Politician Raises Eyebrows After Borrowing His Friend’s Family for Campaign Photos

A congressional candidate has come under fire for borrowing his friend’s wife and kids to pose for campaign photos.

This weekend, Republican candidate Derrick Anderson shared photos and a YouTube video to promote his campaign for Virginia’s seventh congressional district.

In one image, which was posted online and featured in the YouTube video, Anderson is seen posing with a woman and three young girls — who look like his wife and children.

The scene could easily be mistaken for a happy family photograph. However, Anderson is not married and does not have children of his own.

Instead, according to a report by The New York Times, Anderson borrowed his friend’s family for the campaign photos and video.

A spokesperson for Anderson’s campaign tells the news publication that the images in the video simply showed the Republican candidate “with female supporters and their kids” and were not intended to look like family photos.

While Anderson is engaged to be married, the political candidate is childless and lives alone with his dog.

Did The Image ‘Mislead Voters’?

Since the revelation in The New York Times, the photo has gone viral. Social media users have mocked Anderson for seemingly trying to appeal to more women voters via their wives and attempting “to mislead voters” with the image.

Anderson is in a tight race to take over Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger’s seat in Virginia. Eugene Vindman, the Democrat running against Anderson, has reportedly included images of his own wife in campaign ads.

Social media users dubbed Anderson as a “rent-a-family guy” for the photo stunt and shared other campaign images that show him sitting around a dinner table with a woman and children who are not related to him.

However, in a further statement to Axios, Anderson’s spokesperson calls the commentary “both hilarious and sad” and says that the Republican candidate is “happily engaged and very proud of/vocal about his family.”

Indeed, Anderson filmed himself with his fiancee for a video on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) last month.

The spokesperson says that there is nothing misleading about the images and that Anderson’s “opponent and every other candidate in America are in similar pictures and videos with supporters of all kinds.”
 

 
Image credits: All photos via Derrick Anderson for VA.