Tag: Cameron Webb

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Webb wanes: Democratic candidate comes up short in red district

In Virginia's 5th Congressional District, Dr. Cameron Webb fell to Bob Good in a highly contested race. PC: Eze Amos

President-elect Joe Biden swept to an easy victory in Virginia last week, carrying the state with 53.9 percent of the vote to Donald Trump’s 44.2 percent, according to data from the Virginia Department of Elections.

In the 5th Congressional District, Democrats weren’t so successful. Dr. Cameron Webb, UVA’s Director of Health Policy and Equity, fell to Bob Good, a Liberty University athletics administrator and Campbell County Supervisor. Observers around the country noted that Webb ran a sharp campaign while Good fumbled through multiple comical scandals, including a committing a potential campaign finance violation by auctioning off an AR-15 rifle at a rally. Heading into election night, FiveThirtyEight called the district a tossup.

Ultimately, however, Good earned 210,986 votes (52.4 percent) to Webb’s 190,313 (47.3 percent).

The huge, largely rural 5th District has voted for a Republican by a comfortable margin ever since it was drawn into its current form in the last round of redistricting. Four different Republican candidates have run in the 5th since 2012, carrying between 52.4 and 60.9 percent of the vote each time.

The map above shows the margin of victory for Cameron Webb and Bob Good in each of the 5th District’s localities.

Though Webb lost to Good by 5.1 percent, there’s evidence to suggest Webb’s campaign did swing some voters into his camp. Webb outperformed Biden, earning around 7,000 more votes than the president-elect in the 5th District.

Still, that wasn’t enough to overcome the challenges presented by the gerrymandered district.

Two years ago, Democrat Leslie Cockburn lost to Republican Denver Riggleman by 6.6 percent in the 5th. In 2020, Webb managed to flip two of the district’s 23 localities, turning Nelson County and Fluvanna County from one-point losses into one-point wins. Webb also expanded on Cockburn’s 2018 performance in Albemarle, the district’s largest locality, winning 68.2 percent of the vote, compared to Cockburn’s 64.6.

Overall, Webb improved on Cockburn’s 2018 vote share in 15 of 23 localities—but he didn’t improve by more than 3.6 percent in a single locality, and he lost ground in some places.

Webb wasn’t able to make serious inroads into the district’s most populous red localities. In Pittsylvania and Fauquier counties, the district’s two largest localities outside of Charlottesville-Albemarle, Webb won 32.2 percent and 42.1 percent of the vote, respectively. For comparison, in 2018 Cockburn won 30.8 percent in Pittsylvania and 42.4 percent in Fauquier.

“It has truly been an honor to run to represent this district in Congress,” Webb wrote in a statement conceding the race on Tuesday. “This campaign has been a battle of ideas about how to best serve the people of our district and I cannot give enough thanks to everyone who made it possible.”

“Tonight is a victory for the conservative values that founded and sustain this nation, for biblical principles, the sanctity of life, religious liberty, free market capitalism and the importance of faith and family,” Good wrote after his victory.

Democrat Mark Warner also ran ahead of Biden, winning re-election to the U.S. Senate with 55.9 percent of the vote. Two Virginia Dems who flipped red seats in 2018 hung on to their districts this time around. In the 2nd, Elaine Luria beat Republican Scott Taylor for the second time in two years, widening her margin of victory to 5.4 percent, and in the 7th, Abigail Spanberger beat Delegate Nick Freitas by about 8,000 votes.

Virginia Republicans have now lost four straight presidential elections, four straight senate races, and two straight governor’s races. (Not that we’re counting.) Last time Republicans won statewide office was in 2009, when Bob McDonnell was elected governor, and he wound up being charged with a felony and narrowly avoiding prison. This year, the party ran Freitas—last spotted losing to far-right Confederate enthusiast Corey Stewart in the 2018 senate primary—in a winnable congressional race. Republicans don’t have much time on their hands if they want to right the ship before the next governor’s race next November.

Further down the ballot, Virginians overwhelmingly voted to pass an amendment to the Virginia constitution that will reform the way the state draws U.S. congressional and state legislative districts. The amendment places the responsibility for drawing district lines with a bipartisan commission comprised of citizens and legislators of both parties, rather than allowing the majority party to draw lines however they prefer. Some House of Delegates Democrats opposed the measure, claiming that it wasn’t a strong enough reform, but the proposal passed with the support of 65.8 percent of voters.

In a perfect world, new lines will be drawn in time for the 2021 House of Delegates elections. It’s possible, though, that a census delayed by coronavirus could mean new data isn’t available until the 2022 congressional races.

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Flip the script: In conversation with Cameron Webb

In Virginia's 5th Congressional District, Dr. Cameron Webb fell to Bob Good in a highly contested race. PC: Eze Amos

In 2016, Donald Trump won Virginia’s 5th Congressional District by 11 percentage points. Two years later, as a blue wave saw Democrats pick up 41 House seats nationwide, Republican Denver Riggleman beat Democrat Leslie Cockburn by 7 percent. 

