Last year, Jedidiah Duggar announced his candidacy for the Arkansas House of Representatives.
On the eve of the election, his opponent is skewering him for being a D-list reality star.
Jed Duggar is 21 years old, and has appeared on reality television since he was a young child.
He has no political experience, no formal legal training, and minimal exposure to the real world outside of his family's cult.
Naturally, he feels qualified to be part of the Arkansas state legislature, making decisions for the state's more than 3 million residents.
His opponent, incumbent legislator Megan Godfrey, is not afraid to remind people that her opponent has no qualifications.
A supporter -- and Jed detractor -- on Reddit revealed that they had donated to Megan's campaign a few weeks earlier.
As thanks, the Reddit denizen revealed, they had received a letter alongside a handwritten note.
The thank-you note itself is generic, as the accompanying photograph makes clear.
But the handwritten note at the bottom reads: "Counting On a victory next week," alongside a smiley face.
Notably, the words "counting" and "on" have been underlined, making it clear that this is a dig aimed at Counting On.
While Jed has no experience in an actual, legitimate classroom, Megan Godfrey is a mother, a former teacher, and holds a PhD.
Just last week, she accurately slammed Jed for being "celebrity over substance."
She also shared a local paper's endorsement of her. That paper's op-ed correctly identified Jed as "a political newcomer with a famous name."
Jed has recently resorted to childish name-calling, attempting to label his incumbent opponent as "radical" and, for some reason, a "princess."
Meanwhile, Jed has been called out for pocketing illegal donations -- specifically, accepting more than triple the permitted donation per donor.
He could end up paying thousands of dollars in fines, but then, we all know that the Duggars don't feel beholden to the same laws as the rest of us.
Jed's jabs at Megan may be more or less the closest that he's come to actually talking to a woman who was not his relative.
Locals have not been impressed by his name-calling, and have mocked him for his desire to "grow jobs."
They also cannot help but observe that Jed has received many donations from family members and appears to have donated $25,000 to himself. (Okay, Jim Bob)
But despite Jed's obvious lack of qualifications and Megan's record as an incumbent, working hard for her constituents during the COVID-19 pandemic, this race could be tough.
Arkansas House District 89 was just about 50/50 when Megan won in 2018.
It is always possible that Jed's predictable malice-signaling -- promoting hardline conservatism and Christian dominionism -- could lure motivated Trump voters to hand him victory. Only time will tell.
A victory for Jed would essentially mean a victory for Jim Bob.
Despite the Duggar family's desire to court the society that they condemn by presenting themselves as kinder than they really are, their views are extreme.
Jim Bob would like nothing more than to further extend his political influence -- the same influence that he has used in the past to cover up his son Josh's sex crimes.
