Following the election of a black man as President, two “Tea Parties” formed at the end of the Virginia peninsula known as “The Northern Neck.”
- The “99th District Tea Party” took its name from the Virginia 99th House of Delegates District. Folded in 2016 after then-president Don Johnson went off his rocker and pissed off most the members. The 99th DTP had been failing for several months.
- The “Montross Tea Party” took its name from the town of Montross in Westmoreland County. They failed in 2016 after posting this plea on their website:
Our Board of Directors have been concerned for sometime on the drop of attendance at our Regular Tuesday night meetings. Our last meeting the attendance was 6. We understand that we have members that are out of town and others that do not drive after dark especially in the winter and others that are working hard and just can’t make the meetings.
It is getting hard to get speakers and not fair to get speakers for only 6-10 members. We have asked for input from our members. The only input we have received is from our lively open discussions at meetings.
We are not going to roll over and let the Montross Tea Party die! But we need to do something. After two Board Meetings and a long agonizing debate this is our solution for now. We are going to suspend our Tuesday night meetings for the time being. This is effective the 8th of February. The Board can call regular meetings as necessary.
In 2021, a notice appeared on the old Montross Tea Party Facebook page stating:
The Montross Tea Party is now the Northern Neck Patriots.
Turns out the “Northern Neck Patriots” are headed by a self-appointed holyroller preacher who was tossed out of the Navy for refusing to get the COVID vaccine. The few members are a rag-tag bunch, some former Montross Tea Party members, some attracted to the “Patriot” name. The “Northern Neck Patriots” website and Facebook page are simple, no information, rarely updated.
Turns out the main –some have said the only — activity by the “Northern Neck Patriots” has been to protest at the Northern Neck Regional Jail, Warsaw VA where several of the armed coup thugs from January 6, 2021, were housed awaiting trial. Turns out the “Patriots” are convinced the Jan 6 thugs are true patriots who are now being persecuted as “political prisoners”. The “Patriots” don’t have much of a track record — turns out that of the seven initial Jan 8 thugs supported by the “Patriots”, four have already been sentenced (7 years, 7 years, 51 months, and 1 year) while three have been found guilty (or pled guilty) and are awaiting sentencing.
The “Northern Neck Patriots” are not particularly respected in the area — for example:
- Former members of the Montross Tea Party unanimously do not like the “Patriots” and refuse to have anything to do with them.
- In November 2022, the “Patriots” approached every county Republican Party on the Northern Neck, asking to be appointed as “Official Representatives” so they could go into polling places and stay to “observe” election procedures. Every Republican Party turned them down.
- At least two county Republican Parties have thrown “Patriots” out of their membership.
- “Patriots” show up at a lot of County Supervisors’ meetings where they speak in the public comments period. Their comments are a mixture of nonsense, bullshit, and rightwing pipe dreams.