Congressman Bob Goodlatte's son made the surprise announcement on Twitter Sunday night. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo Goodlatte's son donates to Democrat running to replace him 
 
 A high-ranking Republican lawmaker's son donated the "maximum amount" to a Democrat running to replace his father. 
 
 Bobby Goodlatte, the son of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), made the surprise announcement on Twitter Sunday night. Goodlatte is retiring after 13 terms in Congress. 
 
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 "I just gave the maximum allowed donation to Jennifer Lewis, a democrat running for my father's congressional seat. I've also gotten 5 other folks to commit to donate the max. 2018 is the year to flip districts — let's do this!" Bobby Goodlatte wrote on Twitter, where he describes himself as a product designer and angel investor based in San Francisco. 
 
 Lewis said she was surprised by Goodlatte’s public donation when she woke up Monday, calling it a “very exciting morning, to say the least.” The maximum individual donation is $2,700, according to the Federal Election Commission. 
 
 “I really, really admire and respect his willingness to be so public about it, and it's tough when you don't politically agree with your family. And to do it in such a public way, with Congressman Goodlatte being such a huge force in our political world, it’s just, I'm at a loss for words in a lot of ways,” Lewis said. 
 
 The Lewis campaign raised more than $15,000 in donations after Bobby Goodlatte announced his support, spokesman Josh Stanfield said. 
 
 Bobby Goodlatte plans to help out with the Lewis campaign heading into the November midterm elections, Lewis said. His donation has inspired others to follow suit and give money, though Lewis did not say how many donations her campaign had received Monday. Bobby Goodlatte did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 “He is totally willing to help us out in any way we want him to help us. We're kind of in discussion of what plans we can make until November,” Lewis said. “We're already seeing it has kind of given us an adrenaline shot this morning, for sure.” 
 
 Later in the day, Bobby Goodlatte laid into his father after news broke that FBI agent Peter Strzok had been fired. 
 
 "I’m deeply embarrassed that Peter Strzok’s career was ruined by my father’s political grandstanding. That committee hearing was a low point for Congress. Thank you for your service sir. You are a patriot," Bobby Goodlatte said in a tweet Monday afternoon. Strzok drew criticism from conservatives earlier this summer when an inspector general investigation unearthed text messages Strzok wrote that were critical of President Donald Trump. 
 
 Regardless of his son's criticism, Goodlatte’s district is a challenge for Democrats. Trump carried the central Virginia district with nearly 60 percent of the vote in 2016, and Mitt Romney did the same in the 2012 presidential election. Goodlatte received two-thirds of the vote that year. 
 
 Republican nominee Ben Cline starts with a base of support in the district after 16 years in the state House of Delegates. Cline had previously served as Goodlatte’s chief of staff. He has outraised Lewis more than 5-to-1 through June 30, the end of the most recent FEC reporting period. Cline’s office did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Bobby Goodlatte's donation comes as Democrats across the country edge toward flipping the House and gaining a majority. Lewis beat three Democratic competitors in the state's primary election in June, grabbing 48 percent of the vote. 
 
 “I truly believe we will win in November. We’ve been having these conversations with folks where, yes, you may have never voted for a Democrat before, but if you want health care for you and your kids, if you want a living wage for you and your kids, if you want income equality and affordable housing,” Lewis said. “These are the things people are talking about. We’re seeing very good success from canvassing.” 
 
 Goodlatte's office did not respond to a request for comment. ||||| A top-ranking House Republican, Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte, is getting a lot of heat for his conduct as the chair of the House Judiciary Committee in the lead-up to FBI agent Peter Strzok’s firing — including from his own son. 
 
 Goodlatte’s son Bobby Goodlatte, a venture capitalist based in San Francisco, blasted his father for his role in ruining Strzok’s career on Twitter Monday, one day after announcing his support for the Democrat running in Goodlatte’s congressional district. 
 
 “I’m deeply embarrassed that Peter Strzok’s career was ruined by my father’s political grandstanding. That committee hearing was a low point for Congress,” Bobby Goodlatte tweeted. “Thank you for your service sir. You are a patriot.” 
 
 Bob Goodlatte has been in the House since 1993 — the majority of his son Bobby’s life. He will retire from Congress at the end of 2018, which also marks his term limit as chair of the House Judiciary Committee. 
 
 On Sunday, Bobby Goodlatte said he had donated to Democratic candidate Jennifer Lewis, a mental health worker who is running to fill his father’s seat in Virginia’s Sixth Congressional District, urging others to do the same. 
 
 “This is how we show that we’re tired of the lack of decorum in Congress,” the younger Goodlatte tweeted. Bobby Goodlatte, a former Facebook employee, was a Hillary Clinton supporter in 2016, according to his Facebook, and has said he and his father are from “the exact opposite sides of the political spectrum,” in an interview with TechCrunch. In 2015, he started a project called OpenVote, a platform that let people pledge their votes and share arguments for their views. 
 
 I just gave the maximum allowed donation to Jennifer Lewis, a democrat running for my father's congressional seat. I've also gotten 5 other folks to commit to donate the max. 2018 is the year to flip districts — let's do this! https://t.co/bYCKta2Bhs — Bobby Goodlatte (@rsg) August 13, 2018 
 
 Lewis is running against Republican state lawmaker Ben Cline, a former Goodlatte aide. Cline has out-fundraised Lewis in a solidly Republican district that went for Donald Trump by double digits in 2016. 
 
