Virginia Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates Make Final Pitches

RICHMOND, VA — With a week remaining before the June 8 Democratic gubernatorial primary election, the five candidates vying to go head-to-head with Republican Glenn Youngkin spent an hour Tuesday night debating issues of race, economy, and healthcare while all making their final pitches about why they should represent their party in the November general election.

While former Gov. Terry McAuliffe is leading in both polling and fundraising efforts, his four opponents all took aim at the former governor, saying he had his chance to lead the state. Instead, candidates like former Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy said that Virginians need a governor who will inspire them on a daily basis and referred to McAuliffe and Youngkin as “out of touch millionaires” who don’t understand the challenges Virginians face.

Carroll Foy, along with McAuliffe, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, Del. Lee Carter, and Sen. Jennifer McClellan, said in Tuesday’s televised debate from Christopher Newport University in Newport News that they are looking to do what’s best for all Virginians. With questions directed at them by moderators about the quality of education, healthcare, police reform and other issues, each candidate positioned themselves as the best option for Virginia voters.

As the country commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre and the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd at the hand of Minneapolis police officers, all five candidates touted their plan for police reform and racial and economic justice.

While the candidates all pushed for more transparency and accountability in dealing with police misconduct, each had their own specific ways to addressing reversing Virginia’s history of racial and social inequity.

McAuliffe and others cited the incident involving a Black and Latino Army officer in Winsor, where he was pepper-sprayed and pulled from his car. The former governor spent much of his time touting his time as governor and the strides he said that were made in restoring felon rights more than “any governor in the history of America.”

In response, Carroll Foy — one of three African American candidates seeking the nomination — took exception to McAuliffe’s characterization of felons saying, “ Terry McAuliffe, not all black people are convicted felons,” she said. “We are more than restoration of rights — we are economic justice, environmental justice, healthcare justice and that’s why we need a governor who will treat us in a wholistic way to root out the inequities…in all in the systems.”

She was not alone in going after McAuliffe, who also spoke out against attacks directed at him by Youngkin, who has zeroed in on a possible showdown with the former governor, who held office between 2014-2018. McAuliffe said he has a history of getting things done in a bipartisan way and promised to again be "big and bold", but characterized Youngkin as not being a reasonable Republican, but instead, an extreme, right-wing loyalist to former President Donald Trump.

In a long thread of response on Twitter Tuesday night, Youngkin said the former governor “is clearly struggling to earn the confidence of his party or demonstrate that he has a firm grasp of the facts.”

For Carter, the Marine veteran and delegate from Manassas who said he is dedicated to fighting for working-class Virginians many of whom still have not been paid unemployment for job loss during the pandemic, said the focus should not be on who the Republican opponent is, but what Democrats can do for the commonwealth.

“The debate we’re having on this stage is supposed to be about the future of this commonwealth and what we stand for and we’re going to fight for,” Carter said. “We can’t just be a party this is opposed to the other guys – we have to fight for something.”

McClellan agreed: “It’s not enough to give someone to vote against,” she said, “we have to give them something to vote for.”

Each of the candidates said that more needs to be done to address the injustices being felt by many Virginians across the board. In a final question of the night posed to the candidates asking how they would provide hope to all Virginia residents moving forward, each took their own stance.

While McAuliffe said that it is impossible to fully answer the questions in the 30 seconds allotted, he pointed voters to his website where the policies he would enact as governor are listed. But his opponents said that change is needed in addressing many of the needs that have gone unaddressed, candidates said Tuesday night.

In areas of dealing with Virginia's past of slavery, candidates talked about the need for making things right but that more needed to be done, especially those who have continually been treated unfairly because they are people of color.

Fairfax, who is the second African American elected to a statewide office, said that racism is “about when African Americans are treated differently”, he said in his closing comments.

“When African Americans are shut out of opportunities repeatedly, it sends a signal to people about what our system truly values and who truly has the opportunity to succeed in our society,” Fairfax said.

Voting has already begun in the primary, which will be held on June 8 with polls closing at 7 p.m. as Virginia and New Jersey are the only states holding gubernatorial elections this year. Virginia is the only state with an open seat as Gov. Ralph Northam is unable to seek a second consecutive term.