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Midterms Matter. Trumpism Cannot Withstand High Turnout

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Progressive yard signs are visible throughout my neighborhood of Church Hill, declaring “Black Lives Matter” and “Hate Has No Home Here.” Those signs help to foster a sense of community; there’s comfort that comes from feeling that our neighbors are interpreting this moment in our country in similar ways. However, there is a danger of mistakenly assuming those shared assumptions are broader than they actually are. There’s a danger in thinking “everyone must view Trump’s election as a big mistake at this point.” From that assumption, it follows that Sen. Tim Kaine will easily defeat Corey Stewart, the candidate who says he is “more Trump than Trump.”

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School just released a poll of 802 likely voters that suggested a 23-point lead for Kaine. More reason to relax, the logic goes.

That’s what the conventional logic says, but if we step outside the bubble of Richmond, we start to see warning signs. My phone died last week, and in order to get a replacement, I headed to the Mechanicsville Verizon store. Stewart signs, big and small, lined the streets of my drive, prominently placed in front of homes and businesses.

It was a good reminder that Stewart has supporters, and that he represents a certain right-wing populist base that will show up politically. There is more of us, yes, but is that enough?

We have to overcome undemocratic structural barriers that exist as part of the legacy of systemic anti-black racism.

Towards building a progressively governed Richmond and nation, we cannot simply live with a Kaine victory; we need a full-scale repudiation of the Trumpism that Stewart represents, and that means a victory with as wide of a margin as possible. But, we should not get ahead of ourselves; as progressives, we should not assume it’s in the bag.

Hillary Clinton was expected by most pollsters to win. Those pollsters were wrong. However, equally relevant for us, it isn’t simply that we can’t put too much faith in the polls, it is also that Clinton lost the election despite winning the popular vote. Superior numbers did not matter.

With the midterms on the horizon, it’s a reminder that the fact there is more of us is not sufficient. We have to turn out in races that we have historically stayed home for. Further, we have to overcome undemocratic structural barriers that exist as part of the legacy of systemic anti-black racism, and that has often been put in place by lawmakers elected on those years we stayed at home.

There are two political forces in our country with a direct interest in political minority rule: one, the white nationalists who recognize the changing demographics of the country, and who tremble in fear at the prospect of a country that isn’t majority white, and, two, corporate elites who want their taxes low and their profits high, and as a result seek policies in diametric opposition to the interests of the majority who want and need fair wages, environmental regulations, and well-funded public schools, housing, and transportation.

President Donald Trump is uniquely dangerous precisely because he has the ability to unite these two different political forces into an aggressive political coalition with a shared agenda and strategy.

However, the Trump coalition’s ability to be successful is premised on two interrelated things; wide-scale voter disenfranchisement and low-voter turnout. That is why we have the ability to defeat Trump and Trumpism by turning out, doing the work to turn others out, registering voters, pushing for restoration of voting rights, and fighting against voter suppression effort.

Turnout in the Nov. 6 election may very well be the deciding factor in whether we win the future or get defeated by the past.

Donald Trump and the politics of the 19th century

There has always been a white nationalist minority which existed as part of the conservative coalition in the USA. During the Obama administration, key elements of this conservative, racist minority became emboldened. They could not accept that an African American had become President of the US—not once, but twice—and they wanted to do all that they could to reverse his legacy, even policies from which they benefitted.

Donald Trump, always politically ambitious and demagogic, seized on the moment. Watching the growth of the Tea Party movement that challenged virtually every reform advanced by President Barack Obama, Trump decided to go deeper into more dangerous terrain. He fanned the flames of what came to be known as the “Birther Movement,” those who suggested that Obama had never legitimately been a US citizen. Despite all evidence, Trump continued to ring the bell of birtherism. The real objective was to say, in coded words, that it was inconceivable that a Black American could (or should) become president of this country.

Trump’s 2016 campaign for president was noteworthy on multiple levels. His opening argument that Mexicans were bringing crime to the US ignored the reality of declining immigration and also the fact that immigrant communities commit demonstrably less crime, and are more likely to be the victims of crime than the perpetrators.

