Copyright Augusta Free Press
The two sides in the 2025 Virginia elections made their closing arguments at dueling rallies on Saturday, the MAGA Republicans in the far reaches of the Northern Virginia exurbs, the Democrats in the heart of Hampton Roads. Interesting contrast between the two. The message from the Dems, per Barack Obama, who appeared on stage with the Democratic Party nominee for governor, Abigail Spanberger: “At a time when our politics feels broken, we need, desperately, leaders like Abigail – public servants who are in it for the right reasons, are focused on the future, and who will always stay connected to the people they were elected to serve.” So, positive. The message from the MAGAs, per Glenn Youngkin, who appeared with the MAGA ticket – Winsome Earle-Sears, John Reid and Jason Miyares at Patrick Henry College, the conservative Christian college founded in 1998 by right-winger Michael Farris: “We’re going to send Jay Jones back where he belongs, which possibly could be jail. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to reject Abigail Spanberger and send her back where she belongs, which is, how about back home? Just go back home! And we are gonna reject Ghazala Hashmi, because she is the most liberal leftist member of our General Assembly. And I got to tell you what folks, I don’t want her anywhere. I don’t even want her in the state.” So, that’s … something. The Democrats want to fix things; the Republicans want to throw their opponents into jail or exile. It shouldn’t distress you in the slightest that the side that wants the other side jailed, sent packing out of state or deported will get in the area of a million and a half votes on Tuesday. I’m being facetious in saying it shouldn’t distress you. “The socialists and the radical Islamists who are on the march in America are behind Zohran Mamdani in New York, and they’re behind Ghazala Hashmi in Virginia. We cannot let that be successful in this state,” said Reid, who has actually been under more fire from inside the house – it was Republicans, led by Youngkin, who tried to get Reid to cede his spot as the LG nominee because he is gay, and being gay is, you know, it’s bad. It was Republicans who were also behind the more recent smear of Reid to the effect that he is a big fan of gay Nazi porn, but that was when they were still trying to get him to drop out of the race. ICYMI The John Reid porn thing got weirder | Would you believe, gay Nazi porn? Now that they’re stuck with him, and he with them, they’re playing the race card by trying to link Hashmi to Mamdani, who is on his way to a landslide win in the New York mayoral race – an odd choice for this particular MAGA ticket, which has a Black immigrant in Earle-Sears and the son of a Cuban refugee in Miyares. Also odd: those Youngkin lines about sending Spanberger back where she belongs and Hashmi out of the state. I think what he’s getting at there is, Spanberger was born in New Jersey – that’s code for “real Virginians” that she ain’t one of us, even if her family moved to Short Pump when she was 13, she’s a UVA alum, and she’s lived her ever since. What about ol’ Glenn Youngkin on those counts? Well, he was born in Richmond, then went to school at Rice – which is not in Virginia – then worked on Wall Street, in DC and in London before deciding to return to the Commonwealth to run for governor. One of those two is the carpetbagger, and, ahem, it’s not Abigail Spanberger. But if not being born here is disqualifying, hate to tell you, Glenn, but Winsome Earle-Sears, born in Jamaica, that’s not Virginia; Jason Miyares, born in Greensboro, N.C., that’s not Virginia. The line about Hashmi – “I don’t want her anywhere, I don’t even want her in the state” – is beyond the pale. Like Earle-Sears, who moved to the U.S. with her family at the age of 6, Hashmi, who was born in India, moved to the States at the age of 4. Hashmi was an assistant professor at the University of Richmond and the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at J. Sargent Reynolds Community College. I’d say she counts as one of us, even with her brown skin and exotic name. “I have lived in Virginia for over 30 years; my daughters were born and raised right here in Richmond,” Hashmi wrote on social media as a response to the Youngkin comments. “I am not surprised – but will not be deterred – by the bigotry from our Governor. Ghazala Hashmi is an American name. On Tuesday, we will show him what Virginia stands for.” Flip to the positive vibes at the Obama-Spanberger rally in Norfolk. “Abigail has real, practical plans to grow the economy, strengthen Virginia’s schools, and lower the cost of everything from housing to healthcare to energy, and she’s willing to reach across the aisle to make it happen,” Obama said, hyping Spanberger’s record of bipartisanship, noting that “she’s had bills signed into law by both President Trump and President Biden. That is not easy to do.” Certainly, there were political attacks – but they were about politics, not where people were born, not whether the other side should be thrown into jail. More from Obama, another guy with brown skin and a funny name: “When someone asked her about all the federal workers fired by this administration, given how important that is to Virginia, Abigail’s opponent said she wanted to talk about ‘real issues’ and didn’t understand why those job cuts are a ‘huge thing.’ I don’t know about you, but seeing your neighbors, your friends, your customers, maybe some of your family members suddenly out of work and not being able to make their mortgage, that seems like a pretty big thing to me. And I’d want a governor to be paying attention to it. “Abigail’s opponent does seem to care about what Trump and his cronies are doing. She praised the Republican tax law that would raise the cost of healthcare, housing, and energy here in Virginia. She supported bills that would strip funding from Virginia public schools. And she said she’s ‘morally opposed’ to protecting reproductive rights, saying she will ‘do everything in her power to cut off access to abortion. “Virginia, you don’t need a governor who puts party and ideology ahead of the people she was elected to serve. You deserve a governor who will think for herself and work for you – a governor who will create jobs and not cut them; and who will lower costs, not raise them; and who will bring people together instead of dividing them; and who will do what’s right for the people of Virginia, no matter what anybody in Washington thinks. You deserve a governor like Abigail Spanberger.”
