FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe did not vote in the 2016 presidential general election, but did vote in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, according to two Virginia campaign consultants — one Republican, one Democratic — with access to the Virginia campaign participation rolls.
McCabe’s voter participation is in question after a report by The Washington Post that President Donald Trump asked McCabe, who at that time was the acting FBI director, who he voted for in the 2016 election. According to the Post, McCabe told the President that he didn’t vote.
McCabe did not vote in the general election, the first time he did not participate in a Virginia general election since 2007, but he did vote in the 2016 Republican primary. Voter participation in Virginia is public record, but voters are not required to register with a party. Primaries are open to all voters, but if there are multiple contested primaries taking place at the same time, a voter may choose only one.
In 2016, both Republican and Democratic primaries were being contested at the presidential level and McCabe chose to vote in the GOP primary. Trump was a candidate in that primary. Trump won Virginia by a narrow margin, but lost Loudoun County, where McCabe voted, to Sen. Marco Rubio by more than 6,000 votes.
While McCabe chose to participate in the GOP primary, that doesn’t necessarily provide any insight into his political leanings. Voters in the state are free to bounce between party primaries as they choose.
McCabe’s wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, ran for the Virginia state Senate as a Democrat in 2015, and McCabe is featured prominently in his wife’s campaign literature. Jill McCabe received political donations from the state’s then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat. McAuliffe is a longtime friend and ally of Hillary and Bill Clinton. That donation has been the source of Republican complaints about McCabe’s political objectivity.
