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The Best (or weirdest) Political Ad of the Mid-Term Season Has Just Arrived

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While Virginia had its own political controversy with the mysterious cryptozoological phenomenon earlier this summer with the great Bigfoot Erotica scandal of 2018, peak Bigfoot has now been achieved in the contest for Minnesota’s 3rd District. Apparently all that was needed for the creature to reveal its existence to the world was the ongoing political climate. The ad, released by Democratic challenger, Dean Phillips, uses the North American Yeti to make the point that his challenger, incumbent Republican Erik Paulson, is more elusive and harder to find than Bigfoot himself.

The ad starts with Bigfoot wondering out loud: “I thought I was good at hiding,” before saying “Then Erik Paulson comes along.” The arc of the story only grows more ironically hilarious from there as Bigfoot opines: “How can you have tens of thousands of people looking for you all the time, and not one of them find you. I started to wonder, does Erik Paulson even exist?” From there Bigfoot sets out on a quest to find the Republican Congressman, armed with nothing more than a classic Ford T-Bird, a roller cooler, and an old school VHS video camera. Narrating the video in first person, Bigfoot tells the viewers his plan, “Paulsen takes piles of money from big pharma and votes to erode essential healthcare protections. So the most likely place to find him is at a big pharmaceutical company.” Staking out the lobby of one such company, Bigfoot eventually finds his man, telling the audience that he was prepared to stay there for weeks, but that “it took seven minutes,” before coyly smiling at the camera.

The ad has already been viewed 48, 358 times on YouTube and an additional 144,000 on Phillips’ Facebook page and has been widely lauded in marketing and advertising news, and even more conservative publications like Forbes, who called it, “fantastic”. According to Ad Week the campaign video was made on something of an ad-hoc basis with volunteers from the campaign and various agencies pitching in creative direction. There is no doubt that this campaign ad will be remembered as one of the greats, and in an age of visceral attack ads that are often deeply personal; this combination of film making, thematics, and irony was an interesting reimagining of how attack politics can be done in a way that is light-hearted and contemporary.

So, #2018.

Republican PAC Launches Bogus Attack Ad Against Abigail Spanberger

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The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), the controversial Republican PAC linked to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, has just released an attack ad against the Democratic candidate for the 7th District, Abigail Spanberger. CLF is the same PAC, who only last week, released Spanberger’s un-redacted security clearance forms in a move that was highly controversial and condemned by the national security establishment. The documents showed that Spanberger, a former CIA case officer for counter-terrorism, was briefly a substitute teacher at the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Fairfax, Virginia. The international school, before closing, was funded by the Embassy of Saudi Arabia, who is an ally of the U.S. in all counter-terrorism efforts.

Spanberger told RVA Mag last week that she only taught at the school briefly and according to her campaign, she was only at the ISA for a year.

Nonetheless, the video starts by asking the question: “What is Abigail Spanberger hiding?” before saying, “Spanberger doesn’t want us to know that she taught at an Islamic school nicknamed, ‘terror high’, a terrorist breeding ground.'” While two students at the ISA were implicated in terrorism cases, the claims made by the CLF video do not pass scrutiny. A timeline prepared by the Spanberger Campaign shows that Spanberger left the ISA in 2003, almost six years before these men were implicated in any kind of terrorism charges.

In a statement released this morning Spanberger said, “For a Republican Super PAC to question my national security credentials and integrity based on the time I spent as a long-term substitute, teaching English to children at an embassy school in Northern Virginia, is desperate and weak, and it shows just how terrified they are of having an independent voice representing this community in Congress.”

Justin Jones, Communications Director for the Spanberger Campaign, reached out to RVA Mag to talk about the video saying, “Attacking her for being a substitute teacher is ridiculous. Abigail has nothing to hide, she received top-secret security clearances based on her background, experience, and integrity and faithfully served our country for over a decade as a federal law enforcement and CIA officer.” He went on to say that the ad was also based off of information that was “illegally disclosed” by the United States Postal Service in a freedom of information act request made by an organization affiliated with the CLF.

Beyond the veracity of the CLF’s claims, this is an obvious attempt to drum up anti-Muslim sentiment as a way to score political points. According to FBI data released in November 2017, religiously motivated crimes against Muslims made up 25 percent of all reported hate crimes, which was a marked increase from the year before. Pew Research released a study about the rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes in July 2017; among other things the study said, “Overall, Muslims in the United States perceive a lot of discrimination against their religious group, are leery of Trump and think their fellow Americans do not see Islam as part of mainstream U.S. society.” This attack ad against Spanberger by the CLF only fuels this distrust and as the study went on to show is part of the reason why a third of Americans believe there is a “fair amount” of backing by U.S. Muslims for extremists or a “great deal”.

