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Obama is calling 100,000 Virginia households to encourage Democrats to vote in the General Assembly elections.
A House candidate responds to the circulation of a video of her peeing outside in the snow
A Fairfax County School Board candidate who was removed from the ballot last week has been reinstated.
Youngkin issued a new executive order mandating prompt parental notification when an overdose happens at their child’s school.
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Obama campaigning for Virginia Democrats in 2021
Obama records robocalls encouraging Democrats to vote in Virginia elections
Former President Barack Obama recorded two robo calls encouraging Democrats to vote in next week’s General Assembly elections. One call is going out today pushing early voting and another will go out on election day encouraging Democrats to head to the polls.
“I’m calling to remind you that time is running out to cast your ballot in this year’s election. The people that we elect in the state Senate and House of Delegates will make decisions that affect your everyday life,” Obama says in the early vote message.
The National Democratic Redistricting Committee is paying for the calls to be sent to over 100,000 households across Virginia.
Marcia C. St. John-Cunning requalified for the ballot
After being removed from the ballot last week, Fairfax School Board candidate Marcia C. St. John-Cunning requalified Wednesday and will be eligible to win the Franconia seat.
A Fairfax County Circuit Court judge ruled last week that St. John-Cunning was ineligible because she incorrectly stated her address on one page of her 13-page candidacy petition form. She wrote her address correctly on 12 out of the 13 pages.
A judge ruled Wednesday that St. John-Cunning will be allowed two additional petition sheets to be counted towards the signature threshold for her qualification. Fairfax Democratic Committee says that these additional sheets were originally deemed unnecessary by the General Registrar’s office in March because they believed she was already a qualified candidate.
This is a non-partisan race but Democrats have endorsed St. John-Cunning. The 8th Congressional District Republican Committee filed the petition to remove her.
Thousands of early votes had already been cast in this district and it was too late to re-print ballots without her name. A movement to have voters write in St. John-Cunning started to happen — instead of filling in the bubble next to her name — but this new Circuit Court ruling prevents that from being necessary.
“This decision is justice for the 3000 residents who already exercised their constitutional right to vote,” St. John-Cunning said. “More than that, it upholds my platform where every student, parent, and FCPS educator in every zip code counts. The will of the people is democracy, and today democracy wins.”
Republicans applauded the original decision to remove St. John-Cunning from the ballot. “Today is a good day for those of us who believe in the rule of law and fair and honest elections,” said Andrew Loposser, the chair of the 8th Congressional District Republican Committee. “The disqualification of Fairfax School Board candidate, Marcia St. John-Cunning, by a Circuit Court Judge, demonstrates that unlawful actions have consequences.”
St. John-Cunning said this should be a wakeup call to what the Republicans are doing to gain control of school boards. “The amount of money and resources the Republicans put into this school board race illustrates their strategy to reframe the Fairfax County School Board,” she said Wednesday. “Their tactics of disenfranchisement and confusion didn’t happen in Tennessee or Georgia. They happened in our backyard.”
Laposser referred to the original decision to remove her from the ballot as a reinforcement of the rule of law, not voter disenfranchisement.