Or consider Trump’s attacks on Muslims and the suggestion that Muslim-based terrorism was the main threat to the US. What is worth noting is that since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the main form of terrorism to threaten the US has been right-wing, white supremacist terrorism.

Trump has been carrying out a well-crafted approach of divide and rule. He, and the corporate interests that he represents, want to ensure that they can move a very reactionary agenda that will reverse the victories that we, the broader American public, have won over the course of the 20th century. As one political theorist put it, they seek to take us back to the era of William McKinley and of the Spanish-American War.

Is the problem just Trump?

I wish that I could say that the problem was only or mainly Trump. After a while, people will tire of him and he will go off into retirement. But the challenges that we face—and that will be represented in the midterm elections—are much deeper.

As I mentioned, there are two very nefarious forces at work that seek to turn back the clock. One is represented by conservative corporate elites, such as the Koch Brothers, and political organizations such as the American Legislative Exchange Council. They are actively attempting to reverse various laws, court decisions, and regulations that have benefited poor and working people. They are using immigrants, Muslims, and black people as a way of distracting white people from what is really going on. After witnessing a blatantly racist act in Tennessee, President Lyndon Johnson told a young Bill Moyers exactly why many politicians nurtured and fed racist discrimination. “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on and he’ll empty his pockets for you,” he said, speaking from his own experience as a former member of the Southern bloc.

Think about it. We have been subjected to a tax reform bill that is nothing short of a bribe for some, that directly benefits the elite. And everyone knows it! Yet, when Trump and his allies, including the corporate right, focus on immigrants, Muslims, etc., it is as if we are dealing with a magician who dazzles us with one hand while the real action is in the other. He’s playing upon inherited prejudices while robbing us blind.

In addition to the corporate right, there is a movement called “right-wing populism.” This is a mass movement. It is racist, sexist, xenophobic, militaristic, and highly authoritarian. It seeks to re-establish the idea that the US is a so-called white republic and that anyone not white is nothing more than a guest – an uninvited one. The corporate right has long sought with varying degrees of success to build a grassroots base out of right-wing populists. In fact, what is so dangerous about Trump, can be best understood as a unique ability to fuse these two right-wing elements. However, even before Trump, both of these elements had political strategies that relied on midterm elections – in other words, relied on low turnout from progressives.

So, what’s immediately at stake in the midterms?

There are many things that are at stake. First, control of Congress. As we have seen in these two years, Republican domination of Congress means that they pick the Supreme Court. They can cut regulations. They can fail to hold Trump accountable. They can keep their hands in our pockets. If even one house of Congress flips, that will give working-class people some breathing room. It prevents against another attempted repeal of Obamacare. It offers for some ability to prevent Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, from being sworn in. It may make or break whether the Mueller investigation can actually lead to an impeachment.

Low turnout and structural barriers to voting

There is something strange that happens during the midterm elections. More often than not, a different “America” shows up at the polls. Rather than the diverse country in which we live, full of growing numbers of young voters who elected Obama or supported Bernie Sanders, we see older, white, conservatives at the polls.

Worth noting is that the U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout, but of particular importance to us is the discrepancy in numbers from presidential election years to off years. There’s some fluctuation but generally speaking about 60 percent of the voter eligible population votes in presidential elections, while only 40 percent votes in the midterms. The impact of midterm elections can be dramatic, as we saw in 2010 and 2014. It can flip the country. The facts are demonstrable but, nevertheless, many people continue to stay home.

There is a vicious cycle of us not turning out, followed by those who end up in power as result pushing agendas and enacting laws that make it harder for us to turn out and win in the future.

Trump’s win and the victory of the new Trumpism coalition it represents comes in the first presidential election after the Supreme Court stripped out the protections of the Voting Rights Act, and in only the second presidential election after the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that corporations can spend unlimited amounts to influence elections.

On June 25, 2013, the conservative Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, overturned the protections of the Voting Rights Act. The significance of this cannot be overstated. The law had offered increase oversight and scrutiny to the voter practices of nine states, with a history of suppressing the black vote, including Virginia. Many of these states rushed in the days and months that followed to pass more restrictive voting laws.

