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On Eve of Midterms, a Push for the Equal Rights Amendment

George Copeland, Jr. | September 12, 2018

Topics: Equal Rights Amendment, General Assembly, hala ayala, Midterms, va ratify era, Virginia Elections

It’s been six months since the Virginia General Assembly struck down two bills that would make the state the 38th in the country to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and local advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers haven’t slowed down in their efforts to have women’s rights formally recognized, pinning their hopes on a state still grappling with the legacy of the Confederacy.

“We’d like to be on the right side of this one in the history books,” says Kati Hornung, campaign organizer of VA Ratify ERA.

VA Ratify ERA is just one of several groups intent on seeing the amendment, which would prohibit discrimination based on sex, ratified in the state. On August 26, their latest campaign kicked off with statewide screenings of “Iron Jawed Angels,” a film dramatizing the work of women’s rights activists in the early 20th century. One of the film’s figures, Alice Paul, originally wrote the Equal Rights Amendment, introduced to Congress in 1921, with the intention of it being ratified as the 19th Amendment.

The bill would pass out of Congress without approval, before eventually being reintroduced in 1971 and approved the following year, with 35 states ratifying it over the course of five years.  Now, with Nevada in 2017 and Illinois in May adding to that tally, advocates within and outside the Commonwealth are looking to Virginia as the linchpin that would enshrine women’s rights in the Constitution.

For advocates like Hornung, that means working to not just change the hearts and minds of legislators in the General Assembly, but educating a populace largely unaware of women’s continued absence from one of the country’s most foundational texts.

“Most people remember the Equal Rights Amendment being a big thing back in the 70s and 80s and they’re surprised to hear that it wasn’t finished. Most people think it’s in there,” says Hornung.

Hornung, who admits to sharing that same assumption years ago, is now focused on ensuring the push for the Equal Rights Amendment is a bipartisan one, and inclusive of all races and genders.

Lawmakers in the General Assembly have also been working to see the amendment ratified, and are aware of the expectations placed on them.  

“I think that Virginia is the hope, given what’s transpired over the last election,” says House Representative Hala Ayala, D-Prince William, whose successful bid in 2017 was one of several historic firsts for the state, and part of an influx of female lawmakers to the General Assembly.

“Being a woman of color, I already have two strikes against me in how the public views me for talking about many aspects of what the Equal Rights Amendment can do to help ensure we’re equal.”

Championing the importance of codifying the civil rights of the marginalized, Ayala pointed to the expansion of Medicaid, among other successes from the 2018 session of the General Assembly, as proof of a fundamental change in Virginia’s political structure.  However, that same session showed that some old standards remain firmly entrenched

In an August 27 press release, Virginia House Democrats stressed the decades-long struggle to see the Amendment fully ratified.  Blame was assigned to House Republicans, who passed over a bill in February focused on the amendment before it could reach the floor, with similar results for a similar bill in the Senate.

This is a sticking point for VA Ratify ERA, whose list of patrons in the General Assembly seemingly ensures the Equal Right Amendment has the support to be signed into law – if it can get through the Republican-controlled committees first.

Opponents to the amendment have repeatedly cited the 1979 deadline established by Congress as justification to not ratify the amendment, a criticism seemingly never raised in the two centuries it took for the 27th Amendment to be ratified in 1992.

Facing the possibility of further pushback in 2019, Ayala has multiple options in mind to ensure ratification. This includes continuing to educate the public about the amendment, while also using the upcoming midterms as an opportunity to increase the number of both women and Democratic legislators in the General Assembly.

“If we can’t change your hearts and minds, we’re going to change your seats,” she says.

While resolute in her goals for the Equal Rights Amendment, Ayala remains open to a bipartisan solution.  Hornung, for her part, is strictly non-partisan as VA Ratify ERA works to gain a sympathetic ear from Republican leaders.  A potential meeting with House Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, is being discussed for October, during what Hornung describes as the most critical time for the amendment’s chances to be added to the General Assembly’s 2019 session.

Dave Brat’s Former Communications Manager Endorses Spanberger, Rejects Brat’s “Divisiveness”

David Streever | August 10, 2018

Topics: abigail spanberger, Dave Brat, election 2018, exclusive, Midterms, virginia election

At the time, it was Cory Hebert’s dream job. The rising Republican operative, a former field director for Florida Congressman Allen West, had landed a position as then-candidate Dave Brat’s communications director, and he was excited to move to Richmond to work against the powerful House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

“I was fairly conservative,” Hebert admits. He liked Brat’s economic policies, and said his message about Cantor being out of touch resonated with him. Now, he’s a staunch supporter of another insurgent challenger: Democratic-candidate Abigail Spanberger.

“She’s spent so much of her life serving our country,” he says. “That’s what we need, someone who is going to be a public servant.”

His shift, from the right-wing of the Tea Party to support for democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, came in response to the Trump-era and what he calls a hard tilt to the right for his former party.

