You can learn more about Sheila and contribute to her campaign HERE.
Look out Virginia GOP! Herb Jones and Sheila Bynum-Coleman are running terrific campaigns that could remove your current leadership from the scene!
Readers may find both names familiar, as both post on Daily Kos (stories here: HERB, SHEILA).
Herb Jones is up gainst Senate Majority leader Tommy Norment; Sheila Bynum-Coleman is taking on House Speaker Kirk Cox.
You can learn more about Herb and contribute to his campaign HERE.
To say that we have the far superior candidates is the world’s understatement.
Tommy Norment leads the Republican pack in receipt of corporate gifts and contributions and is right out front with questionable ethics, too. There are the cozy relationships with lobbyists, including an adulterous affair with (and eventual engagement to) one, and scuzzy financial ties with the College of William & Mary (see Zen Trainer's excellent piece on this and more). And let’s not forget the overt racism
Senate Majority leader Tommy grace-and-redemption-for-child-pornographers Norment
(see the excellent posting by SemDem on this and other issues) or his efforts to reduce the penalties for child pornographers, very likely for the benefit of his own clients and a local GOP official (see my article on that here). And, most recently, Norment was crucial in shutting down the special Gun Violence Prevention Session of the General Assembly called for Gov. Ralph Northam. Despite his ethical and other problems, Norment has a lot of money behind him and has built up a lot of power. Taking him down will be no mean feat, but I can’t think of a better person to do it than...
Herb Jones, a combat veteran who won the Bronze Star. Herb’s 30-year long military career includes two tours in Iraq; he also served as an operations officer for the federal government in Afghanistan. As a result of Herb’s extensive military knowledge and experience, Gov. Northam appointed him to his Military Advisory Council; his nomination, however, was blocked by the Republicans as the result of Norment's finagling. Herb’s experience extends well beyond the military, however. He has a degree in Business Administration, with a focus on Health Care, from Appalachian State, and was elected three times to be the New Kent County Treasurer. Herb had a career in finance and investments, working for Edward Jones, Signet Financial Services, Bank of America, and Colonial Downs, before becoming co-founder and CEO of Pyramid Technologies, LLC, a cloud-computing, project management, and logistics firm. Herb is married, with two sons and a grandson. His wife, Yvonne, is a retired educator who served as the principal of a local public high school for 14 years. I had the chance to meet Herb a few months ago and liked him immediately. We had a long talk and in my opinion, he’s on the right side of every one of the important issues facing Virginians (he has well-developed positions on seven major issues on his website). His voice and perspective, perhaps even more than his vote, would be such a benefit to the state.
Among Herb’s endorsers is The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. His opponent, meanwhile, shut down efforts to create gun control legislation mere weeks after the Virginia Beach shooting.
Republican House Speaker Kirk Cox is a piece of work in his own right. While he does not bear the bagagge of scandal that his brother in the Senate does, Cox has been a strong and steady voice against gun control legislation and many other commonsense laws. He has received an 88% pro-gun rating from the Virginia Citizens Defense League (an organization that makes the NRA look like a bunch of golden retriever puppies), a 75% rating from the Virginia Tea Party Federation, and a 100% rating from the arch-conservative Family Foundation. That last means that Cox voted for a resolution designating the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision as a “Day of Tears,” voted against Medicaid Expansion, against a law that elevated sexual orientation/gender identity to a protected class in hiring, and against ratifying the ERA — among many other votes cast. Fortune is smiling on us, however, because Cox’s district has just been redrawn and is now far more favorable to Democrats. Still, he’s a powerful man with a giant warchest, connections, and name recognition. He will not be easy to take down, but...
Sheila Bynum-Coleman is the woman for the job. Sheila earned her bachelor’s degree from the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a small business owner who has focussed on real estate and construction. Because of her background, she was appointed by then-Governor Terry McAuliffe to the Board of Contractors, the first African-American woman to receive that honor. Sheila is the mother of five, and it was her experience of being ignored by her state delegate, to whom she’d turned with educational issues related to one of her children, who has special needs, that prompted her to run for office. Sheila is endorsed by Emily’s List, Mom’s Demand Action and others.
Our 2017 victories included voting in 11 women, 2 of them Latina, 1 Asian-American (a naturalized citizen), 1 openly lesbian, 1 openly transgender.
The two sets of candidates could not stand in sharper contrast in terms of their politics or their characters. This is an off-year for many DK readers, but it’s a crucial one for us here in Virginia. Our entire state legislature is up for grabs — each and every one of 140 seats. In 2017, with your help, we flipped 15 seats in the VA state
We flipped 15 seats; some of them had been considered impossible to flip by the pundits; most had been in GOP hands for decades.
legislature. That sent a clarion call loud and clear, energizing Democrats for the 2018 tsunami.
The same anti-Trump feelings that propelled us in 2017 and 2018 is still with us. We are energized, we are organized, and we are going to send shivers through the White House.
Latest endorsement!
Help Herb and Sheila any way you can. They are up against powerful politicians and so they need money (and lots of small donations really do add up!) and they need help having their voices amplified on social media. If you live in or near their districts (SD-3, HD-66), please see if you can take on a canvassing shift. The ground game is the only game in town!
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