Gov. Glenn Youngkin will hold a rally for Yesli Vega, the Republican seeking Virginia’s 7th District Congressional seat, at the Stafford County Courthouse.
The event begins at 12:30 at the courthouse, 1300 Courthouse Road, and is organized by the governor’s Spirit of Virginia PAC. The rally will be the second for Vega this week in which the governor has participated and the third overall since October 17.
On Monday, October 24, Vega rallied with Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) and Youngkin at Montclair Tabernacle Church near Dumfries in an all-out push to urge voters to head to the polls to support the Republican.
Vega is attacking her Democrat opponent Abigail Spanberger and, by extension, the Biden Administration for rising inflation, the botched pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and policies in public schools that allow children to use pronouns other than what their parents might refer to them as without seeking parental consent.
Furthermore, Republicans have successfully tied their opponents to Elizabeth Guzman (D), who represents Prince William and Fauquier counties in the Virginia House of Delegates. Earlier this month, Guzman told WJLA-TV she would reintroduce failed legislation allowing social workers to investigate parents and potentially jail them if parents don’t affirm their child’s chosen gender identity.
After the story aired and fellow Virginia Democrats balked, Guzman said she won’t file the bill during the upcoming January 2023 legislative session.
During a campaign event in Dumfries on Wednesday, October 26, Insidenova reports Guzman focused on abortion issues and continues to talk about Vega’s comments made during a campaign rally this past spring where she said women are less likely to get pregnant in cases of rape.
The Supreme Court overturned the nearly 40-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling in a landmark decision earlier this year, allowing individual states’ legislatures to decide if abortion should be legal in their states. Since then, Vega has said it’s now up to states to decide on abortion, not the Federal government.
“My opponent has “endorsed a national abortion ban. My opponent has doubted whether women can get pregnant from rape,” Insidenova quoted Spanberger as saying. “My opponent has advocated for shutting down the federal government. My opponent has called the FBI corrupt.”
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D) of South Carolina appeared with Spanberger in Dumfries.
The 7th District is now considered a toss-up election, with Republicans showing solid gains in recent polls to win control of congress. Election Day is November 8, 2022, and the last day to vote early in person is Saturday, November 5.
The outlook for Abigail Spanberger (D) is looking better in her race to keep Virginia’s 7th Congressional seat. The Cook Political Report today moved Spanberger’s race against Republican Yesli Vega, a Prince William Board of County Supervisor member, from “toss-up to “lean Democratic.”
The move comes on the heels of Democrats’ successes in recent weeks, passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which addresses climate change, hiring 87,000 more IRS agents to audit citizens and small businesses, transferring some student loan debt to U.S. taxpayers and away from the borrower, and raiding the home of a former U.S. President Donald Trump to secure classified documents.
Until now, the 7th Congressional District, the 2nd in Virginia Beach, and the 10th in western Prince William County and Loudoun County were seen as competitive. The 7th Congressional District (full map here) includes eastern Prince William County, Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George and Caroline counties, and Fredericksburg city.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) advised his fellow Republicans seeking seats in Congress this fall.
“I think any candidate running today, if they are not focused on education, if they’re not focused on children and parents, then they are missing what I heard and I’m hearing from Virginians,” Youngkin told Potomac Local News during a visit to Colonial Forge High School on Thursday, September 1., 2022. “There are so many issues that families are worried about their kitchen, around their kitchen table, cost of living, and the ability to make enough money to pay the bills.”
Youngkin won the governorship in a November 2021 General Election, becoming the first Republican to win the highest office in the state since Bob McDonnell in 2009. Since then, the governor’s popularity has continued to increase, with a 55% approval rating.
On Thursday, Youngkin echoed one of this most vital campaign messages from a year ago — teachers and administrators in public schools must work in partnership with parents regarding students’ education. After seeing how some teachers conducted business during online learning during the pandemic, parents protested, saying they wanted more involvement in their child’s education.
The fight continues for conservatives in Loudoun County, where the father of a girl who was raped by a transgender student in a county high school protested during a School Board meeting and was arrested. It was a flashpoint in the parental rights movement last year.
According to the nonprofit Fight for Schools, Equality Loudoun posted on August 3 to its now defunct Twitter account, schools should never tell parents if their child is gay or transgender. Instead, it says children should tell their parents directly. “If you aren’t a safe space for your child, that’s on you,” the now-deleted Tweet stated.
