s camp, many saw the stunt as a desperate and awkward attempt to connect with voters concerned about family values—particularly at a time when Republican stances on reproductive rights are rightfully under scrutiny.