Ralph Northam for Governor of Virginia
When Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe wanted to restore voting rights en masse to Virginians who had committed felonies and served out their sentence, the VA Supreme Court deemed it a gross executive overstep. The Governor, of course, had the power to restore voting rights on a case by case basis, but legislative intervention was required to make the restoration of voting rights automatic. The Virginia legislature, a staunchly Republican body, was unlikely to join the governor in that effort.
So McAuliffe started to restore voting rights individually on a case by case basis — signing orders one by one to every single Virginian who had completed their sentence. Because of this 156,000 Virginians are now allowed to participate in choosing their government.
In a country where Republicans across the board have abdicated their responsibility to their constituents and the civil rights protected by the Constitution, and in a commonwealth with a Republican legislature destined to become a fixture if partisan districts are preserved in the next election, a Democrat in the governor’s mansion in Virginia is of vital importance.
Luckily we have a great one running.
Ralph Northam, Lieutenant Governor under Terry McAuliffe, rural Virginia native, Army doctor, and pediatrician has a strong vision for Virginia’s future. He has a 100% rating from NARAL and Planned Parenthood, and has proposed a $6 million plan to increase access to contraceptives. Also notable given recent events, and Virginia’s somewhat tumultuous history with gun laws, he has an F rating from the NRA.
He recognizes that climate change is a public health and civil rights issue. As part of his education platform, he will address the Standards of Learning, and since I spent many hours sitting for those tests bored out of my skull, I can safely say this is an important issue. His plans to stop the school-to-prison pipeline not only involve investing more in counselors and proactive intervention strategies rather than referring kids to law enforcement, but he also recognizes that this disproportionately affects students of color and plans to investigate these disparities.
His policies include expanding voter access and he’s been endorsed by Let America Vote, a national organization dedicated to fighting restrictive voting laws. And his family values include things like equal pay, paid family leave, access to contraception and abortion, and early childhood education. Stronger families indeed.
If it seems like I’m running through these things rather quickly, I am. I think these policies are important and I think Ralph Northam will make an excellent governor of Virginia. His positions are solid and strong and if passed will make life better for people who live in Virginia, particularly those who have been largely abandoned by Republican led administrations who refuse to do things like expand Medicaid or restrict access to guns.
Critics of Ralph Northam will note that these policies are not, perhaps, revolutionary. Those looking for a more dramatic solution to the Democrats ideological divides may be disappointed. And those who voted for Hillary reluctantly might not be so enthusiastic about voting for a rather staid, establishment choice. Particularly one who served as the lieutenant governor for one of the Clintons’ closest friends.
But those people would be missing several key points. One of which is that Hillary also would have been a great president — and her policies would have improved life for a lot of people. Another is that Virginia is a weird place, and a Democrat who recognizes the need environmental justice and gun control, who fights for women to be able to make their own choices about their bodies, whose approach to criminal justice begins with the claim “For much of its history, Virginia, the “cradle of American democracy,” failed to live up to its ideals” is not a given, and never has been.
Virginia is a divided commonwealth. On the one hand, diverse, liberal cities — and on the other, conservative, rural poor. A wealthy collection of DC suburbanites are separated from the rest of the commonwealth by the beltway and yet articles like this one highlight the poverty and disparity in healthcare, and education faced by the rest of the population. And yet, when Governor McAuliffe tried to expand Medicaid, the legislature voted no time and time again, even when the governor had worked out a plan with the hospitals to cover the 10% of expansion that the federal government doesn’t cover.
Its unconscionable, and yet without a Democrat in Richmond, we likely never would have had the conversation in the first place. Virginians deserve a governor who is going to fight for their access to health care, for their bodily autonomy, and their right to go to the bathroom in peace. While we face an ever growing moral vacuum on the right, a party so dedicated to its wealthy donors and regressive tax policy that it will happily cede every other issue to a rabid, violent base, we have to continue to show up for each other. We owe it to the Virginians who are most vulnerable to ensure there is someone in Richmond who will fight for their interests, whether they recognize that or not.
As we move forward as a party, as we turn our national eyes towards state and local races, we have to remember that context matters, that for Virginians, Ralph Northam is in fact more revolutionary than we give him credit for. And his win is vital for the continued quality of life of Virginians across the Commonwealth.
I live in New Jersey now — another off year Governor’s race because apparently I like the weird ones — but Virginia is always going to be my home and this race is near and dear to my heart. And I hope you’ll do what you can to ensure that Ralph Northam is their next governor.