Virginia Politics Has Now Hit Peak Weird with Bigfoot Erotica

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Virginia politics has now entered a new phase. Bigfoot erotica, a new subgenre of cryptozoological inquiry in which the elusive creature is pictured in sexual situations, has popped up on the Instagram account of Republican Congressional Candidate for the 5th District, Denver Riggleman. While Riggleman’s account is apparently set to private, his Democratic challenger, Leslie Cockburn, allegedly found the images and they do not disappoint. Cockburn has now taken to Twitter questioning the candidate’s suitability in running for high office, saying, “He has been exposed as a devotee of Bigfoot erotica. This is not what we need on Capitol Hill.”

While Bigfoot erotica makes for questionable credentials for high office, Cockburn, in the same Tweet, also claimed that Riggleman is an acolyte of Republican Senatorial Candidate, Corey Stewart. “My opponent Denver Riggleman, running mate of Corey Stewart, was caught on camera campaigning with a white supremacist.”

The Bigfoot erotica of Denver Riggleman

According to The Daily Progress, which broke the story, Riggleman has penned at least one book on Bigfoot called, “Bigfoot Exterminators Inc. The Partially Cautionary, Mostly True Tale of Monster Hunt 2006.” The campaign manager for Cockburn, responding to the viral tweets, has said, “Leslie has been traveling throughout the district meeting with real people about real issues that matter to them…Meanwhile, Mr. Riggleman is home scrubbing his social media of ‘Bigfoot erotica’ and who knows what else.”

For his part, Riggleman denies any association with Bigfoot erotica and claims the posts were a joke played on him by his military friends, claiming he never thought they would be used against him “politically”; clearly misreading the political climate of 2018. One of the erotic images had a big black box covering the elusive forest creature’s penis and was captioned with, “Cover art for #matinghabitsofbigfoot almost complete. I hide nothing in this magnificent tome. Don’t erase the censor box…”

Cockburn’s tweets have now gone viral, being shared over 4,000 times, and were met with some colorful commentary from the Twitter-verse, the best of which can be found below:

For more on Bigfoot Erotica, check out this article by Buzzfeed. Don’t ever say RVA Mag didn’t do anything for you, Virginia.

Bigfoot’s New Mate by Soichiro Irons
Bigfoot Depravity by Robyn North

Former CIA Agent Abigail Spanberger is on a Mission for Virginia’s 7th District

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When asked about making the jump from intelligence professional to civilian politics, former CIA agent and Democratic primary candidate for Virginia’s 7th District, Abigail Spanberger, had a very distinct answer. “My whole role was to become a subject matter expert on a variety of different topics at a variety of different times.” As an intelligence professional, Spanberger had to use her analytical skills to cover issues like nuclear mitigation, science, technology, and narco-trafficking. 

While these skills on the surface might seem to apply only to the world of a professional spy, Spanberger explains how they have prepared her for life on the campaign trail. “What is the most transferable of these skill-sets is understanding really complicated topics that have inter-related challenges and then communicating them back to other people.” And as a legislator, this is how she would assess the most critical issues that her district and the US faces; as a series of policy initiatives that connect across issues.  

Campaign Mural

Spanberger, like her primary opponent Dan Ward, stands out in this election cycle because of the vast foreign policy credentials she gained while working abroad. A former law enforcement officer for the US Postal Inspection Service, Spanberger went on to become a core collector with the CIA, responsible for enlisting sources and gathering intelligence that informed national security policy. To obtain this position, recruitment can take anywhere between 12-18 months and includes extensive background checks and polygraph testing, along with medical and mental evaluations. 

RVA Mag caught up with Spanberger at her campaign office in Henrico to take the temperature on what is happening around the globe and how her experience abroad is playing out on the campaign trail. 

“My experience in foreign policy and in the intelligence world would be incredibly unique,” said Spanberger, when asked if she would tackle foreign policy in Congress. Indeed, her experience is unique and she is only one of two other women with these spooky credentials running for Congress this cycle. The other being Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat running in Michigan who was also in the CIA. Despite this, she was quick to clarify that her passion for serving was not only her commitment to country, but also helping people understanding complex things. 