After Obama carried Virginia in 2012, the Republican-controlled state legislature moved to enact tougher restrictions on a previously passed Voter ID law – while it would previously have accepted a large range of non-photo ID at the polls – things like utility bills, now it would only accept a driver’s license, voter ID cards, student IDs, and concealed handgun permits. It was a tactic designed to suppress Democratic Party voters and African Americans in particular. Under the Voting Rights Act, the shift would have required approval by the U.S Department of Justice; with the Voting Rights Act gutted it no longer needed to.

The Supreme Court’s ruling on Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission happened during President Obama’s first term, on January 21st, 2010. It ruled that the First Amendment doesn’t just apply to human beings but to corporations as well, and thus struck down any laws that limit the ability of corporate leaders to spend money advocating for or against candidates. The principle of one person one vote continues to exist in theory but in practice, politicians campaigning for office know that those with wealth have disproportionate influence on election outcomes, and so they spend more time courting the wealthy and are wary of advocating any policy the wealthy might disapprove of, even common sense ones like progressive taxation.

The result of Citizen’s United is a political class under extreme pressure to spend most of its time fundraising, which in turn means spending most of their time with moneyed interests and not working-class people. The amount of money in elections has increased, and with it the disproportionate giving and power of the super wealthy.

These two Supreme Court rulings are not isolated occurrences. They are representative of a policy regime at every level of our government that attempt to push progressive voters and particularly African American voters out of the political process while inviting wealthy special interests into disproportionate power over the political process. If it has been confusing as to why our city and state’s elected leadership won’t remove Confederate monuments, this might offer a clue.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Is there a future that focuses on justice, equal rights, preservation of the environment, well-funded public education, the rights of workers to organize and bargain, and an end to the fear that many have lived under since Jan. 20, 2017? The answer is yes. Here’s the understanding it requires: progressive and the majority of the country have been subjugated to a political cycle low turnout resulting in policies that hurt us, coupled with laws that make it harder for us to vote and represent our interests in the future.

Our task is to displace this reactionary cycle with a new progressive cycle; in our cycle, we turn out big for all elections, we register new voters, work with people to get their rights restored, and win elections. Then we build strategies at the grassroots level that involve the elected officials we put into office, to advance policies that benefit everybody and couple that with laws that undo the racist and undemocratic barriers to voting, replacing them with laws that secure the right to vote and policies that promote voting such as early voting and making election day a holiday

Midterms matter. Turnout matters. Let’s go make the future ours.

Virginia Republicans Flirtation With Extremism May Cost Them on Election Day

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Senator Tim Kaine is almost guaranteed to win re-election this November against Corey Stewart, a controversial conservative firebrand who has implied that Republicans who support Medicaid expansion have erectile dysfunction syndrome, defended Roy Moore against credible accusations of pedophilia (and even campaigned for him), endorsed white nationalist Paul Nehlen, appeared at an event with the white nationalist Jason Kessler, who would go on to orchestrate the terror in Charlottesville last year, and has even threatened violence against Sen. Kaine.

It’s very, very improbable that Stewart beats Kaine this November. I’m no mathematician, but I’d say he has less than 1 percent chance of victory. Last November, Virginia was swept by a blue wave that rejected Ed Gillespie, who ran a campaign similar to Stewart’s gubernatorial bid after Gillespie unexpectedly barely won the primary. This November will probably be even worse for Virginia Republicans than last year since Stewart is now on the ballot and the establishment candidate isn’t.

County projections for Kaine/Stewart by Chaz Nuttycombe

What we’re going to see in the senate race this November is the largest statewide win for a Virginia Democrat since Mark Warner’s landslide victory in the 2008 US Senate race. It won’t be as big as that election itself though due to the polarization of America’s political parties. Whereas Warner won by 31 percent against Gilmore, Kaine is currently likely to win by ~18 percent against Stewart. This is two times the size of the margin of victory Northam had over Gillespie last fall.

