flip-a-district fridays: volume IV
Welcome to the last Flip-a-District, or rather "Defend-a-District," of the 2020 cycle.
This week I'm highlighting the two Virginia candidates on my ballot: Congressman Don Beyer and Senator Mark Warner. Both of these elected officials are outstanding representatives, and their races are must-wins if Democrats want to hold the House and flip the Senate.
This volume of Flip will not go into full detail about the presidential race, but it is abundantly clear that Joe Biden is right: the soul of America is at stake this November. Anyone who watched Tuesday's debate had to be horrified by Trump's nonsensical answers, personal attacks, general ranting and interrupting, un-presidential behavior, unwillingness to disavow white supremacists, and refusal to agree to a smooth, violence-free transfer of power when he loses. If we all get out to vote, he will lose, and I am confident that the strength of the American experiment will hold steady when he packs up and leaves the White House for good -- peacefully.
We simply cannot endure four more years of Trump and his cruel policies, willingness to pack the Supreme Court with extremist judges, unhinged and bizarre tweets, and compulsive and constant lying. As Vice President Biden noted at the debate, this election is up to us. This is not a persuasion election. This is a turnout election. We must turn out to vote, and frankly, we must go the extra mile to donate to embattled candidates, phone bank and write postcards if possible, as well as call friends in swing states to remind them to vote in this time of national crisis.
Trump never should have been president. It's time for a new, greater, more compassionate era in American history. Vote.
Eighth Congressional District
Meet the candidate: Don Beyer
Congressman Don Beyer is serving his third term as the U.S. Representative from Virginia’s Eighth District, representing Arlington County, Alexandria City, Falls Church City, and parts of Fairfax County. He serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means and is Vice Chair of the Joint Economic Committee. He co-chairs the New Democrat Coalition’s Climate Change Task Force. He also served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1998 and was Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein under President Obama.
Don’s signature work as Lieutenant Governor included advocacy for Virginians with disabilities and ensuring protections for Virginia’s most vulnerable populations as the Commonwealth reformed its welfare system in the mid-1990s.
After leaving office, Don spent fourteen years as Chair of Jobs for Virginia Graduates, a highly successful high school dropout prevention program and was active for a decade on the board of the D.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. As Chair of the Virginia Economic Recovery Commission, he helped pass permanent pro-business reforms and was co-founder of the Northern Virginia Technology Council.
An active leader in Democratic politics, Don served as: Virginia Chair of both the Clinton-Gore and Kerry-Edwards campaigns, Treasurer and Virginia Chair for Howard Dean, Finance Chairman with Mark Warner’s Forward Together campaign, and Mid-Atlantic Finance Chair for President Obama.
President Obama nominated Don to serve as Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein in 2009. He used his position to advocate for stricter sanctions to compel Iran to begin nuclear disarmament discussions. As Ambassador, Don was integral to U.S. Department of Justice efforts to halt the abuses of Swiss bank secrecy by wealthy Americans.
Don spent four decades building his family business in Northern Virginia after a summer job at a car dealership in 1974. He is a graduate of Williams College and Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC. He was named a Presidential Scholar by President Lyndon Johnson.
Don has four children and two grandchildren. He and his wife Megan live in Alexandria, Virginia.
Eight District:
The Eighth District is solidly blue -- voters chose Clinton over Trump by a 72 to 22 margin, Governor Northam over Ed Gillespie by 75 to 24, and Senator Tim Kaine over Corey Stewart 78 to 19.
This is exactly the kind of Democratic district that we absolutely must hold, and Don Beyer is taking nothing for granted. As of the last FEC filing, Don raised $1,354,215.39 this cycle and has $635,866.65 on hand. His Republican opponent Jeff Jordan, meanwhile, has raised just $38,868.57 -- of that total, $34,313.97 was loaned from Jordan himself -- and has $5,442.96 on hand.
Nearly half of the district includes Fairfax County, while the other half includes all of Arlington County, Alexandria City, and Falls Church City.
Just one example of why we must beat Jeff Jordan:
Jordan's campaign is without substance, and it shows every time he speaks publicly.
At the Fairfax Republicans' Eighth Congressional District Forum, while the other candidate talked about his platform in his opening, Jordan simply declared that his "campaign is about liberty." When asked about how to handle congestion and transportation issues, he called it a "state and local issue." The moderator at one point asked about how to maintain funding for the defense-related jobs in the Eighth District given that the Pentagon, several defense contractors, and other federal agencies are located here. Jordan appeared confused after multiple attempts to clarify the fairly straightforward question. He finally settled on the answer that the government needs to be "good stewards of taxpayer dollars," seemingly still not understanding the topic.
