Campaigning brings to mind town halls, shaking hands, holding babies, and TV ads with winning smiles. What doesn’t come to mind is a camper named “Mellow Yellow”, the mobile campaign headquarters for Del. Glenn R. Davis (Virginia Beach), a Republican vying for the spot of Lieutenant Governor in the upcoming primary.
On a recent afternoon, Davis parked his camper outside of RVA Mag’s office on Monument Avenue for a chat. When the door opened, Davis was quickly putting on his suit jacket while juggling a phone call at the same time. It was evident he was in full campaign mode.
Sitting down with Davis in Mellow Yellow, a mid-sized Winnebago, felt strangely familiar and welcoming. His energy was apparent and he was comfortable and friendly. With his name emblazoned on the side of the van, Davis’s confidence was evident on a whiteboard attached to his mini-fridge with the simple word “WIN!!”.
The Hampton Roads native opened up easily when speaking about the divisiveness of his party.
“There are a lot of people that associate with our party because of fiscal conservativeness,” said Davis. “But the social side, they’ve sometimes had differing viewpoints, and maybe some of the hard traditional views of the Republican party has…that’s where we have to realize no one agrees 100 percent all the time.”
In an attempt to hear the differing viewpoints of Virginians, Davis has logged over 51,000 miles to reach people in every corner of the Commonwealth. When pressed on Republican issues that lack connection to younger people, he noted that most party members can’t really agree on the details anyways.
“If you read the party platform, it doesn’t give the details. People feel that they fit under that with different beliefs and different levels,” said Davis. “I think what brings us all together is a commonality of the principles just in concept.”.
Davis is no stranger to politics. After serving on Virginia Beach’s City Council from 2009 to 2015, he won a delegate seat in the 84th District. He spoke frequently of his time serving on city council, but his start, however, was in a technology start-up, which connects to his fondness for President Trump .
“I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a business person… It’s not about emotion with Donald Trump,” he said.
Davis stressed that he wouldn’t govern with emotion. “You govern based on rationale, logic, numbers…and that’s what I value [in] what he’s doing in Washington and that’s what I‘m looking at in Virginia,” he said. Although, when prodded about the division being caused by the President’s policies and rhetoric, Davis didn’t directly confirm or deny whether it represented his own platform.
Given that our interview in Mellow Yellow was parked in the shadow of the Jefferson Davis statue on Monument Avenue, our conversation naturally turned to the controversy surrounding the monuments.
In a recent Facebook post from May 26, Davis defended Robert E. Lee in response to Democratic Lt. Gov. candidate Susan Platt’s call for the removal of all Confederate statues in the Commonwealth. Davis went so far to call him a “great Virginian.” However, this is a deeply complex issue and a recent poll conducted by the Richmond Times found that close to half of respondents supported taking down the monuments.
“Here’s the thing about polls: they tell you yes or no. They don’t tell you why or why not,” he said. “There may be other things that they’re feeling, that they’re seeing, experiences, that don’t show up inside that poll answer, those are things that should be addressed.”
This is in stark contrast to what Mayor Levar Stoney, along with other Democratic hopefuls have come out and said about the issue. In a video interview with RVA Mag, Mayor Stoney talked about the lack of context surrounding the monuments and how the whole story needs to be told in 2017.
Acknowledging this dark period of our nation’s history Davis went on to say, “The way we were taught, it was a part of our nation’s history which existed, but we were also taught what people did to eliminate it, the sacrifices people made–Harriet Tubman–so many that did.”
But there is another aspect to the conversation over the monuments that is currently playing out in real-time, specifically how white nationalists are now hyper projecting their message onto these monuments. Most recently, the rally led by white supremacist Richard Spencer in Charlottesville.
Davis claimed the issue is deeper than just the monuments, but the fact that “people are still racist”.
“Is the problem that there are people out there that feel this way, or is the problem the monuments?,” he said. “Why not go and work and resolve that issue? Not get rid of some symbol that they want to have behind them when they throw a rally.”
Davis seems genuinely supportive of bringing people together, but this is at noticeable odds with his support for a President, who, as of June 1, refused to recognize Pride Month for the LGBTQ community. Davis claimed to be unaware of this decision, but said he would be attending Pride Fest in Hampton Roads.
“From a Republican standpoint, we need to be an inclusive party,” he said. “That doesn’t define you as a Republican or Democrat, and everyone needs to feel welcomed.”
As we wrapped up, Davis hung out with us for about 30 minutes just chatting about life, politics, and social issues on the street next to Mellow Yellow.
When asked as to how we move away from this old-fashioned era of politics, Davis gave a simple answer, “The voter box.” Pulling on emotional strings and catering to special interest groups are not what gets good policy passed, he explained. Additionally, attention to detail is key. “That’s where you make a difference. Soundbites don’t make a difference. But a lot of people still vote on soundbites,” said Davis.
Whatever the case may be, Davis still has to work around the current political climate and the way the campaign game is played on the Republican side. But here’s to hoping that he might be the one to change the game and bring the Republican party into the new millennium.
