If anyone can bridge the yawning chasm that currently divides Virginia Republicans, Jack Wilson thinks he’s the right person for the job.

Wilson, an attorney from Chester, decided earlier this month to seek the state party’s top leadership position, saying he hopes to galvanize the GOP’s establishment and conservative factions behind the late President Ronald Reagan’s “80-20 rule.”

Reagan, who opposed “ideological purity” tests, once said, “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and ally – not a 20 percent traitor.”

“We need to start accentuating the positive instead of always focusing on the negative,” Wilson said in a recent telephone interview. “We have different viewpoints within the party that have divided us, but a lot of the time it comes down to tone and rhetoric, not policy. If you don’t vote, you are effectively choosing the person who is with you 20 percent of the time.”

Wilson, the state party’s 4th District chairman, is running for the chance to succeed John Whitbeck, whose resignation as chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia became official July 21.

The party’s state central committee is expected to select a new permanent chair at its Sept. 8 meeting. That’s less than two months before an election in which Virginia could play a key role in the GOP’s efforts to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Democrats are targeting three Virginia legislators – including Rep. Dave Brat, R-7th District – as they try to flip the House and put a check on President Donald Trump’s executive authority. The Republicans’ 51-49 advantage in the Virginia House of Delegates also will be at stake in November 2019. Protecting that narrow majority will be challenging with conservative voters irate over the House’s vote to expand Medicaid during the most recent General Assembly session.

“It has to be ‘All hands on deck’ next year,” Wilson said. “If the Republican Party can’t pull together, we’re going to have big problems. But if we can unify before the Democrats, we’ll be successful.”

Wilson thinks the failure to seek common ground is the biggest reason recent Republican candidates have fared so poorly at the ballot box in Virginia.

The GOP hasn’t won a statewide election since 2009, when Bob McDonnell beat Creigh Deeds to become governor. Democrats now hold all three top state offices after claiming lopsided victories last year. Both of Virginia’s U.S. senators (Mark Warner and Tim Kaine) also are Democrats.

“Politics has become so uncomfortable to talk about,” said state Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield. “The more negative it gets, the more apathy you see. People get disgruntled and disengage, and they end up not voting.”

En route to winning the presidency in 2016, Trump lost the commonwealth to Hillary Clinton. As one of Trump’s staunchest supporters, conservative firebrand Corey Stewart, attempts to unseat Kaine this November, Stewart’s harsh rhetoric already has alienated many within Virginia’s Republican establishment.

But Wilson cited future Senate confirmation hearings on Trump’s new Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, as “the type of issue Republicans should be able to coalesce around.”

“I’d much rather have Corey Stewart voting on the nominee than Tim Kaine,” Wilson said. “I think every Republican can agree with that.”

Susan Lascolette, a conservative member of the party’s state central committee representing the 7th Congressional District, has agreed that instead of continuing to focus on their differences, Virginia Republicans need to “step back and look at the big picture.”

“We haven’t won in a while,” she added. “We might want to try something different.” ¦