The Importance of Virginia
Prince William County in Virginia is going to be a dynamic electoral battleground in 2017. There are a total of 8 House of Delegates seats that include at least a few precincts in the county that are up for election this fall. 6 of the seats are among those that Clinton won but are controlled by Republicans and the other 2 have Democratic incumbents.
But even before this falls election, where all 100 House of Delegates seats are up for election, there is a special election for the Clerk of Courts seat in Virginia. This race provides an opportunity to turn a county wide seat blue and provides a great rallying point for all of these important state legislative campaigns fighting to flip those seats blue as well.
These state legislative races are critical as Republicans are only 24 state legislative seats away from being able to change the US Constitution any way they like. The state of Virginia represents the first opportunity to stop republicans from gaining that power.
Why is a Clerk of Courts Race So Important?
Candidate Ken Boddye (district 51)makes the case for why the Clerk of Courts special election on April 18th in Prince William County is a good place to pick up the fight.
Stand Up, Fight Back: Prince William (Virginia) Clerk of the Circuit Court Special Election
– The Prince William Area is one of the most populous and wealthy in the state, yet the clerk’s office hasn’t even bothered to answer phone calls from citizens in years. Worse yet, partisan politics were in play as folks did or did not get service based on who they were.
– Prince William County has long-since been a bellwether. A win here can set the tone for the rest of the 2017 campaign season not only in PWC, but in the entire state. In fact, the race is already getting statewide attention.
– There are dozens of Indivisible and other like-minded resistance groups that have formed in the area between November 9th 2017 and now. Harnessing the energy of activism of these groups and their newly-awakened supporters is a key to victory this year, and this race is a tangible battle for them to invest themselves in.
The Clerk of Courts Democratic Candidate
The Democratic candidate for this Clerk of Courts seat is Jacqueline Smith, Esquire. From her website:
Jacqueline has also logged thousands of pro bono hours providing free legal assistance to the residents of Virginia and the District of Columbia, and has achieved remarkable results on their behalf in the areas of child care and protection, disaster response, federal and state income tax disputes and insurance disputes. Jacqueline's accomplishments have been publicized in legal publications including The Daily Washington Law Reporter and The Advocate Magazine.
Let’s help win this race and set up our state legislative candidates up for success this fall!
The Prince William County House of Delegates Races
As noted in the intro of this diary, Prince William County is comprised of portions of 8 House of Delegates Districts. 6 of these districts are controlled by Republican candidates. In an effort to help us understand what we face in these races I have been doing brief data snapshots on each race with a Republican incumbent.
The table below lists the Democratic candidates for the districts. Clicking on their name will take you to their website or Facebook page where available. Clicking on the District number will take you to my data snapshot for that district:
We Need a Full Slate of Candidates
I want to wrap up this post with advocating for a full slate of candidates. Last cycle, we suffered a stunning electoral defeat at the presidential level. This exposed an alarming reality. Republicans control all state legislative bodies in 31 states with majorities in all bodies of 32. If they flip just 24 more state legislative seats they will control all legislative bodies in 38 states, enough to ratify any change to the constitution they like.
How did this happen?
It is simple, we have stopped talking to much of the country at the state legislative level. How so? Last cycle democrats did not contest 1,479 races. That translates into not even wanting to represent 117,000,000 people. It is not surprising we do not get these votes, we do not show we care about them or want their vote. We need to compete everywhere. We need to run a full slate of candidates.