Back in the 7th District, Spanberger shifted the campaign focus from national issues to Gov. Glenn Youngkin when she pressed him for answers on how the state will work to prevent another shutdown of Interstate 95 seen on January 3, 2022, snowstorm. At the time, the state was managed by Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who had just 12 days left in office.
Top Virginia Republicans called Spanberger’s move a distraction and said they’re confident in winning for Vega.
“When Virginia’s previous Democrat Governor failed to act decisively in the face of last year’s storm–a product of distraction from his primary duties while he was consumed by the unexpected disclosure of his racist past–Spanberger was nowhere to be found and had paid no attention to disaster relief planning before the winter storm season,” Virginia Republican Party Chair Rich Anderson told Potomac Local News. “Governor Youngkin will apply the hard-learned lessons of the past to ensure this doesn’t happen again. He has a great roadmap to do so in the state report that resoundingly condemned the Democrat administration for its lack of leadership in disaster relief planning.”
The two-term incumbent Democrat sent a letter to Youngkin demanding answers to how his administration is working to prevent another shutdown of Interstate 95 during a snowstorm like Virginia experienced on January 3, 2022.
Drivers were stranded along a 50-mile stretch of highway between Dumfries and Carmel Church, near Kings Dominion, for more than 12 hours without food, water, heat, and access to restrooms. Specifically, Spanberger wants to know how Youngkin is implementing recommendations outlined in an April report to prevent another disaster from occurring.
Gov. Ralph Northam (D) was managing the state when the storm hit, 12 days before Youngkin took the oath of office. The report found the Northam administration didn’t have a plan to deal with the disaster, that state government agencies failed to talk to one another during the crisis, and that messages provided to drivers weren’t clear, WTOP-FM reports.
“…I am deeply concerned by the newly- released IG audit, which takes a very critical view of the Commonwealth’s level of preparation in advance of that early January storm, our current level of preparedness were we to face similar circumstances in the coming winter months…” Spanberger penned in her letter.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin commented on Spanberger’s questions in a statement to Potomac Local News, acknowledging the Democrat is battling Republican Yesli Vega in a November 2022 Election to keep her seat, running in a newly-redrawn political district, in a race the Cook Political Report considers to be a toss-up.
“So first of all, I know that Spanberger is in a tough race. And therefore, she’s trying to do things to demonstrate maybe a connection to her new district, she can rest assured that we have paid full attention to a very good report. But I also remind everyone that first of all, the I 95 Snow disaster in January was something that was handled by the previous administration. And in fact, when we came in, we brought a whole new philosophy to this, which is to actively be engaged and manage it. I think we managed the three storms very well, that we dealt with, it doesn’t mean we can’t learn more. And so we’re incorporating very good suggestions out of that report, we’ll be ready for the winter. I also have to recognize that acts of God are acts of God. And, and so we can prepare as much as we want. But we also have to make a lot of important decisions at the time. And so we’ll be well prepared, we’re going to be well prepared to bring the full resources of the state and local capabilities together in order to keep Virginia safe and moving.”
— Virignia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R)
In recent weeks, Democrats, under President Joseph R. Biden, have made significant advances on their progressive agenda, from passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to curb global warming, and authorizing 87,000 more IRS agents to audit citizens and businesses. Last week, President Biden also announced he would transfer a portion of student debt from the borrower to taxpayers, making it possible for borrowers to pay back less of their student loans.
The Department of Justice authorized a raid on the Florida home of former President Donald J. Trump to recover what it said were classified documents illegally possessed by the former president.
University of Mary Washington Political Professor Dr. Stephen J. Farnsworth says Spanberger’s decision to talk about I-95 will appeal to Democrats and Republicans and might serve her better than talking about the actions of those currently in power in Washington, D.C.
While Biden’s poll numbers are trending upward, talking about Biden is a far less effective strategy for Rep. Spanberger to reach moderate voters than is talking about the problems of I-95,” Farnsworth told Potomac Local News.
Biden’s poll numbers ticked up to 44% this month, the highest since the pull out of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Many drivers abandoned their cars on I-95 during the January 2022 snowstorm and walked to convenience stores on Garrisonville Road in North Stafford.
“If there is one thing we need to be fixed here in Stafford, it’s traffic, and Spanberger knows it takes all levels of government to fix it,” Stafford Democratic Committee Chair Clifford Heinzer told Potomac Local News.
