Last Tuesday, June 11, was Primary Election Day. I want to congratulate the Democratic Primary winners across the Commonwealth, especially the three strong progressives whom I endorsed to represent people in the 45th District: Greg Parks for Alexandria Clerk of Court, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti for Arlington County and Falls Church Commonwealth's Attorney, and Steve Descano for Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney. I look forward to working with all of them. I also want to congratulate my colleagues in the General Assembly who won their primaries in the three localities I represent: Senators Barbara Favola and Dick Saslaw, and Delegates Kaye Kory and Alfonso Lopez.
The primary elections tomorrow are extremely likely to be the only chance you have to determine who wins. By November, you likely won't have a choice in these races. And primaries in off-year elections are far more likely to be decided on very close vote margins.Your vote has a much greater chance of making a difference tomorrow than it does in a Presidential election year. So please get out and vote!
As you know, unlike most other states, Virginia has elections in June and November every single year. These primary elections may very well decide who becomes the next general election winner in each of these jurisdictions. So please get out and vote! For my constituents who are still undecided on how they'll be voting, I have made endorsements in each of the three jurisdictions I'm proud to represent. If you have questions about why I've made my choices in any of these races, just ask me.
This morning, Governor Northam announced that he will be calling the Virginia General Assembly back to Richmond to convene a special session this summer on gun-safety legislation. I'm very pleased by this decision. I look forward to re-introducing the strong measures I have introduced in the past to protect Virginians against gun violence, to co-patron anew the measures I have supported in the past, and to introduce and support new measures to reduce the scourge of gun violence.
Yesterday, I sent you my cri de coeur (literally, "a shout from the heart") in response to the awful Virginia Beach shooting.
The goal of today's newsletter is to share resources and information to help you navigate the Metro platform renovation/summer shutdown that will last until September.
They were young and old, women and men, black and white.
They were at an ordinary day at work.
Tomorrow night, I will be hosting, with my good friend State Senator Barbara Favola, my Third Annual Rainbow Democrats Extravaganza.
I am very excited about it. We have an excellent lineup of entertainers and storytellers ready, from a man who was in the Stonewall Riots, actually present at the Stonewall Inn when the police invaded, sparking the gay liberation movement 50 years ago, to a welcome video from openly gay Presidential Candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg, from a young up-and-coming lesbian stand up-comic to the anguished note from an anonymous trans constituent on why she still is afraid to come out of the closet even in Northern Virginia, from talented gay singers and hilarious drag queens and kings to a man who successfully escaped conversion therapy barely with his life, to someone who has devoted his life to providing a safe space to rainbow youth of color. This is far from your ordinary karaoke night at Freddie's Beach Bar (555 23rd Street S. in Arlington). And yes, I'll share my own very personal coming-out story.
This Memorial Day, let us rededicate ourselves to increase our own devotion to honor the members of the military who, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, "gave the last full measure of devotion" in service to our country. Let us reflect with gratitude on how they made the ultimate sacrifice and work toward doing the utmost to prevent lives from being unnecessarily lost in the present or in the future.
Thank you to everyone who came to my Campaign Kickoff at Metrostage!
For those who missed it, we strived for something different. A dozen constituents and other Virginians took the stage to talk about a wide variety of local and statewide projects we'd worked on together to make Virginia better. My profound thanks to the folks who took the stage to share our stories together. I was proud to work with each and every one of you. As you'll see, it takes a village to make real change.
Please join me tomorrow morning to urge Virginia to finally get rid of Jefferson Davis Highway in Arlington and to do so as soon as possible.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board will be meeting tomorrow at 8:30 am at the Hyatt Regency/Crystal City...on 2799 Jefferson Davis Boulevard. How's that for irony?
Please be there by 9 am and sign up to speak at the public meeting to encourage them to finally retire this name and stop honoring a man who deserves no honor in Arlington.
I hope you can join us at our campaign kickoff tomorrow!
Our campaign is about Mission 51, giving us a 51-seat majority in the Virginia House of Delegates.
(We're just two seats short.)
Our campaign is about the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.