It gets worse.
At the League of Women Voters' Eighth District Candidate Forum, Congressman Beyer was clear and concise with his answers, staying positive and precise. Jordan, on the other hand, had nothing but meandering dodges to questions and broad attacks on Democrats.
In his opening pitch, Jordan said that "this country is under attack….by people within our own government, and you know some of them by name: Ilhan Omar…AOC…Rashida Talib." It only got more bizarre.
Here are just a few examples of Jordan's unhinged answers:
Candidates were asked what the top three greatest challenges are facing the district. Jordan could only think of one: “we have a lot of challenges right now, and I think the most important one is the internal one, the existential threat to our country, and that’s socialism.” It's a jaw-dropping answer considering the ongoing economic and health crises that have particularly ravaged regions like Northern Virginia.
When asked about finding solutions to racial inequality in America, Jordan gleefully announced his solution -- "I think the first thing that needs to happen is stop voting Democrat." He then tried to make the case that Republicans are and have always been the real champions in the struggle against racism. Unsurprisingly, not a single policy was proposed.
The moderator asked about gun safety reforms ranging from red flag laws to universal background checks, and Jordan clumsily pivoted to a rant about how abortion is the real problem. He then declared that all gun safety measures mentioned by the moderator are unconstitutional.
When asked a yes or no question about whether he supported universal childcare laws, Jordan started his response by saying, "let's get people to work and cut taxes." Again, not even close to a relevant answer by a mile.
Inexplicably in the middle of a question about climate change -- which he unsurprisingly denied is an issue at all -- Jordan proceeded to blame the fires in California and Oregon on “the military arm of the Democratic Party, otherwise known as Antifa and BLM, [who] are burning down the forests.”
About halfway through the debate, Jordan declared that Members of Congress "are representatives, not leaders. Let's make that clear." It's a revealing comment. Jordan is devoid of any policy expertise and is focused solely on partisan attacks. If elected, he definitely would not be a leader, and he definitely would not be representative of the Eighth District.
Contact the campaign here.
Contribute here.
U.S. Senate
Meet the candidate: Mark Warner
The first person in his family to graduate from college, U.S. Senator Mark Warner spent 20 years as a technology executive and business leader in Virginia before being elected governor on a promise to move the Commonwealth forward.
As governor, he worked across the aisle to bring 130,000 new jobs to the Commonwealth. He also helped lead Virginia into the 21st century with the installation of more than 700 miles of broadband, connecting nearly 700,000 people to the internet. When he left the governor’s office in 2006, Virginia was ranked as the nation’s best state for business, best managed state, and best state in which to receive a public education.
Mark was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008 and re-elected in 2014.
As Virginia’s senior Senator, Mark is focused on the challenges our country faces next, from the out-of-control cost of health care, to climate change, to automation and the future of our economy. He has championed lowering the cost of prescription drugs, fought to protect our natural treasures like the Chesapeake Bay, and found innovative ways to create jobs in Virginia.
Mark believes that our government should be responsible, accountable, and transparent.
When he learned that funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) had lapsed, he passed a law to restore that funding. When he discovered the terrible state of housing for our service-members and their families, he passed a law to hold the landlords exploiting them accountable. And, as our country’s deficit climbed to over a trillion dollars, Mark passed a law to make all federal spending information publicly available on the internet.
Mark serves as the Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and is committed to strengthening our national security. He has been a vocal advocate urging the country to take foreign technology threats seriously. Charged with investigating the extent and impact of the Russian effort to sabotage the 2016 election, Mark’s investigation was praised by both Republicans and Democrats for being conducted in a thoughtful, judicious, and bipartisan manner.
Mark and his wife, Lisa Collis, live in Alexandria, Virginia. They have three daughters.
The Commonwealth:
Virginia is now blue, but it is newly blue. We can't take anything for granted. While Democrats hold all statewide offices and narrowly control the General Assembly, Clinton won by just 49 to 44 points. That puts us on par with a state like Colorado, which has one Republican U.S. Senator, Cory Gardner.
Mark Warner's last Senate race was close enough -- he and Republican Ed Gillespie were initially separated by about 13,000 votes with all precincts reporting -- that it resulted in a recount. Warner won by 17,727 votes in the end.