My interests can easily pivot from North Korea nuclear policy to Latin American leadership issues to health care, tax policy, and mental illness,” said Spanberger.  

Nonetheless, a lot is happening in the world, and it is not often that one hears directly from a former CIA agent running for Congress about the dangers lurking in the shadows.

“We are at a point of strange instability,” commented Spanberger, expanding on her worldview and the challenges the US faces. “In particular for other countries, you could always generally always guess where the US was going to go as it related to foreign policy. You could always generally understand the ribbon that tied all of our actions together.” Like most, she was quick to comment on the President Trump’s Twitter feed, acknowledging that US strategy now varies “tweet to tweet”. She summed up this kind of foreign policy as “wholly phrenetic” and lacking the continuity that foreign countries need to “engage with us diplomatically.”

Because of the frenzied inconsistency of this strategy, foreign policy professionals have been at a loss for how to conduct business. Yet from a certain perspective, gains have also been made, such as the announcement that North and South Korea will officially end hostilities after 65 years. This presents a problem for Democrats running on foreign policy credentials, something Spanberger was pressed on in terms of how the administration should be credited. 

“This is more complicated than it outwardly looks,” she replied, before admitting, “It is to strange of a turn of events. There is a play somewhere and a variety of options as to what it can be, maybe that is a little too pessimistic. Normally I am an optimist.” 

Campaign HQ

One of the defining features of this political age is the way in which fringe messaging which borders on the conspiratorial has become mainstream, and this year’s election cycle in Virginia is no exception.  

In fact, the sitting incumbent for the 7th District, Congressman Dave Brat, has been called out more than once for re-tweeting conspiracy theories, most notably after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Spanberger has not been immune to this messaging either, being pinged by publications like The Gateway Pundit as being part of a “deep-state conspiracy” due to her CIA background. 

“So I have gotten the deep state narrative,” she said. “I would write something on Facebook about healthcare and they would write ‘you’re deep-state we shouldn’t listen to you’.” This messaging has only been emboldened by a roster of up and coming Democrats who have foreign policy and intelligence credentials, along with Trump’s attacks on the Justice Department claiming they are engaged in a deep-state conspiracy against his presidency.

Goals

“There are a couple of us running and the Washington Post ran an article about Elissa and me, and that got a lot of play and that’s when it picked up.” In an age of foreign-based social media campaigns, Spanberger was quick to point out that these were not Russia bots, but people living in Virginia’s 7th District. 

While foreign policy is built into the DNA of the Spanberger campaign, her focus still remains local.

Asking about her priorities if she makes it to Congress, she was quick to name three: financial stability, gun-violence prevention, and healthcare; something she spoke enthusiastically about, “We find ourselves in a place where premiums are continuing to rise, estimates are thousands of people in the 7th District are going to lose their healthcare.” Explaining how healthcare can be addressed, she commented on the need to bring back the individual mandate as a way of strengthening the Affordable Care Act, along with allowing Medicare to negotiate its own prescription drug prices. “There is a variety of things we can do to positively impact someone’s life as it relates to healthcare, and we need to be doing all of it.”  

Before closing out, Spanberger was asked what her message is to young people and her answer was reflective of 2018. “Everything is political. Whatever it is you care about it is linked to politics..nothing will change until the people who want it to change get involved.”

Photos by Landon Shroder

RVA Mag Exclusive: The Tim Kaine Interview

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You’re from Virginia. You live in Richmond. You care about politics. If you can check off all these boxes, there is only one destination: The office of Senator Tim Kaine. Why? Because Kaine has been one of Virginia’s steadiest political voices for over 30 years, and has served at every rung of government, from Richmond City Council to vice presidential candidate. And in an age of unbridled political cynicism, where the complexity can seem overwhelming, assurances from our elected leaders have never been more needed.

Which is why RVA Mag travelled to Kaine’s office in Washington DC to take the vibe on some of the most pressing issues facing the country and the Commonwealth in the age of Trump.

Originally printed in RVA #32 Spring 2018, you can check out the issue HERE or pick it up around Richmond now. 

Even for people who have experienced politics at the source, the frantic pace of activity in Washington DC can be relentless. Kaine is at the center of this maelstrom, sitting on the armed services, budget, foreign relations, health, education, labor, and pensions committees in the Senate – confronting some of the most critical challenges of 2018. This particular Valentine’s Day morning was no different, with the Senate trying to move on bipartisan immigration legislation to protect the Dreamers. Still, Kaine was ever present as we sat down in his office to banter about the environment, immigration, foreign policy, and the role of young people in this new political age.