Spanberger has supported actions to contain climate change, voted in favor of an assault weapons ban, and supports legal abortion. As of June, Spanberger voted with Biden 100% of the time, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight. Alternatively, Spanberger voted with former President Donald Trump less than most other Democrats, only 8.7% of the time.
“It is no surprise that Congresswoman Spanberger would want to talk about anything but her own voting record,” said Prince William County Republican Committee Chairman Denny Daugherty. “The Inflation Reduction Act, which she wholeheartedly supported, will only increase inflation.”
Virginia’s 7th Congressional District now includes the eastern portion of Prince William County, Stafford and Spotsylvania counite, and Fredericksburg city.
Need to know election info:
- First day of in-person early voting at your local registrar’s office: Friday, September 23, 2022
- The deadline to register to vote or update an existing registration is October 17, 2022.
- The deadline to apply for a ballot to be mailed to you is October 28, 2022. Your local voter registration office must receive your request by 5 p.m.
- Voter registration offices open for early voting: Saturday, October 29, 2022.
- The last day of in-person early voting at your local voter registration office: is Saturday, November 5, 2022, at 5 p.m.
Yesli Vega pushed for more police officers this past spring when the Board of County Supervisors passed its largest budget in history — $3.8 billion — in April 2022.
Instead, the Democrat-controlled Board of County Supervisors provided funding to hire 15 new civilians, returning the uniformed officers working the desk jobs to the streets.
Vega, a Republican Supervisor who’s represented the Coles District since 2020, said she voted against the budget partly because it didn’t include funding for new uniformed police officers.
The decision came during a rash of shootings in the county that shows no sign of stopping. On Friday, the county marked its 10th fatal shooting victim this year when someone started unloading a gun near Manassas.
Four months after approving the budget, WUSA-TV reports Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham says the department needs at least 100 new officers. Newsham didn’t call for the officers during months of budget deliberations preceding the budget vote.
Vega is running for Congress in Virginia’s 7th District, including eastern Prince William County. Her opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanbeger, released a new ad claiming Vega doesn’t support law enforcement because she voted against the largest budget in county history, with the most significant tax increase on residents in the county’s history.
Vega is also a uniformed police officer — an auxiliary member of the Prince William County Sheriff’s Office. She must fulfill a schedule to maintain her law enforcement status, balancing it with the rigors of being a full-time mother, a member of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, and a congressional campaign.
Before coming to the Prince William County Sherriff’s Office, Vega was a cop in Manassas Park and Alexandria. She traces her interest in law enforcement to the shooting death of a family friend by a gang member.
Spanberger has been in office since 2018 and, before her constituents, was largely silent when Black Lives Matter took to the streets in our area and cities across the U.S., holding riots and calling for defunding police in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
However, multiple media outlets reported Spanberger chastised fellow Democrats on a conference call in November 2020, urging them not to say “defund the police” or push socialism if Democrats wanted to keep their seats.
In June 2020, she voiced her support for police reforms that ban no-knock warrants and chokeholds.
The Justice in Policing Act would ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants, create a nationwide police misconduct registry, limit the transfer of military-grade equipment to local police departments, and require state & local agencies to report use-of-force data. (4/10)
— Rep. Abigail Spanberger (@RepSpanberger) June 17, 2020
Spanberger worked in the CIA’s Clandestine Service, gathering intelligence on nuclear terrorism until 2014, when she left the agency to an appointment to a state board by then Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
In the meantime, sheriffs from multiple jurisdictions in the 7th District have rallied their support for Vega. Top cops from Prince William and Stafford counties and Fredericksburg all endorsed Vega.
“Our dedication to the safety and security of Virginia’s communities has resonated throughout the District, and the backing of our incredible sheriff is a testament to that. It’s time to put an end to the radical left’s Defund the Police agenda, and I look forward to leading that fight to defend my brothers and sisters in uniform when I’m elected this fall,” Vega states in a press release.
Need to know election info:
- First day of in-person early voting at your local registrar’s office: Friday, September 23, 2022
- The deadline to register to vote or update an existing registration is October 17, 2022.
- The deadline to apply for a ballot to be mailed to you is October 28, 2022. Your local voter registration office must receive your request by 5 p.m.
- Voter registration offices open for early voting: Saturday, October 29, 2022.
- The last day of in-person early voting at your local voter registration office: Saturday, November 5, 2022, at 5 p.m.