I was appalled … with what I was being tasked to do

He saw the new policies develop first-hand, as then-candidate Brat increasingly hardened on immigration. After the economics professor began appearing on the “Laura Ingraham Show,” where the two described immigration as a threat to America, it emerged as a wedge issue to use against Cantor. But Hebert says the crucial moment came when he had to write a strong anti-immigration statement with Julia Hahn, a new press secretary and former producer for Ingraham.

“I was appalled, for lack of a better word, with what I was being tasked to do,” Hebert says.

The press secretary, Hahn, was an immigration hardliner who would go on to Breitbart. There she’d write scare stories about “white genocide,” or a future where white Americans are a minority, before following her mentor Steve Bannon into the White House. Looking back, it was a key moment in the fusing of xenophobia and white nationalism with the modern Republican party, according to Rolling Stone political writer Reid Cherlin on an episode of Ira Glass’s “This American Life.”

This American Life producer Zoe Chace zeroed in on one speech in the episode; the same speech that Hebert was appalled to co-write. “Specifically, it was the speech [Brat] gave in Richmond, at the Capitol building, on a day when Congressman Luis Gutiérrez was there for a rally [for immigration reform],” Hebert tells me. Bannon and Breitbart would later point to that as the turning point for Brat, who won the primary by double-digits despite trailing in polls and raising a mere $200,000 to Cantor’s $5.5 million.

Hebert says he supported border security, and still does. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting secure borders,” he says. But, even then, he thought that, “Immigration makes our country stronger. Diversity makes our country stronger. He wasn’t taking a position on national security, but on identity.”

While it was enough to make him quit, it wasn’t enough to make him speak out. Part of that might have been out of professional embarrassment. Hebert says, “It wasn’t ideal to quit ten days before the primary, but I didn’t feel comfortable continuing any longer. It was a moral position.”

Personal experiences, and the national political shift, drove him to the left. “The Republican party itself has moved far to the right, but I’ve also moved to the left,” he says. “That came about after spending time with people from different backgrounds, travelling, and looking deeper at the issues.”

Brat says my blue collar father is going to have to wait for his social security, but we lower taxes on millionaires?

His fiscal views have changed in tandem with his social views. He says, “As a congressman, Dave Brat supported Trump’s tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. Then he turns around and says, “We can’t afford social security, we need to raise the retirement age.””

That hits close to home for Hebert, who says, “I just think about my father, who has worked a blue collar job his whole life. Dave Brat says my father is going to have to wait for his social security checks, but we had money to lower taxes on millionaires?”

He lives in Florida now, but Hebert wants to help Spanberger however he can, even if it means talking about a part of his history he regrets. “It’s just so important for people to come out and support Abigail. I see the division in our country right now, and I see Dave Brat as part of that division. He doesn’t want to work with people.”

“It’s important to me that our country tackles these problems together. I want to see someone go to Congress and tackle these problems, and I think that person is Abigail Spanberger.”

Is Corey Stewart A Political Liability For Virginia GOP Candidates?

David Streever | July 10, 2018

Topics: Corey Stewart, Elaine Luria, Midterms, Scott Taylor, Tim Kaine, VA Election Watch

Call it trickle-down repulsion.

GOP Senate candidate Corey Stewart, known for his fondness for Pres. Donald Trump and violent rhetoric, is already an unlikely challenger against Democratic incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine, but the Democratic Party of Virginia is hoping that his unpopularity will limit Republican turn-out statewide. The state party is trying to use Stewart as a wedge issue in other races statewide. In the second district, Democratic challenger Elaine Luria invoked Stewart, asking her opponent,  incumbent Rep. Scott Taylor, to either endorse or repudiate his fellow Republican.

We stand by every word of it. Do your Member of Congress (@BarbaraComstock, @DaveBratVA7th, and @Scotttaylorva) stand by every thing your standard-bearer @CoreyStewartVA has said? Please ask them, thanks! https://t.co/9TFPIkJO03

— Virginia Democrats (@vademocrats) July 6, 2018

“He should reject the fact that Corey Stewart stands next to racists and anti-Semites,” Luria said, according to Bill Bartel for The Virginian-Pilot. “If he doesn’t have the fortitude to reject those values, then I think he stands with him.”

On its face, it’s not an unusual request. In the Trump era, Taylor is seen as a more moderate Republican than Stewart, and even received Luria’s vote in his last election. If he disavowed Stewart, he’d join the ranks of national and local Republicans who have distanced themselves from the candidate. Stewart is known less for a specific platform–mostly, he’s just anti-immigration–and more for his close association with well-known anti-semites and alt-right extremists. In a recent tweet, he said he’d “kick @timkaine’s teeth in,” tagging Kaine’s twitter account.

