Tomorrow, Tuesday November 7th 2017, will be a defining moment in our nation’s history. After last year’s disastrous presidential election, we have a president who disregards the rule of law, tramples on international norms, and assaults our rights daily. Worse yet, he’s emboldened a whole new generation of white supremacists, neo-nazis, klansmen, and neo-confederates. The August White Nationalist Hate Rally in Charlottesville is proof of it.
But tomorrow, Virginia will be able to send the first large-scale electoral response to Trump and everything his administration has done. The governor, Lt. governor, attorney general, and all 100 House of Delegates (lower state house) seats are up for grabs. And Ed Gillespie — the GOP Governor Candidate — has been endorsed by Donald Trump and his white nationalist ex-adviser Steve Bannon.
Ralph Northam, who is running for Governor of Virginia,is fighting for the violent MS-13 killer gangs & sanctuary cities. Vote Ed Gillespie!
- Tweeter-in-Chief
It was the Trump-Stewart talking points that got Gillespie close and even maybe to victory. It was embracing Trump’s agenda as personified by Corey’s platform. This was not a competitive race four weeks ago. You could have stuck a fork in Gillespie.
- Steve Bannon
So if you’re just tuning in, now you see why it’s vitally important that we defeat Ed Gillespie and his merry band of regressive knuckleheads tomorrow. The entire Republican ticket is running on many of the same racist and xenophobic narratives that propelled both Corey Stewart and Donald Trump to political stardom.
Ground zero of the Virginian battleground is Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park. 6 of the 17 House of Delegate Districts carried by Clinton last year, but held by Republican Delegates, are in this area of Northern Virginia. Some of these districts were won by over 10% for Democrats, revealing just how vulnerable these Republican Delegates are.
Here’s a breakdown of the Districts:
House District 2 — Public Defender Jennifer Carroll Foy (D) squares off against Mike Makee (R). One of the few open seats this year, this race is almost assured for Democrats. After the incumbent announced his retirement, the first Republican to run for this seat dropped out during the Summer; it was discovered that he had embellished his educational background. This seat was also won by Hillary by a double-digit % last year. Jennifer is a remarkable candidate in that she beat her Democratic Primary competitor by only double-digit votes, even though he came very close to winning the seat back in 2015.
By the way, she had twins in the middle of this election cycle.
House District 13 — Danica Roem (D) takes on long-time notorious Delegate Bob Marshall (R). This race has received the most national attention out of any of the delegate races, rivaling even the governor’s race with how much coverage it’s received. Danica is a long-time reporter who is an ace on the issues affecting her community, while Marshall is a culture warrior on steroids; he has authored more anti-LGBTQ legislation than just about any state lawmaker in the country. He is on record referring to folks from the LGBT community as confused, or as possessing mental health issues.
The fact that Danica is a trans woman is a footnote in this race from her perspective, but this will also spell a certain brand of poetic justice when she retires Marshall tomorrow night. Marshall has constantly misgendered Danica on purpose, and deserves to go down more than just about anyone.
House District 31 — Elizabeth Guzman (D) has been battling hard against Scott Lingamfelter (R) right out of the gate from the June primaries. Interestingly, this is the only seat in Prince William County which also sports a third party candidate in the Libertarian Candidate Nathan Larson (I). Even more interestingly, Larson at one point face jailed time due to threatening to kill President Obama, but had his rights restored. Elizabeth embodies the American Dream, and is Scott Lingamfelter’s worst nightmare — she came to the U.S. as a single mother from Peru, and is now thriving in a career as social worker with a full family.
Although Lingamfelter has been fighting hard with xenophobic dog whistles, even equating some of Elizabeth’s policies as arming gang members with guns, even the Republicans have said he’s in trouble. When elected, Elizabeth will be the first Latina elected to the Virginia General Assembly.