The Senator isn't taking any risks this cycle -- he is being particularly competitive in the number of ads his campaign is running on television and social media. Warner has raised $14,070,277.96 so far and has $9,280,227.23 cash on hand, while Republican Daniel Gade has raised $1,004,271.29 and has $225,069.48 on hand as of the last FEC reporting period.
Just one example of why we must beat Daniel Gade:
Gade is very, very far right, though now that he isn't running in a Republican primary, he has attempted to appear more moderate. He even told radio host John Fredericks, "for low information voters, if I were a house, my curb appeal is pretty good." We're not buying his line, not because of what anyone else has said, but because of what Gade reveals about himself in interviews and his website.
He claimed in September that he is focused on "transcending [partisanship] and serving the people of the commonwealth, whether they are Republican or Democrat, Black, brown or something else, and always seeking to serve them and the Constitution instead of being blindly loyal to [his] party." Gade claims to be above the problem of extreme party loyalty, but take a look at his priority "issues" when he was running in GOP primary: "limited government," "promote free market systems," "maintain a strong national defense," and "protect individual liberties and civil rights." After he won the primary, that issues section disappeared and was replaced with a "Principles" section that lists: "stop insider trading," "on the environment," "term limits," "united we stand," and "government spending." It's quite the interesting shift in what are apparently his strongly held "principles"...
For someone who has claimed in more recent interviews that he'd be willing to stand up to Trump, Gade is an expert at deflection when he was asked before the primary whether he ever disagreed with the president. In one interview, Gade was directly asked whether there was any daylight between him and Trump. Gade evaded the question and instead responded, "I’m really I don’t have the scrutiny on me that he has on him because I don’t know who could stand under that level of scrutiny. You know, the media is clearly rooting for him to fail."
In another interview (before the Republican primary, of course), Gade was asked how he felt about being on the ballot with Trump given that Virginians do not support him by a comparably wide margin. Gade immediately answered, "I’m happy to be on the ballot with Donald Trump, I think he deserves a second term," and proceeded to falsely claim that Biden wants to defund the police (a claim he also directed at Warner and was easily found to be "false" by Politifact).
His views about Trump aside, Gade would be a terrible senator for the Commonwealth. Virginians reject his opinions every time we're polled. For example, he has said the following about:
Coronavirus:
On Governor Northam's response: "Obviously this is a dangerous disease…but it’s dangerous in particular to a small segment of the population so in retrospect, in 20/20 hindsight, it’s clear that this was a little bit of an overreaction."
On mask requirements: "If you like big government, then that must mean you like a mask on your face because every time you put a mask on, that’s Ralph Northam’s hand touching your face."
On Trump's response: "The president has been great on this. Like push, let’s get people back to work as fast as possible." (Gade said this in May.)
Reality check: About 58 percent of Virginians believe that the federal government’s response to the coronavirus has not gone far enough.
LGBTQ rights:
On Virginia passage of the Equality Act, which he called part of the "LGBT agenda": "What we’re talking about right now is usurping rights in favor to pander to some special interests."
On former Republican Congressman Scott Taylor's cosponsoring of the federal Equality Act: "And when they mention taking away the tax exempt status of churches for not embracing the new social order of the left, thank people like @scotttaylorva for his sponsorship of HR2282 (the Equality Act). It's no wonder his constituents voted him out!"
Reality check: Approximately 72 percent of Virginians support updating Virginia law to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.
Gun safety reform:
On red flag laws: "They’re unconstitutional and I think it would be a failed policy." (Wrong and wrong.)
On gun safety generally: "It's another form of tyranny" from "the far left."
On why gun violence is not a real problem: "More people are killed with fists and knives than are killed with assault rifles."
Reality check: Virginia voters strongly support requiring background checks on all gun sales (86 percent) and passing a red flag law (73 percent). Overall, 58 percent of Virginia adults favor stricter gun laws.
Gade is not doing a very good job of attacking Senator Warner either, first coming out with an ad and then repeating the smear on Fox News that Warner has "caved to the woke mob." When pressed on specifics, Gade could not come up with a single example, finally blurting that "it's not what he's done, it's what he hasn't done." That's as specific as he could get.
Gade is not representative of Virginians' views on pretty much any issue from abortion ("there’s nothing more important, more fundamental than the right to life") to veterans' issues (he supports severely cutting back disability funding for veterans), and would be a disaster for the Commonwealth.
Contact the campaign here.
Contribute here.