Shroder: Clearly, we live in a very cynical time, how do we keep young people engaged in politics in 2018?

Kaine: It’s a really good question, and one we struggle with, but I tell you what I start with is kind of a hopeful thought is what we saw in November in Virginia in 2017. Youth voting was dramatically greater than the governor’s race four years ago, massively greater if you go eight years before. But it was more than voting. It was volunteering and it was candidates. The fifteen newcomers who won house seats were predominately first time candidates, fairly young on average, eleven or fifteen were women, immigrant, LGBT, people of color, so it was really cool to see. So I think that we’re seeing a real upsurge in activity by young people.

I think the important thing is to not do anything to discourage them. Sometimes parties or leads of institutions [say], ‘You haven’t been here long enough, You haven’t paid your dues yet, we wanna run things’. I think those of us who are in the work kind of have to make space, encourage, campaign with and for young candidates. And I think the more we do that, the more others will see, ‘Oh, I could be running, I could do that’, so I think there isn’t anything magic to it, but I think those of us who are doing it really need to lift up young leaders because their example is going to be what really draws more young people in.

Shroder: Do you think Democrats, whether in Virginia or nationally, are doing enough to meet these young people in the spaces they’re operating in?

Kaine: On the national side, I have to admit I’m so into my job in Virginia, I’m running for re-election, and I’m not spending a lot of time about what the National Party is doing elsewhere. But I can say in Virginia, I feel good about it, especially after the [2017] election. Even before 2017, I’m not necessarily sure that everybody realized this upsurge that we were seeing, but on election day if you look at the results, you’re like, ‘wow, that’s really powerful.’ And since that election with the turnout of young people, I’ve seen a lot more effort paid to celebrate young leaders, we’ve got to give them key roles. I’m putting together my own campaign staff and it is going to very much look like the kind of Virginia today and tomorrow, not the Virginia of yesterday. 

Shroder: You have taken a stand against the most recent budget because it seemed like billions were being cut out of Medicaid and Medicare. In Virginia’s 2017 gubernatorial election, Medicaid expansion was part of what ushered in Virginia’s wave election. But with all of the federal cuts though, is health care dead?

Kaine: No, I’m on the health committee and health education, labor, and pension. I think we need to take some steps to stabilize the individual market, guaranteed the cautionary payments that were apart of Obamacare. Also, stop the Trump administration from these nicks and cuts, they’re trying to destabilize and hurt people, we’ve got to stop that. We’ve at least stopped them from repealing the Affordable Care Act, but they could still damage it.

But I want to get to the next step discussion. You know, in fact, the 9:30 meeting I have, I have a group of healthcare experts on the hill today to talk about a proposal that I have with Senator Michael Beck, we call it Medicare Acts. We want to direct Medicare to develop an insurance policy that they would sell in the exchanges in each zip codes to the United States.

It would cover the Obamacare essential health benefits. But because Medicare would have to cover a profit margin, they don’t have to collect state medical taxes to pay for fancy salaries. They can offer that product at a really affordable rate. They could offer it in every zip code, and I think we need to add that element in the system to give people choices. I want people to have more choices, not fewer.

Shroder: I think in Virginia now in some places there is only one choice if you are on the exchanges.

There may be parts of Virginia where you have more than one, but there are many parts where there is only one. So if you were to give everybody a Medicare Acts policy that they could buy, it would be more affordable than other policies. Medicare operates in every zip code and young people move a lot. If you have health insurance here and you move to another state, is that company going to provide health insurance or not?  You could move anywhere and Medicare would be available.

This is a policy I think is geared towards affordability and choice, but it’s also really geared toward the way people live today, where people move during their work lives, and they don’t have to worry about what health insurance will be available in a place they move to. 

Shroder: The Dreamers are obviously on everyone’s mind. I don’t want to ask a technical question about political horse trading, but how did we get to a point of political brinkmanship where people are comfortable with the idea that families can be torn apart?

Kaine: This is a policy that sharply divides the two parties. There are Republican counter-examples to what I’m going to say. The Republican Party, when I ran for governor, one of the two major attacks against me on TV was ‘Kaine’s soft on immigrants’. That was in 2005, so this has become a real common theme on the Republican side.