Stewart, who looks like he will have a hard time cracking 40 percent of the vote this November, is a symptom of the Virginia GOP’s flirtation with extremist candidates. The state party has nominated several controversial figures for statewide office this decade, such as Ken Cuccinelli and E.W. Jackson, both in 2013. Since then, the state party has drifted into the abyss of the culture wars to reach their base, as we saw last year, instead of appealing to moderates and independents.

Kaine has a great opportunity this November to not only win by a slam-dunk, but also the opportunity to extend his coattails far enough to help Democrats flip several US House seats in Virginia. Five GOP-held seats are competitive: VA-01, VA-02, VA-05, VA-07, and VA-10. The bigger wins he has in these districts, the more likely the Democratic challengers are to win.

We’ll talk more about that next week.

Chaz Nuttycombe joined RVA Mag for the midterm elections to provide predictions and analysis on the state of the races.

Is Corey Stewart A Political Liability For Virginia GOP Candidates?

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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.

“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.

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.

Organizers Move To Protect Immigrants in the River City

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On Thursday, June 20, after facing extreme political pressure from both parties, President Trump signed an executive order to end his administration’s practice of separating children from their families as they cross the border. However, the administration has no clear plan to reunite the more than 2300 children who have already been taken from their families. In fact, many of the separations could be permanent.

The humanitarian crisis at the southwest border is drawing much-needed national attention and resources, and it has many Richmonders wondering how recent changes to immigration policy and enforcement are affecting our local communities.

Immigrants in Richmond Face Increased Pressure 

According to the American Immigration Council, more than one in eight Virginia residents is an immigrant. One in six Virginia workers is an immigrant, and immigrant-led households in the state paid $6.7 billion in federal taxes and $2.7 billion in state and local taxes in 2014.

“These are our neighbors, our friends, our children’s’ friends,” said Jennifer West, a local immigration attorney and partner at Roth Jackson. “It’s overly simplistic to tell people ‘just get in line, wait your turn, follow the rules.’ The people presenting themselves at the border for asylum are doing things the right way, and they’re being arrested and detained anyway. Others may be fleeing dangerous situations in their home countries and may not always have the luxury of waiting years for paperwork to go through. “

“The sentiment in our community is increased fear and uncertainty,” said Tanya Gonzalez, executive director at the Sacred Heart Center, a hub for Latino communities in Richmond that focuses on education, social integration, empowerment, and success. “Members of the Latino community in Richmond have had an increased number of incidents of discrimination and harassment, ranging from things like being told not to speak Spanish in a public place to bullying in schools.” A recent report from Virginia police show hate crimes are up nearly 50 percent year-over-year in the state, including ten anti-Hispanic crimes.

Reports of ICE Enforcement in Richmond Have Increased

While Richmond has not yet seen the kind of sweeping, large-scale, military-style immigration raids that have taken hundreds of parents away from children in communities in California, Ohio, Tennessee, Iowa, and elsewhere, local immigration rights’ advocates have seen changes in our area and worry about what the future holds.

“In the last year or so, we’re seeing increased enforcement, more red tape, and much longer delays in general,” said West. “Both businesses and families going through legal processes have to wait much longer and jump through more hoops. Those delays can be a big hardship on a family waiting to be reunited and on local entrepreneurs who can’t find Americans to do their jobs.”

“We’ve heard several reports of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents arresting immigrants at courthouses or nearby, including arresting people they didn’t have a warrant for,” said Phil Storey, an immigration attorney with the Legal Aid Justice Center. “That’s a relatively new and troubling practice.”

“Things are changing for this community rapidly,” said Alina Kilpatrick, another immigration attorney in Richmond. “I have clients on appeal who have been going to regular and routine check ins with ICE or with DHS contractors every six to 12 months who are suddenly being told to pack their bags and leave behind children and spouses who are legal citizens. I’m also hearing about increased arrests and detentions at routine ICE appointments in addition to deportations.”

The majority of immigrants living in Virginia are legally allowed to be here. More than half the immigrants living in Virginia are naturalized, and many more are eligible for naturalization. Over 10,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients live in Virginia.

