--- title: Bob Goodlatte's Son Donates to Democrat Running for His Seat description: The son of retiring high-ranking Republican Bob Goodlatte, of Virginia, said he donated to the Democrat running for his father's seat. canonical: https://time.com/5365504/republican-congressman-bob-goodlatte-son-donates-democrat/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-13T16:23:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:08:06.828Z article:section: Politics og:title: Son of Retiring House Republican Donates to Democrat Running for Father's Seat og:description: "2018 is the year to flip districts — let's do this," Bobby Goodlatte said og:url: https://time.com/5365504/republican-congressman-bob-goodlatte-son-donates-democrat/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt641718a01c35f81a/6989379797cdff12e56b5f80/bob-goodlatte-retiring-bobby-jennifer-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4471 og:image:height: 2515 og:image:alt: Trump Russia Probe Congress, Washington, USA - 12 Jul 2018 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Son of Retiring House Republican Donates to Democrat Running for Father's Seat twitter:description: "2018 is the year to flip districts — let's do this," Bobby Goodlatte said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt641718a01c35f81a/6989379797cdff12e56b5f80/bob-goodlatte-retiring-bobby-jennifer-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Son of Retiring House Republican Donates to Democrat Running for Father's Seat > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 13, 2018 4:23 PM UTC  Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte questions FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok during a hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington on July 12, 2018. Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte questions FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok during a hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington on July 12, 2018. Evan Vucci—AP/Shutterstock  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 13, 2018 4:23 PM UTC The son of retiring [high-ranking Republican](http://time.com/5286089/congress-farm-bill-republicans-paul-ryan/) Bob Goodlatte announced Sunday that he [gave the maximum campaign donation](https://twitter.com/rsg/status/1028798224382009345) to the Democrat running for his father’s seat — and called on others to do the same. Goodlatte, a U.S. congressman from Virginia who serves as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced last year that he would not seek reelection after 13 terms in Congress. Democratic candidate Jennifer Lewis, a mental health worker, is now running against Republican Ben Cline, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, to replace Goodlatte. “I just gave the maximum allowed donation to Jennifer Lewis, a democrat running for my father’s congressional seat,” Bobby Goodlatte, the congressman’s son, said in a tweet on Sunday. “I’ve also gotten 5 other folks to commit to donate the max. 2018 is the year to flip districts — let’s do this!” “Certainly wasn’t an easy decision,” he added in replies to some Twitter users praising his decision to speak out in spite of his father’s party affiliation. > [](https://twitter.com/rsg/status/1028798224382009345) A spokesperson for the senior Goodlatte did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. He won his election in Virginia’s Sixth Congressional District in 2016 with more than 66% of the vote. “I appreciate Bobby’s generous donation and his confidence in our campaign and bold message,” Lewis said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to work alongside a Goodlatte from now until November – we need the broadest coalition possible to return power to the people of Virginia’s Sixth.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5365504/republican-congressman-bob-goodlatte-son-donates-democrat/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5365504/republican-congressman-bob-goodlatte-son-donates-democrat/"},"headline":"Son of Retiring House Republican Donates to Democrat Running for Father's Seat","datePublished":"2018-08-13T16:23:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:08:06.828Z","description":"\"2018 is the year to flip districts — let's do this,\" Bobby Goodlatte said","url":"https://time.com/5365504/republican-congressman-bob-goodlatte-son-donates-democrat/","keywords":["Congress","Virginia","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt641718a01c35f81a/6989379797cdff12e56b5f80/bob-goodlatte-retiring-bobby-jennifer-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt641718a01c35f81a/6989379797cdff12e56b5f80/bob-goodlatte-retiring-bobby-jennifer-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump Russia Probe Congress, Washington, USA - 12 Jul 2018","caption":"Trump Russia Probe Congress, Washington, USA - 12 Jul 2018","creditText":"Evan Vucci—AP/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5365504/republican-congressman-bob-goodlatte-son-donates-democrat/","name":"Son of Retiring House Republican Donates to Democrat Running for Father's Seat"}}]}] ```