Tim Kaine Campaign Launch at Maggie Walker

I tell a different story. Here’s Virginia: When I was born in 1958, one out of every one hundred Virginians was an immigrant, had been born in another country, we were thirty-eighth in the nation per capita, and we were a poor state. Today, one in every nine Virginians was born in another country, so a lot of immigration. We’re twelfth in the nation per capita income, we’re a better off state. No state has moved farther than Virginia economically. Our economic improvement has coincided with more immigration. Why? Because we’re in a global economy in a global economy. And in a global economy, it’s not just an airport or a port that connects you with the world, it’s people that connect you with the world.

We have become a magnet for talented people from around the country and around the world, that’s been to our advantage. So I tell that story anywhere I go in Virginia, that immigration has been a real net positive for us, and it’s been a net positive for our country.

Shroder: What do young people have to know about the legal immigration debate? There seems to be an intense focus on the Dreamers because everyone can sympathize with their situation. But we keep hearing about chain migration, is this just another way to demonize immigrants?

Kaine: I think that when the president talks about chain migration and then he says, ‘you can come here and then willy-nilly bring anybody you want,’ the way he said in the State of the Union – that’s not what happens.  Can you sponsor family members if you’re a US citizen? You can, but it is a long and onerous process. If you’re coming from the Philippines, it could take 18 or 20 years for a sponsorship application acceptance. So this notion that you can just become a citizen and drag everybody with you is just not true.

Shroder: Where does one even begin with the environment? It seems like a lot of climate protections are being systematically deconstructed.

Kaine: We have an administration where the key people don’t even believe in climate science, which is an embarrassment.

Shroder: One of the biggest issues for us in Virginia is the potential licensing of offshore drilling rights. Where does that leave us given that the coastal economy is such a big factor in Virginia’s economy?

Kaine: It’s not a good idea. 10 to 12 years ago I was open to this idea. Before BP Horizon and the spill. VA Beach and Norfolk were [thinking], ‘Well maybe it would be a new pillar to add to our economy,’ but after BP there’s been a serious rethinking of that. I think what people have realized is [that] the second largest metro area in Virginia is Hampton Roads, and that is an economy that has a couple of pillars. DOD [Department of Defense] is a pillar, tourism is a pillar, and things connected to the Chesapeake Bay and the waterman’s industry are pillars too.

And so offshore drilling is still pretty speculative. Oil prices are coming down, and we’re moving more toward wind and solar, which we should. So do you want to bet on a speculative pillar if it’s going to hurt the existing pillars? The DOD has weighted against it. NASA has weighed against it. The tourism industry has weighted against it. And that’s caused cities like Norfolk and Virginia Beach to switch and become opposed. So I think it’s a bad idea, and I’m working with Democrats and Republicans to try to convince the Trump administration, at least about Virginia – it’s a bad idea.”

Shroder: You sit on the foreign relations and armed services committees. What are the most pressing foreign policy challenges today?

Kaine: I’ll put two on, but I could give you ten. Congress needs to claw back from the executive power over war-making and to some degree even over key articles issues. Congress has let a lot of power go to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue on matters of war, peace, and diplomacy under presidents of both parties. It’s been a long-term phenomenon. Congress has to reinvest itself in being deeply involved in making these decisions and checking on an overreaching executive. That’s number one.

And then the second one, I think this refugee issue is huge because we think about refugees like they’re the episodic victims that show up every ten years after something and we think of it as kind of an emergency response. Migration is now not an emergency. It’s an everyday permanent reality.

Tens of millions of people because of war, natural disasters, climate change, and corruption are moving around the world. And when they do, they create all kinds of instabilities. It might be an instability like Syrian refugees in Jordan because they have so little water that puts pressure on them. Or it might be instabilities, like refugees that flow into other countries and then it leads to right-wing movements in other countries, neo-nationalist parties in Western Europe that are getting power because of their anti-refugee position. I think a global commitment toward thinking about migration policies in a different way and coming up with a set of strategies to deal with migration and refugees like a permanent phenomenon rather than episodic emergencies is really important.