House District 40 — By far the heaviest lift for Democrats in this area this year, this race features Air Force Veteran Donte Tanner (D) squaring off with Tim Hugo (R). This district went to Hillary Clinton by a notable margin last year, but incumbent Hugo has fostered a persona of being a nice and moderate Republican who fashions himself a pragmatist rather than an ideologue. That’s mostly bologna, obviously, as he still votes for tax cuts for the wealthy and protects predatory lenders.
Donte is another candidate who welcomed a child into the world in the middle of the campaign cycle, but he hasn’t skipped a beat. He’s been running hard for most of the year since he did not have a primary challenge in June.
House District 50 — Another bruise-filled race, this one is between Marine Veteran Lee Carter (D) and Republican House Majority Whip Jackson Miller (R). Miller has long been Republican leadership, and for a long time seemed unbeatable on his home turf of Manassas City. This year, though, has already proven that Miller isn’t invincible; back in April, he attempted to run for Clerk of the Court in a Special Election, and was soundly defeated despite outspending Democratic Party-backed Jackie Smith nearly 7-to-1.
Lee has brought this race down to a grassroots ground game, swearing off corporate donations completely and appealing to a bold progressive base. Recently, he lead several other delegate candidates in a call for state-level single-payer healthcare, a move which made Miller label him a Socialist. Manassas City has become blue-leaning in a very short period of time, so this will definitely be a nail-biter tomorrow night!
House District 51 — In perhaps one of the most underestimated races in Virginia this year, Hala Ayala takes on Delegate Rich Anderson (R) for a seat that Democrats have struggled to even mount a challenge to in the past. Despite this seat being carried by Hillary over Trump by 7%, Democrats did not field a challenger to Anderson in 2011 or 2015. That changed this year when yours truly and Hala Ayala both took to the Democratic primary for the right to challenge him; we had nearly 6,000 people show up to vote in the Democratic primary (nearly 3 times what either of us anticipated.) I’ve been hard at work helping Hala take on Rich after she prevailed in the primary, and we will be leaving it all on the field tomorrow night.
Rich is a “nice guy” in our district, but is a straight-line partisan in Richmond. He has spearheaded voter suppression efforts, cut school funding, voted proudly in favor of a bill that would have shamed women by flying all of the flags in Virginia at half-staff on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and wanted a 20-week abortion ban. He needs to go, and Hala will be the one to finally retire him this year.
In addition, Democrats currently hold two seats. One is not being challenged, while the other is one of the most vulnerable for us:
House District 52 — Delegate Luke Torian (D) does not have a Republican challenger this year. This has freed him up to fundraise for, and assist with, the other Democratic candidates as he sees fit. A glance at his campaign finance activity shows heavy investment in other Democrats, especially by way of the House Democratic Caucus.
House District 87 — In really the only state house seat we have a real chance of losing this year, Delegate John Bell (D) defends against Subba Kolla (R). This district has always been a swing district, and it took Delegate Bell several attempts before he finally won, but since then has been building a good name for himself. Subba Kolla is one of the few people of color being run on the Republican ticket this year, perhaps as an attempt to appeal to moderate and conservative people of color in the district.
Bell has always been a strong fundraiser, and has incumbent advantage. He has also welcomed with open arms the help of all the new groups that have formed after last year’s election; Indivisible, Flppable, and others have lent him their aid. All of these strengths should see that he successfully defends his seat tomorrow.
Manassas City also has two constitutional offices up for grabs — Commissioner of Revenue and City Treasurer. Alonita Vannoy and Patricia Richie-Folks are our Democratic Party-backed candidates for these seats; Patricia is the incumbent after winning the seat in a special election last year, while Alonita is a first-time candidate hoping to bring yet another seat under Democratic control.
A sweep of all these seats will mean great things for the top-ticket races, and for other delegate races across the commonwealth. It would also send a strong message that Democrats are fed up with what they’re seeing in Washington and the White House, and will bring that anger full force to the polls. Finally, it will set us up for a great 2018 mid-term year, as well as for a 2019 where we finally get to rid ourselves of Corey Stewart.
Onward to victory!