Sparks Fly In BV

Crowd, Some Speakers Raucous On Labor Day

It was a raucous round of stump speeches at Glen Maury Park Monday for Buena Vista’s 54th annual Labor Day festival. Some of the speeches were downright combative while others included pleas for civility.

The boisterous crowd, meanwhile – especially on the Democratic side – made it difficult for many to hear the speeches. In contrast to recent years, there was a larger contingent of Democratic supporters at the park than there was for the Republicans.

For the first time in a dozen years, all six major party state-wide candidates showed up at the park. Two of the four local candidates for the House of Delegates also spoke – Republican Del. Ellen Campbell of the 36th District and her Democratic opponent, Makayla Venable.

The other two local House candidates – Republican Del. Terry Austin of the 37th District and his Democratic opponent, Andrew Hartless – were not present. Jade Harris, former Glasgow vice mayor and a 2023 Democratic candidate for the General Assembly, spoke on behalf of Hartless, delivering a fiery speech that even included a couple of expletives.

Monday’s speeches represented the first time that the two major party candidates for governor – Re- publican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger – have shared a stage. It was likely the only time that all six major party statewide candidates will appear together at the same event.

Alluding to heckling Democrats, Earle-Sears said, “They’re rude and they’re crude. That’s what they do.” She suggested that most of the Democrats’ supporters had been “bused here.” In a bit of theater, she walked away from the lectern and over to a U.S. flag, declaring that she had fought for the flag when she was a U.S. Marine.

Back at the lectern and gesturing toward the Democrats’ side of the stage, Earle-Sears asked, “I want to know is where was my opponent, Abigail Spanberger, when they said Black people could not drink at their water fountain?” This was a reference to a sign held up at a protest rally recently that said, “Hey, Winsome, If trans can’t share your bathroom then blacks can’t share my water fountain.” Earle-Sears accused Spanberger of waiting a day before responding to that incident.

“Well, let me tell you something. I, Winsome Earle-Sears, as your governor, will keep your taxes low, and that will also benefit Democrats. Winsome Earle-Sears will not defund the police, and she will not get rid of their qualified immunity, and that will also benefit Democrats. My opponent took thousands of dollars from a Defund the Police PAC and she’s not going to protect us. Winsome Earle-Sears as governor will ensure that jobs continue to come to Virginia and my opponent will kill jobs.”

When her turn to speak came, Spanberger touted her “career as a federal agent. I worked narcotics and money laundering cases. And from there I went to the CIA where I served undercover my whole time focused on fighting terrorism. I moved back home to Virginia to raise my three daughters in the community and in the commonwealth that made me who I am and I have focused on community throughout my time in politics.”

Spanberger said she decided to run for Congress “when I saw that bad policies were hurting people.” She noted that she flipped a congressional district and was subsequently “ranked as the most bipartisan member of Congress from the Virginia delegation because of the work that I did to build coalitions. I am proud of the fact that I was ranked as the most effective legislator from the House and Senate on issues on agricultural policies that support rural communities across Virginia.”

In her campaign for governor, she said, “I am focused on ensuring that we are doing right by all Virginians amid the terrible bill that was passed on Capitol Hill that will take $26 billion – with a b – from our health care system impacting our veterans, our community members with disabilities and community members who are working hard every single day at the state level. I will work to mitigate the harm of that bill.”

The two candidates for lieutenant governor – state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi for the Democrats and former talk show host John Reid for the Republicans – both talked of “structural” problems with public education that need to be addressed.

Hashmi said she had spent 30 years in a community college classroom as a “mildmannered English teacher” before deciding to enter politics. “So many of my students were struggling,” she recalled. “We had returning veterans who had the serious need to get retraining to find good jobs, and we were creating obstacles in the way that we structured our education system, creating barriers to get the kinds of opportunities to get the kinds of degrees and credentials that they needed so that they could support their families. I watched my students struggle for housing. I had students who would lose their housing in the middle of the semester. And that meant that they had to drop out to do the work that they needed to support their families. I had students who went hungry in the middle of a semester who came into my office sometimes and just asked if I had some snacks to share. Virginia, we can do better.”