Despite that, Taylor refused to commit yet, telling the Pilot that he didn’t “give a shit” about Stewart. “No one else does either way,” he added, although the state GOP seems to have been throw in to turmoil by Stewart’s candidacy. Just months before the election and days after Stewart’s victory, state chairman John Whitbeck, who endorsed Stewart’s opponent Nick Freitas, stepped down, along with two other party leaders. According to Jenna Portnoy and Laura Vozzella in a recent Washington Post article, even a long-time Republican fundraiser in Virginia sees Stewart as a liability that could hurt Taylor and Rep. Barbara Comstock, who is also seeking reelection this fall.

Taylor’s statements brought negative attention from national outlets like The Hill and The Root. Taylor told the Pilot that he isn’t racist, saying he named his son, Sterling, “after a black guy,” something Monique Jordan, news writer for The Root, highlighted in a recent article on the controversy. “For the tl;dr crowd, Taylor said there is no way he can be a racist because his son is named after a black man. Taylor’s son is named Sterling. It’s not the blackest name ever, but I guess?” wrote Jordan, adding, “Seems like it would be a lot easier for Taylor to say he doesn’t support Stewart.”

On Twitter, Taylor criticized The Hill for their coverage of his defense, noting that his son was named after fellow serviceman Sterling Sharpe, who was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan.

It's really sad, but perhaps not surprising, that @thehill & writer Aris Folley, would editorialize baselessly trying to make someone out to be a racist Oh…& yes the kid was named after a black guy who was killed giving his life for them in Afghanistan. https://t.co/jPPfPIqGze

— Scott Taylor (@Scotttaylorva) July 9, 2018

Democrats have used social media to pressure Rep. Dave Brat, Comstock, and Taylor, but so far, the tactic has only seemed to stick with Taylor, possibly because of his response. Stewart’s likely impact is still debatable, but it appears that the Democratic strategy has had its intended effect, putting Taylor on the defensive and bringing national attention to a race that was considered an easy Republican victory by early polling and analysts.

Dissension in the Ranks: Virginia GOP Chairman Resigns, Fueling Speculation about Corey Stewart

Mike McCabe | July 3, 2018

Topics: Corey Stewart, Democrat, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, GOP, Midterms, Republican, Republican Party, Senator

John Whitbeck, the chairman of the Virginia GOP, resigned early Saturday afternoon, presumably because he didn’t want the proverbial shit storm of supporting Republican Senatorial Candidate Corey Stewart on his resume. More so, given the bigotry and charlatanism in the Republican Party has not yet returned to Reagan-era levels.

In a subliminal statement posted to the Republican Party of Virginia’s Facebook page, Whitbeck said, “I started this job with a message of party unity being the key to our success. I will end the job the same way. No matter what happens cycle after cycle, Republicans must stand together.”

Naturally, Republicans are emphatically not standing together on this one.

Bill Bolling, former Virginia lieutenant governor under Governors’ Tim Kaine and Bob McDonnell–and a Republican candidate for governor in 2013 himself–tweeted after Stewart won the primary that he was “extremely disappointed that a candidate like Corey Stewart could win the Republican nomination for US Senate.” He went on to say, “This is clearly not the Republican Party I once knew, loved and proudly served. Every time I think things can’t get worse they do, and there is no end in sight.”

John Whitbeck

Stewart will now take on incumbent Senator Tim Kaine in the November midterm elections. His refusal to renounce ties with the white supremacist organizer of Unite the Right, Jason Kessler, along with his “I was Trump before Trump was Trump” comments have earned him derision from both parties. This has led many long-time conservatives, and many other Republicans on the ticket this fall, to not touch Stewart with a ten-foot pole. He has even been eschewed by the ultra-conservative Koch Brothers and their political funding. 

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, for one, chose not to endorse Stewart after his primary win. Their chairman, Cory Gardner, said they have “no plans” to spend any money on Stewart’s campaign. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) were both eager to distance themselves from Stewart; Sen. Cornyn effectively gave the “Who’s that?” response when asked about Stewart, and Sen. Paul said he was “disappointed” in the result of the primary. 

And then there are the incumbent representatives on the Republican ticket in Virginia this fall, all of whom will assuredly stay silent on Stewart until they are forced to make a public comment.  Susan Swecker, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said that Stewart will bring out the true colors of his fellow Virginia Republicans. “There is no place to hide — you are either running with Corey Stewart and you condone his vile politics, or you don’t,” she said in a statement.

While party divide is the most likely reason for Whitbeck’s resignation, a dismal track record in elections since taking over as chairman in 2015 could also be a factor. Ralph Northam won the gubernatorial election last year by nine points, which was the largest winning margin by a Virginia Democrat since 1985. Democrats also flipped 15 seats in the House of Delegates, which was the biggest electoral shift towards the Democrats since 1899.

The midterm elections this fall will be in many ways a litmus test for the Republican Party in the age of Trump. Virginians will get an opportunity to show the rest of the country just how much they approve of their president with the Kool-Aid drinking Trump acolyte on the ballot this fall.

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