Youngkin announces who will be leading his political work during 2023 elections
All 140 legislative seats are up for election.
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Youngkin announces who will be leading his political work during 2023 elections
Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced who will be leading his political work during the 2023 elections in Virginia. All 140 legislative seats will be up for election this November.
Dave Rexrode will serve as chairman of Youngkin’s PAC, Spirit of Virginia. Matt Moran will continue to lead the PAC as its executive director.
Rexrode most recently served as the executive director for the Republican Governors Association (RGA). He was in that role since 2018.
Rexrode has deep ties in Virginia Republican politics. He served as executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia, deputy campaign manager for Bob McDonnell, national coalitions director for the Republican National Committee, and campaign manager for Rep. Bob Goodlatte. Rexrode is a graduate of James Madison University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in political science and public administration.
Moran also has deep ties in Virginia that are much more recent. He helped the Youngkin administration’s policy shop during the 2022 legislative session before he was named the executive director of Youngkin’s PAC. Prior to working with Youngkin, Moran worked with Creative Direct and ran Kirk Cox’s gubernatorial campaign in 2021. Moran has also worked for multiple Speakers of the House.
Both Rexrode and Moran will be senior political advisors to Youngkin.
GOP operative who advised Youngkin moves to pro-DeSantis PAC - AP
By MEG KINNARD
A top Republican operative who worked as an adviser on Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s winning campaign has signed on to work for a super PAC urging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president.
Jeff Roe will serve as an adviser to Never Back Down, according to a person familiar with the arrangement but not authorized to speak publicly about it. Roe ran Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign and has advised numerous other GOP politicians, including Eric Greitens, who resigned as Missouri governor in 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct and campaign violations. Roe didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment late Wednesday.
Youngkin requires people convicted of felonies to apply for voting rights - Washington Post
by Greg Schneider
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has changed state policy for restoring civil rights to people who serve time for a felony conviction, greatly reducing the number of former inmates who regain the right to vote.
Youngkin canceled a practice begun by a Republican predecessor, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, of automatically restoring rights for at least some former inmates once their sentence is complete. Instead, each person must file an application and will be considered on a case-by-case basis, Secretary of the Commonwealth Kay Coles James said Wednesday in a letter to a key senator.
New Video Shows Virginia Officers Overpowering and Punching Irvo Otieno in Jail Cell - NYT
New surveillance video released on Wednesday shows a group of sheriff’s deputies rushing into Irvo Otieno’s jail cell in Henrico County, Va., and physically overpowering him, with one of them appearing to punch down multiple times before the officers carry his limp body out to a transport van.
The video was recorded on the afternoon of March 6, several hours before Henrico County sheriff’s deputies brought Mr. Otieno, 28, into Central State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Dinwiddie County roughly 50 miles away. In an admissions room there, previously released footage shows a group of seven sheriff’s deputies piling on top of Mr. Otieno and pinning him to the floor for more than 11 minutes. He was asphyxiated in the process, according to the local prosecutor.