Reid, who said he came from a long line of educators, said, “We’ve got a problem with public education in Virginia – not with teachers, not with principals, because we have good people who are working hard to try to deliver for the next generation of Virginia students. We’ve got a structural problem and we need some new people in the capital who will work very diligently to try to fix those problems – not fall reflexively back on the situation as it currently exists.” Reid said, “There are very clear differences between the parties, and I say that respectfully. I want you to see me as a new type of Republican, someone who will arrive at the capital with an open mind, an open heart and a fresh set of eyes.”

Republican Attorney Gen. Jason Miyares, running for re-election, asserted that “Virginia was literally a state that was dying” when he entered office four years ago because more people were moving out of the state than into it. He credited himself and the other state GOP leaders elected in 2021 with reversing this trend. “When I took over as attorney general of Virginia,” he continued, “the murder rate was at a 20-year high. Violent crime was at a 30-year high. Our addiction death rate in Virginia was the highest we’d ever seen in our history.” Substantial progress has been made in all three categories, he claimed, especially a precipitous decline in addiction deaths that he said was the greatest drop in the nation.

Jay Jones, Democratic candidate for attorney general, contended that during his tenure in the House of Delegates, “We did tremendous things – we expanded Medicaid, increased teacher pay, gave the largest pay raise to law enforcement in the history of this commonwealth – all things that have benefited people all across Virginia. As an assistant attorney general, I kept people safe by going after the largest gun manufacturer in the country and putting them out of business. We need an attorney general who’s going to step up and fight the rising costs that we see, fight for health care to make sure you don’t see rural hospitals close, to make sure people don’t have to make a choice between life and death because their hospital is too far away. We need an attorney general who’s going to stand up and end housing discrimination and protect civil rights and civil liberties here in the commonwealth.”

The most contentious speech of the day was delivered by fiery orator Harris, filling in for Hartless, who became a candidate less than two weeks ago when the original Democratic nominee dropped out after suffering an accident. Harris said Hartless, a liver transplant recipient who advocates for pediatric transplant patients, “knows what happens when access [to health care] is ripped away. Over 300,000 Virginians – you, your friends, your neighbors – are at risk of losing their access to medical care because of Medicaid cuts from the one big [expletive] bill. I just want to take a moment to address our Republican representatives today – you know, the ones responsible in many ways for passing the bill to kill Medicaid and SNAP.” She then called out all of the Republicans who’d been on stage, by name, for being “enablers” of the Trump administration policies and the bill in question.

Campbell, who spoke next, took a different tone. “If you thought I was going to stand up here and shoot some fiery darts, you’re going to be disappointed. If you thought I was going to come up here to criticize my opponent, you’re going to be disappointed. I’m here to talk to you about the 36th District and the work that’s been happening the past two years.” She went on to say how she’s been serving on six different commissions traveling across the commonwealth with legislators from both sides of the aisle to “address important issues and solve problems. That’s what we do. We come up with solid legislation and good policy together.”

As for the remarks of the speaker who preceded her, she said, “We’re better than this. We don’t have to be disrespectful.”

Venable, Campbell’s opponent, took aim at Republicans for defeating legislation calling for a higher minimum wage. That action, she said, “is a slap in the face to every nurse pulling double shifts, every factory worker grinding through the night and every parent choosing between rent and groceries. That bill would have meant more than $4,000 per year for full-time workers. That’s gas in the tank, school supplies for our kids and child care that families desperately need. Instead, Republicans told us, ‘No. No to your raise, no to your dignity and no to your families.’” The upcoming election, Venable said, “isn’t about left or right. It’s about right and wrong. And it’s time we sent a message. We can’t build Virginia on the backs of working people and deny them a living wage. We deserve better.”