 Goodlatte has been conservative leader in the House, especially in the last year and a half under Trump. He’s known for pushing the president’s hardline immigration agenda and leading the House’s investigation into the FBI’s conduct in 2016. The committee’s investigation into the Justice Department’s conduct — specifically how the federal agency began its investigation into Russia’s election meddling and possible ties to the Trump’s campaign — has become part of a broader challenge from conservatives to the credibility of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. 
 
 In June, Goodlatte presided over congressional testimony from Strzok, the FBI agent conservatives say was at the center of an FBI conspiracy to elect Hillary Clinton in 2016. The hearing, which lasted more than nine hours, quickly devolved into a partisan shouting match. 
 
 The spectacle has been par for the course in the House Judiciary Committee, which includes some of the House’s most outspoken conservative Trump defenders, like Reps. Mark Meadows (R-NC), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) — all of whom have behind a conservative push to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. 
 
 It seems that Goodlatte’s son, at least, has had enough. ||||| Tweet with a location 
 
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 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| FILE - In this July 12, 2018 file photo, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok is seated to testify before the the House Committees on the Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform during a hearing... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this July 12, 2018 file photo, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok is seated to testify before the the House Committees on the Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform during a hearing on "Oversight of FBI and DOJ Actions Surrounding the 2016 Election," on Capitol Hill in Washington.... (Associated Press) 
 
 The son of a powerful Republican congressman lambasted his father on Twitter on Monday for "ruining" the career of a recently fired FBI agent who had sent anti-Trump text messages during the Russia investigation. 
 
 The son of U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte also began soliciting campaign donations on Sunday for the Democrat who is running to replace his father, who is retiring. The Democratic campaign said more than $25,000 had flowed in from across the country in less than 24 hours. 
 
 The elder Goodlatte, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, is leaving his seat in western Virginia after 13 terms. His son Bobby Goodlatte was an early designer at Facebook and is based in the San Francisco area. 
 
 "I'm deeply embarrassed that Peter Strzok's career was ruined by my father's political grandstanding," the younger Goodlatte wrote on Twitter on Monday. "That committee hearing was a low point for Congress. Thank you for your service sir. You are a patriot." 
 
 Strzok's lawyer said Monday that he had been fired by the FBI. 
 
 Bobby Goodlatte was referring to his father's role in an extraordinarily combative congressional hearing last month in which Strzok was questioned about the anti-Trump texts he had sent. 
 
 The hearing lasted 10 hours. Strzok said the texts, including ones in which he called Trump a "disaster" and said "We'll stop" a Trump candidacy, did not reflect political bias and had not infected his work. 
 
 Congressman Goodlatte asked colleagues to imagine being investigated by someone who "hated you" and "disparaged you in all manner of ways." 
 
 "Would anyone sitting here today believe that this was an acceptable state of affairs, particularly at an agency whose motto is 'Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity'? I think not," Goodlatte said. 
 
 When Strzok declined to answer some questions on the Russia probe, Goodlatte suggested Republicans might recess the hearing and hold him in contempt. Democrats objected and Goodlatte eventually let the hearing proceed. 
 
 A day before he tweeted about his father's treatment of Strzok, the younger Goodlatte had requested donations in support of the Democrat who is running for the open seat in Virginia's 6th District. 
 
 "I just gave the maximum allowed donation to Jennifer Lewis, a democrat running for my father's congressional seat," he wrote. "I've also gotten 5 other folks to commit to donate the max. 2018 is the year to flip districts — let's do this!" 
 
 Political observers have described the House district in Virginia, which includes Roanoke, as safely Republican. Lewis has received about $73,000, according to the latest Federal Elections Commission data. Her Republican opponent, Ben Cline, has pulled in nearly $400,000. 
 
 Following Goodlatte's tweet on Sunday, more than $25,000 had flowed in from across the country by Monday afternoon, according to Lewis' campaign manager, Josh Stanfield. 
 
 He said mostly smaller donations, such as $100, came first from northern California and then from places like Iowa and Alaska. 
 
 "(Bobby Goodlatte) never expected this to go viral," Stanfield said. "Everyone is sort of caught off guard. But obviously it's compelling for some reason. We'd be delighted if he'd come back to the 6th and canvass with us." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Ben Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia. AP technology writer Barbara Ortutay in New York and AP reporter Brian Slodysko in Washington contributed to this report.
– The son of a high-ranking House Republican has prominently come out in support of a Democrat for his father's seat. Bobby Goodlatte, son of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, tweeted Sunday that he'd given the "maximum allowed donation to Jennifer Lewis," who he notes is the Democrat running for Rep. Goodlatte's seat. The elder Goodlatte is retiring after a 13-term career. "I've also gotten 5 other folks to commit to donate the max. 2018 is the year to flip districts," the younger Goodlatte wrote. "Let's do this!" Outlets including Politico picked up the story as Bobby Goodlatte continued to tweet, fleshing out some of the reasoning behind the public move. On Monday, he tweeted: "I’m deeply embarrassed that Peter Strzok's career was ruined by my father’s political grandstanding." As Vox notes, Rep. Goodlatte presided over the June hearing in which Strzok was grilled by him and fellow members of the GOP over text messages he once sent to an FBI lawyer that appeared to show his bias against then-candidate Donald Trump. "That committee hearing was a low point for Congress," Bobby Goodlatte tweeted about the 10-hour hearing before turning his attention back to Strzok. "Thank you for your service sir. You are a patriot." According to the AP, Jennifer Lewis' campaign manager, Josh Stanfield, said more than $25,000 had come in from across the country following Bobby Goodlatte's tweet. "Everyone is sort of caught off guard," Stanfield said. "But obviously it's compelling for some reason."