Photos by Landon Shroder 

Tim Kaine Holds First Re-Election Rally at Maggie Walker High School in Richmond

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Tim Kaine, the incumbent Democratic Senator from Virginia, held his first campaign kick-off rally this evening at Maggie Walker High School in Richmond. Set against the backdrop of campaign signs and bluegrass music from the Cary Street Ramblers, a crowd of around 300 people gathered in the gymnasium to hear the senator announce his re-election. The event included speeches from other notable Democrats including Mayor Levar Stoney, Congressman Donald McEachin, and Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA) Chairwoman Susan Swecker, who fired up the crowd with a roster of Kaine’s achievements and calls to fight against the Republican agenda during midterms.

Stoney greeted the crowd with some friendly banter, telling the audience that Richmond was the premier city in Virginia, before launching into a story about his first experience with the Senator.  “Back in 2003, I was working as a field organizer on a House of Delegates race and he [Kaine] showed up in Yorktown, Virginia. There weren’t very many Democrats in Yorktown then, and still not a lot right now,” he said as the crowd burst into laughter. Stoney continued, “But I remember that evening a young Lieutenant Governor talking about the promise of the Commonwealth…that promise is that no matter who you are, you should be extended an opportunity to succeed. This is a man dedicated to this cause.”

Mayor Stoney Addressing the Crowd

After speeches by Donald McEachin and Ashley Hopkins, an alum of Maggie Walker, Kaine finally took to the stage. A seasoned veteran of campaigning he quickly started conversing with the crowd by addressing the current political climate. “We have a president now who sets a very different example,” said Kaine. “We have a president who divides and it is hard not to get discouraged by toxic rhetoric, but I am not a pessimist about this country or Commonwealth.” Most of his speech gave an overview of his long list of campaign priorities, such as the economy, education, gun control, healthcare, the rights of women and the LGBTQ community, and criminal justice reform. A member of the foreign relations committee, Kaine also touched on concerns that Democrats have over Trump’s handling of international relations, saying, “If he wants to start a war with Syria, North Korea, or Iran or whoever else he is tweeting at, he can say those things, but it will be our kids and grandkids who will risk their lives.”

His rally in Richmond is part of a statewide barnstorm over the coming week which will take him to Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia, the Eastern Shore, western parts of Virginia, along with other underserved locations throughout the Commonwealth – a key point he made during the rally. Kaine, a Richmond local elected to the Senate in 2012, has a vast political resume including city councilman, mayor, and governor, along with being the vice presidential candidate for Hillary Clinton in 2016. He is one of only a few national politicians who have ascended the political ranks in this way, a progression that has made him a popular candidate in Virginia.

In a lunch for supporters earlier in the day, Kaine spoke with RVA Mag about his campaign launch, saying, “It is exciting, I have the traditional opening day jitters.” Making his hometown of Richmond the first stop was important to Kaine, who said he was glad some of his closest friends would attend tonight’s event. His campaign will travel all over the Commonwealth this week and includes over 30 events. “I feel good, I like the way it is setting up and we [have] this pretty simple message of Virginia for all.” When asked about his Republican opponents, Kaine said, “Their opening debate proved that they are trying to compete to be the Donald Trump acolyte.”

Yet during his remarks at the lunch, he was quick to point out that his race will not be focused on President Trump or his scandals, but on his plan to better Virginia – saying he needed to talk about the issues unique to the Commonwealth. This was something echoed by Swecker, chairwoman of the DPVA. “We are excited about the prospects of re-electing Tim Kaine, but also picking up some congressional seats,” said Swecker when asked how she felt about this year’s mid-terms.”There is a lot of enthusiasm out there, but we have an election every year in Virginia so we never let up.”

Congressman Donald McEachin and Delegate Schuyler VanValkenburg at the Kaine Lunch

Kaine will face a crowded Republican primary field, including neo-Confederate and failed governor’s candidate Corey Stuart, an evangelical preacher named EW Jackson, Delegate Nicholas J. Freitas, and tech investor Ivan Raiklin. Yet according to a poll conducted by Christopher Newport University in early March, Republicans remain undecided on who they will favor during the primary process. Kaine currently maintains a 53 percent favorability rating and a 20 point lead over his Republican rivals. When compared with Trump’s 37 percent approval rating in the Commonwealth, the incumbent senator has reason to be optimistic – more so, because 57 percent of people polled also believe Virginia is on the right track.

Supporters at the rally shared Kaine’s optimistic sentiments. Before his speech, one rally goer, Barbara Smith, shared her glowing review of the senator, saying, “We all go to the same church, that is why I am here supporting him and we hope he comes back from the 2016 presidential election more confident. He is a genuine person.”

*John Donegan contributed to this report. Photos by Landon Shroder.