A controversy between Democratic candidates vying for the nomination in the 55th District shows no sign of slowing down with less than two weeks before the June 20 primary that will likely determine who ends up serving in Richmond after the November general election.

“From abortion to guns to voting, Kellen Squire has sounded just like a Republican,” says the most recent in a series of no-holds-barred flyers sent by Amy Laufer’s campaign to Democratic voters over the past several weeks.

For the better part of a year, the difference between the two primary candidates mostly appeared to be their backgrounds: Laufer is a former Charlottesville School Board member; Squire is an ER nurse. Both have previously run for elected office at the state level, and in interviews and public appearances over many months, both presented progressive platforms on abortion, education, health care and gun control.

That changed in late May with Laufer’s first attack flyer, claiming Squire had declared himself “unashamedly pro-life” and advocated for “the addition to the Democratic party platform that we eliminate abortion in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

The Squire campaign hit back, calling the claims “lies,” and in an interview on Charlottesville Right Now, Squire said Laufer was twisting words from a long defunct website he’d made when campaigning against Republican Rob Bell in a more conservative district in 2017.

“What I wanted to do was to make a pro-choice argument using conservative language to be able to highlight the hypocrisy of where Republicans stood on abortion,” he said. “To be like, well, but all they talk about is abortion. They don’t talk about any of these other things that I would consider pro-life, maternal care and primary care and stuff.”

Squire said he’s always been pro-choice and has provided abortion care as an ER nurse, making him acutely aware of the issue’s importance.

Laufer’s attacks on Squire prompted swift public outrage.

“It’s just sad that she is relying on outside groups, unreliable, misleading information and then exaggerating it. Win or lose on the merits, not an unseemly political tactic,” said Sue Platt, President Joe Biden’s former chief of staff, in a tweeted statement.

“It was so falsely stated that I think it’s fair to call it a lie, and a lie that she knowingly spread,” wrote Earlysville resident Sally Duncan in a Daily Progress op-ed.

Laufer did not respond to Charlottesville Right Now’s request for an interview, but in statements and new flyers, her campaign has doubled down, expanding the attacks on Squire, claiming he has “sided with the gun lobby over safety” and “wanted to make it harder for people to vote.”

“And I am concerned that we have a Democratic candidate who said we can’t trust his own words,” she wrote in a statement defending her first flyer. “For women in Virginia, access to reproductive healthcare is not a game of semantics.”

On Wednesday, June 7, Squire held a press conference defending his position and record on the issues. He was joined in person and virtually by a slew of high profile Democrats, former and current Charlottesville city councilors and abortion rights activists

The question of how political drama will play out at the polls remains unanswered, however. A local Democratic voter says he’s watching the controversy closely and remains undecided.

“As a voter, what I care about is what my representative is going to do in Richmond and whether I can trust that representative over the long term to stand up for the principles that he or she has outlined,” said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a UVA professor and host of the Democracy in Danger podcast. 

He says the question at the polls will come down to who voters trust.

“That’s a really hard thing to gauge because when it comes to an issue, it’s not just whether you support one outcome or another,” he said. “A lot depends on the amount of emphasis you put on said issue, how much you really care, how much you’re willing to support it, and how much you’re willing to risk or sacrifice to get the outcome that you say you want.”

Listen to the interview with Kellen Squire here.

Listen to the interview with Siva Vaidhyanathan here.