Fewer than one-third of all immigrants are undocumented, but it’s an issue that affects many families since nearly 100,000 children in Virginia who are legal U.S. citizens live with at least one undocumented parent. Therefore anytime parents are swept up in ICE enforcement raids, they’re often leaving behind at least one child who is a U.S. citizen.

Child of Abbie Arevalo-Herrera. Photo by Carlos Bernate

One human example of the often arbitrary line between documented and undocumented immigrants is a Richmond mother named Abbie Arevalo-Herrera, a woman from Honduras seeking asylum in the U.S after escaping domestic violence in her home country. Threatened this week with deportation and now taking sanctuary in Richmond’s First Unitarian Universalist Church (information made public by her legal team), if she goes back to Honduras, she will be leaving behind her husband and two-year old son, both legal U.S. citizens. Although she is fighting for herself and for domestic violence survivors everywhere, her future in Richmond is uncertain.

How to Help Your Neighbors in Richmond

There are a number of national organizations dedicated to helping immigrant families at the Southwest border, but for people who want to help here in Richmond, here are a few ways to help.

Support Local Organizations

Central Virginia has a number of organizations dedicated to working to support immigrants while promoting equity, civil rights, and empowered, integrated communities. The following is a partial list.

Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC):  The LAJC is a nonprofit organization with offices across Virginia, including Richmond, whose mission is to strengthen the voices of low-income communities and root out the inequities that keep people in poverty. In Richmond, they provide legal support, including individual representation, to communities facing legal crises, including immigrant communities. Statewide, LAJC is a leader in the creative use of litigation to demand the release of unaccompanied minors in detention and to push back on ICE practices such as so-called “collateral arrests.”

What they need:

Sacred Heart Center (SHC): SHC is a community hub for Richmond’s Latino community, and offers a variety of educational and human service programs to individuals and families, including educational opportunities for adults (including GED, ESL, computer, and leadership classes), programs for youth and children (including school readiness, school enrichment, summer camp, parenting classes and more), and strategic community partnerships (that help with food assistance, health care, support groups, tax preparation, and more).

What they need:

  • Monetary donations to their Family Protection Project, which seeks to prevent the separation of local families by offering low-cost or pro bono immigration services, assistance locating loved ones who have been lost or detained, and volunteer training.
  • Volunteers: opportunities range from cleaning to tutoring to photography to teaching ESL.    
  • Donations of gently used clothing, new stuffed animals and books, diapers and school supplies
  • Nonperishable food items for the Bainbridge Ministry Food Bank, open Monday through Friday, 9:15 am to 12 pm, Monday to Friday.

Central Virginia Sanctuary Network (CVSN): A project of the the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, the CVSN is made up of interfaith congregational and organizational members, as well as individuals who volunteer through the Circles of Protection. Member commitments range from commiting to host guests facing deportation to supporting that work through fundraising, accompaniment, and hospitality.

What they need:

  • Monetary donations to the Sanctuary Fund, which provides for people fighting detention or deportation while in Sanctuary, and also covers bail and legal defense.
  • Volunteers: CVSN is looking for congregations and individual drivers (to take undocumented people who are not eligible for driver’s’ licenses to appointments), writers and communications professionals, legal resources, outreach, hospitality (arranging meals, entertainment, visitation, and counseling), accompaniment to court hearings (which often protects people from detainment), and other tasks.
  • Fundraising: Buy a t-shirt, tote bag, poster, or tank top with original artwork saying by Richmond artist Alfonso Perez reading “all are welcome here.”

Virginia Coalition for Immigrants Rights (VACIR): VACIR is a multi-racial and multi-ethnic coalition of organizations that exists to win dignity, power and quality of life for all immigrant and refugee communities. VACIR gives grants to other organizations, often to small and under-resources local organizations who mobilize quickly to do rapid response in emergency situations. VACIR has supported naturalization clinics, “know your rights” seminars, and DACA assistance programs.  

What they need:

Make Your Voice Heard Locally

Protests: There are a number of upcoming protests around Virginia aimed at fighting unjust immigration policies, advocating for reuniting the 2,300+ children who have already been taken, and ending the zero-tolerance policy that criminalizes and detains families.

