Hero or Zero?
November 10
Welcome to Progress Virginia’s Zero or Hero, a weekly, unapologetically progressive take on this week’s heroes and zeros in Virginia politics. Check out this space every Friday, and Tweet us or post to our Facebook to nominate your own heroes and zeros.
Like this? Please share!
Hero: YOU, THE Voters!
The Virginia 2017 Election is over and, in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last week, progress won BIG. You might even say progress won bigly.
Virginia voters rejected Ed Gillespie’s fearmongering campaign, putting Ralph Northam in the Governor’s mansion next year. He’ll be joined with Justin Fairfax as Lieutenant Governor and Mark Herring as Attorney General. Beyond that, the VOTERS elected a number of new delegates, ousting 11 incumbent anti-progress delegates and taking three additional open seats (and maybe more, depending on a few likely recounts).
So thank you for voting—voting for women’s autonomy, for the rights of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, for vulnerable communities, for immigrants, and for our families. Thank you for voting for progress.
Forward, Virginia!
Zero: Fear
The election on Tuesday showed the entire country: We do not stand with Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric. We won’t accept Ed Gillespie’s fearmongering campaign. We’re Virginia, and we’re for everyone.
Fearmongering does more to motivate voters than intimidate them. We saw voter turnout up across the state. We want other states to learn from your efforts in Virginia, so that progress doesn’t stop with this election. We want other states to know that fear doesn’t win. We want this country to know that Trumpism has no home.