Republicans think racial dog whistles still work

Currently, there are about 9 seats in the Virginia State House of Delegates that could potentially flip to blue; one of those seats is House district 66. Dems hold a 55/100 seat majority now, and would very much like to remain the majority in the future. Of the 9 seats that could flip, 2 or 3 are very likely to flip, & HD 66 is one of those. Joe Biden won this district by DOUBLE DIGITS - 10.31%. (See the linked spreadsheet of results, kindly compiled by the DK Elections group. h/t @DavidNir) 

The Democrat running in HD 66 is Katie Sponsler; this is her second attempt. She first ran in 2017 against GOP Speaker of the House, Kirk Cox, who had been in office for over 2 decades. The district was deemed to be illegally gerrymandered prior to the 2019 election, and Black voters were drawn into the district. Mr. Cox barely won re-election against a wonderful, well funded Dem candidate that year.

Katie announced her intention to run in the newly redrawn district prior to the 2020 presidential election. The incumbent, Mr. Cox, chose to seek his fortunes elsewhere. He ran for the Va. GOP gubernatorial nomination & lost. Katie’s opponent in this now ‘open’ seat is an extremist republican who is the headmaster of a very conservative and Private Christian school.

The Va. Republicans are justifiably concerned about losing this seat, and they have now resorted to a familiar brand of dog whistling attacks. An example of one of their attacks is here. In short, the Republican campaign has taken issue with Katie’s accurate & descriptive language regarding recent police conduct. If this particular brand of dog whistling is unfamiliar to you, Lee Atwater can explain better than I .  

Please check out Katie’s website, watch her video, and consider getting involved in her campaign. The time for all this nonsense is long past. Let’s flip this seat!!!!!

Katie Sponsler

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