Call your Senators and Representatives: Ask them to support common-sense immigration reform and insist on reuniting separated families. Check out Indivisible’s Guide on what to ask for when calling Republicans and Democrats.

Be an ally to local immigrants. Here’s how.

Use your privilege. If you’re not sure what that means, start here.

Elect, donate to, and work for people who hold views on immigration that you support. Vote in every election that you can. Volunteer to canvass, phone bank, and drive people to the polls. Give money.

In Virginia, Tim Kaine is up for reelection against Corey Stewart, a neo-confederate candidate for U.S. Senate. In the 7th House District, which covers much of the Richmond area, newcomer Abigail Spanberger is challenging incumbent Dave Brat, a Republican who has a strong anti-immigrant platform.

What else are we missing? Leave your comments if you have other ideas to support and defend immigrants in RVA.

Photos by Carlos Bernate.

Opinion: How to Kill the Democratic Party of Virginia

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This past Saturday, I attended the Blue Commonwealth Gala in Richmond, the Democratic Party of Virginia’s (DPVA) signature annual event. As I sat there for three hours I couldn’t help but think that this was the way to kill the Democratic Party. Speeches for three hours, plates of gluten-free chocolate cake that had been resting on the table for hours, and a dinner costing $150 are not going to bring in the much needed 18 to 34-year-old demographic needed to vote.

According to Pew Research Center, as of November 2016, an estimated 62 million millennials (adults aged 20 to 35) were voting-age U.S. citizens. Yet a Brookings Governance Survey found that only 50 percent of millennials that are registered as Democrats self-reported to have voted in the 2016 election; up only 1 percent from the 49 percent that voted in 2012. This means only half of young people who identify as Democrats vote. 

Imagine if the other half voted in 2016?

As a 32-year-old woman who founded and now directs a progressive group in Hampton Roads called Peninsula Voices for Change, I frankly only attended this dinner to hear Cory Booker speak.

Like all of these events, I had to wait for two hours and listen to Dorothy McAuliffe (why? her husband is no longer in office), former-Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Congressman Donald McEachin, Congressman Bobby Scott, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, Sen. Mark Warner, Gov. Northam, the governor’s wife Pam Northam, Sen. Tim Kaine and his wife Anne Holton, along with various state delegates before Sen. Booker even spoke.

I may be forgetting someone – it was a long night of standard stump speeches.

Nonetheless, every speaker said the same thing. “We finally passed Medicaid expansion!”, “We elected Governor Northam”, “We have women as delegates now”, “We need to keep Tim Kaine in office”, and  “The children at the border!”

And yet, I found it particularly interesting how politicians cited their accomplishments – many coming from the direct advocacy of the people who elected them – with the pronoun “we”.

I have always believed that even though politicians cast the votes, they represent the people that elected them. Wouldn’t that mean that the accomplishments that were touted would actually be those of the people they are supposed to represent?

The accomplishments are for every person who states their frustrations with politicians and the policies they are advocating. They are for those who donate money they don’t have to politicians who make promises to improve their lives. They are for the people who canvas and bring friends to the polls on election day.

The question then remains: Why were these accomplishments not mentioned by the Democratic political class this past Saturday?

I will tell you what I did not hear, though; and that spoke louder than what I did hear.

I did not hear what actionable things these politicians are doing regarding the children who are being ripped from their parents at our southern border. I did not hear about Trump’s attempts to repeal Title IX protections from women. I did not hear about the importance of voter registration; about how every single person should make sure they take at least five of their friends to the polls. I did not hear about voter suppression either. I did not hear about how every 18-year-old needs to be registered to vote so Corey Stewart, with his “bring back the Confederacy” pandering, does not continue to mainstream white supremacy. I did not hear about how Democrats were going to connect with communities of color and the LGBTQ community.

And most importantly, I did not hear about how the Democratic Party of Virginia was going to diversify and evolve into the 21st Century to address the complex challenges we now face.  

Speaking of DPVA, the only person in attendance that actually mentioned the pay gap experience was Sen. Booker (from New Jersey). He said that the Democratic Party is the one political institution which not only cares about the people sitting at the fancy dinner, but the people who clean up afterward.

