Dems want John Gray to drop out of Prince William Chairman race

The Republican paid a private firm to delete offensive tweets. [The Washington Post]

• Democrats gathered Thursday at the Woodbridge Virginia Railway Express station to demand he now drop out of the race for Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman At-large.

“You won’t hear any disagreement about that from any of us,” said State Senator Scott Surovell (D, 36 — Fairfax, Stafford, Woodbridge).

Gray is vying to replace longtime Republican Board Chairman Corey Stewart, who is not running for reelection.

Ann Wheeler is the Democrat running against Gray.

• She said her opponent has extreme views, “the kind of views that we don’t want to see in Prince William County.”

Surovell said Gray if elected, would be difficult to work with on matters of transportation, and other matters of local government.

• He called Gray a racist, misogynist, and bigot.
• Others, like Kenny Boddye running for the Occoquan District seat on the Board of County Supervisors, called for county residents to “publically disparage” Gray.

Democrats demanded all Republicans running for office in the November 5 Election in Prince William County denounce Gray.

• Surovell said this call for Gray to drop out of the race differs from when, in February, he and other Democrats called for Governor Ralph Northam to resign after the blackface scandal.

“With that, we’re talking about something that happened 25 years ago. This is recent, this happened this year,” he said.

• There is also no proof Northam is the man depicted in the blackface photo in the Governor’s class yearbook from 1984, added Surovell.

After the press conference, the Prince William County Republican Committee fired back.

“John Gray has rightly apologized for his disgusting past tweets,” said Republican Committee Joann Watts. “However, it’s hypocritical for the Prince William Democrats to focus on his mistakes when they give their leader, Governor Ralph Northam, a complete pass…” said Card.

Locally, seats on the Board of County Supervisors and School Board are up for grabs this November.

• On the Board of Supervisors, all but the Neabsco District have contested races.
• For the School Board, which is non-political under state law, has at least five contested races with a Republican commitee-endorsed candidate on the ballot.
• At the courthouse, for Commonwealth Attorney, there’s a two-way race with Amy Ashworth (D) and Mike May (D), while Glendell Hill (R) is running against Josh King (D) and Rhonda Dickson (I).