The chair of the Arlington County Republican Committee is not planning to seek the soon-to-be vacant chairmanship of the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV).
But Matthew Hurtt has strong ideas about the qualities required of the next party leader — including the need to devote 100% of their effort to the position.
“A good RPV chairman really can’t do it part-time, which means an ideal chairman is independently wealthy and able to dedicate at least 40 hours a week to managing and growing the party,” Hurtt said in Dec. 1 Substack posting.
After crushing defeats in this year’s elections, state GOP chair Mark Peake announced he will be leaving the post at the end of the year to concentrate on his work in the Virginia Senate. Peake had been tapped to lead the party earlier this year, after the previous chair — Rich Anderson — quit to become Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force.
The party was walloped in the Nov. 4 election, losing all three statewide seats and seeing its ranks in the House of Delegates shrink by more than a dozen members. This has resulted in finger-pointing among various factions of the party, which the next chair will need to address.
Hurtt said the chairmanship — an unpaid position — often proves a “thankless” job.
“It’s incredibly time-consuming, and it takes a lot of work to do it right,” he said. “It also takes the ability to navigate intra-party factions and sometimes difficult personalities.”
Hurtt said he would not be running, but rather keep his focus on rebuilding the Arlington GOP.
Those efforts suffered a setback in the 2025 election, with the party’s County Board nominee — Bob Cambridge — finishing third with 12% of the vote, behind Democrat Takis Karantonis and independent Audrey Clement.
Republicans also contested two of three House of Delegates races in Arlington, but the nominees made little impression on the campaign trail and were handily defeated by Democratic incumbents.
Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican candidate for governor, won just 16% of the vote in Arlington, down from nearly 23% of the vote that went to Republican Glenn Youngkin in 2021.
The disappointing results came despite a relatively robust get-out-the-vote effort by the Arlington GOP.
In his post, Hurtt said Republican Party of Virginia vice chair Kristi Way was likely to serve as acting chair until a successor to Peake is elected by the Republican State Central Committee in the spring.
The winner will serve until 2028.
Virginia Republican leaders and activists will gather Dec. 5-7 at Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg for the party’s post-election annual conference. Jockeying among prospective party chairs likely will be one of the event’s key themes.
In Hurtt’s opinion, the prospective field thus far is lacking.
“In my view, there are currently no qualified Republicans who have waded into the RPV drama who possess the skills of a qualified RPV chairman,” he wrote to local party members.
While Virginia Republicans are looking for a new party chair at the state level, the Arlington County Democratic Committee in January will elect a new chair to succeed Steve Baker, who has served the past four years. Democratic leaders Paul Ruiz and Tony Weaver are seeking the local chairmanship.