And he should have. But why didn’t any of our own Democratic politicians from the Commonwealth bring this point up? Virginia is a state with incredible pay gaps. According to the National Education Association – estimates of school statistics from 2016 to 2017 – teachers face a 40.2 percent pay gap, as teachers on average are paid $51,049 and college graduates can make up to $85,432  – currently the largest in the country. A report produced in 2016 by the National Partnership for Women and Families showed that women in Virginia are paid 80 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to an annual wage gap of $10,419.

Perhaps this is why the Democratic Party of Virginia is missing out on 50 percent of its millennial voter base. I am not the Chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia; yet if I was I would have designed this event differently.

Let me tell you what I would have done to engage the people who need to be brought into the party: I would have organized a meet and greet with a flat price of $20. I would have invited food trucks from all over Richmond to cater the event (isn’t Richmond known for its stellar foodie scene?). Prior to the event, it would be explained to all elected officials that no speeches would be given. Instead, politicians would be encouraged to mingle with attendees directly. For once, politicians should be in a position to listen and not speak.

Blue Commonwealth Gala in Richmond

The theme of the event would be: ‘How to Improve Engagement in Politics‘. Faced with the Trump insurgency and a candidate like Corey Stewart, who will use fear and hate to compel his campaign, we should not underestimate how effective this might be – therefore, the only question we must ask ourselves right now is: how can we engage the 18-34-year-olds, women, people of color, and LGBTQ community?

If this event was targeted to the people whose lives are being threatened by Trump and his administration – and the cost of this event was actually affordable – I believe the Democratic party could live up to its creed of being the party of the people.

If this party was truly representing educators who are barely making a living wage, and women that are earning significantly less than men then they would create an event that acknowledges pay gaps like these – not host an event that just congratulates each other in front of one another.

I am so disheartened after this event. I have considered the possibility of running for office, but I cannot imagine running for office with a party that does not include the people who need its help most.

Here is the bottom line: I believe that if Virginia is going to flip and if we are going to take back the country from Donald Trump and the worst of his supporters, it is up to us to engage with new demographics and new audiences. It is up to people like me and like you: young people who are angry, scared, and pissed off. People who are tired of waking up and seeing children living in tents, ripped away from their parents. People who believe that the taxes we pay mean that we are entitled to health insurance and someone in office who will fight to protect our rights – not the rights of people that can easily afford $150 dinners and the weekends that go along with them.

This is what the Blue Commonwealth Gala in Richmond this past Saturday failed to acknowledge and in doing so, failed to acknowledge what the next generation of the Democratic Party wants to see from its party and politicians.

Koch Brothers’ PAC Won’t Support Corey Stewart

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After a razor-thin victory in the Republican primary, Corey Stewart will face Sen. Tim Kaine this November. Unlike Rep. David Brat and other Tea Party candidates, Stewart won’t have the backing of the Koch Brothers’ well-funded political action committee, Americans For Prosperity.

The libertarian group will not run ads or deploy staff for Stewart, who has come under fire for his close associations with figures like white nationalist Jason Kessler and Paul Nehlen, an avowed anti-Semite and white supremacist running for Congress in Wisconsin. Stewart’s main policy issues seem to be preserving monuments to the Confederacy and restricting immigration.

In a statement to the Washington Post, Americans For Prosperity State Director JC Hernandez said, “We will continue to stand with those who support policies that will enable people to improve their lives and communities.” AFP supported Stewart’s primary opponent, Nick Freitas, and seemed to take issue with Stewart’s racist, often violent campaign rhetoric, such as a post-victory declaration that he’d “kick [Tim Kaine’s] teeth in.”

Senate Republicans are also avoiding Stewart. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has not endorsed Stewart, and Chairman Cory Gardner said there are “no plans” to support him, according to Politico.

If Stewart can’t attract traditional or Tea Party donors, it’ll be a major challenge for a candidate who modeled his run after the campaign of President Donald Trump. Nationwide, the race is seen as significant for its matchup of Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate, and Stewart, a pro-Trump Republican endorsed by white nationalist Stephen Bannon.