Virginia’s 5th District runs from Fauquier County to the North Carolina border. The huge district encompasses the blue enclave of Charlottesville, but also hundreds of miles filled with more conservative rural communities. Democrats have no business competing here, and for the last decade, they haven’t.

Enter Cameron Webb. 

Webb is a practicing doctor, teacher, and Director of Health Policy and Equity at the UVA School of Medicine. He worked in the White House under former President Barack Obama and decided to stay on after the 2016 election, working on drug pricing during the Trump administration. If he wins, he’ll be the first Black representative in the history of the 5th District, and the first Black doctor to serve in U.S. Congress.

Meanwhile, Webb’s opponent, Bob Good, is a self-proclaimed “biblical conservative.” He’s been a member of the Campbell County Board of Supervisors, a Liberty University athletics fundraiser, and a wrestling coach. Good challenged the incumbent Riggleman after some district Republicans were upset that Riggleman officiated a gay wedding. Good then won the nomination in a bizarre, COVID-altered drive-through convention of Republican delegates. 

Webb’s red-hot campaign has turned the district into a tossup. A late October poll from Public Policy Polling showed Webb leading 46-43, and FiveThirtyEight now gives each candidate an exactly 50 percent chance to win the district.

C-VILLE spoke with Webb last week, in hopes of figuring out what it is about the young doctor that’s got everyone talking. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

 

C-VILLE: As if this final stretch of the campaign wasn’t busy enough, I hear you have some shifts in the COVID unit coming up this week. What’s that like these days?

CW: You never really know until you get there. The way this virus is, everything changes quickly. But all over the commonwealth, all over the country we’re seeing an uptick in cases. Everybody who’s there can get pretty sick pretty fast—especially working overnight, as the only doctor on the COVID unit, you want to make sure you’re ready to respond at a moment’s notice.

 

Well, Congress will be a breeze after that. 

It’ll be a different kind of exercise. I’m looking forward to the challenge, though. There are some similarities—it’s a similar skill set, especially when you’re out and about talking to folks. It’s asking folks where it hurts and listening for an answer.

People don’t realize this all the time, but a lot of medicine is a negotiation. Many times, with treatment recommendations, folks may say, ‘I hear you, but I don’t like X, Y, or Z.’ So, okay, how do we find out way forward? That idea of finding consensus is something I expect to lean in to. You meet people where they are—that’s what medicine is about. 

 

You’re running a very close race in a solidly Republican district. On a basic level, flipping a district means convincing people who don’t agree with you on very much that you’re the person for the job. How have you been doing that?

I would start off by saying we actually agree with each other on far more things than we don’t. On education, for instance, we all want kids to have a great education. On health care, we all want folks to have access to the care they need. 

Now, the manner of execution is different, but the agreement is on the outcome. In this race, with folks across the political spectrum, we’re able to have common conversations about what we want to see. Then I’m able to show people what I think is the course forward. I haven’t really felt that tension of folks disagreeing with me. 

[Finding] those points of commonality takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of time, and it takes a lot of trust. But [we’ve been] spending the time to build that trust…I think that’s why this race is where it is.

 

Do you think those strategies will work at the next level? I mean, time and trust have been in short supply in the federal government recently. 

Listen, I’ve seen these strategies work in the Trump White House. I led a drug pricing task force, and I saw this strategy work right there in the executive office of President Donald J. Trump. 

I also think there’s strength in numbers. Any member of Congress who’s willing to work with folks who see the world differently from them—they’re part of our path forward as Americans. Luckily, we’ve got someone in the adjacent congressional district, Congresswoman Spanberger, who talks about that same thing.

I talked to [her] before I decided to run, because one of my questions was, “What’s it like trying to be in that space, in Congress, advocating for building consensus?” [She] reassured me that this is possible, you can be that kind of legislator…The more people we have who think like that, the better off we’ll be. 

 

Speaking of people on the other side of the aisle—what do you make of your opponent, Bob Good?

I still have yet to sit down in a room with Mr. Good. Even though we’re on opposite sides of the ticket, I don’t have the mindset that there’s nothing Bob Good and I would agree on.

But I think he’s taken an approach in this race where he’s tried to misrepresent some of my positions on key issues. It’s important for me to set the record straight. We’re very different—my whole focus since the beginning has been trying to unify people, and bridge divides, and bring folks together. And his approach has been to stand in his position, saying this is a bright red district and everyone should get on board. 

 

What are some of your positions that you feel have been misrepresented by the Good campaign?

Oh, shall I count the ways. Top of mind of course is this conversation around policing. I think they’ve definitely tried to label me as a radical of some sort, which couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Part of why we have the momentum that we have is that people across the district actually see me, and they hear what I say. All of that disinformation—it’s not sticking. What is sticking with folks is how it reflects on him, and less about how it reflects on me. 

 

You’re a doctor. Does that mean that health care will be one of your top legislative priorities if you win?

You can’t be a legislator heading in to the 117th Congress and not prioritize COVID recovery. And certainly there’s a public health component to that, but there’s also an economic component.

I really prioritize the economy in all of my conversations, because I can build a lot of conversations around that. Our health care conversation is an economic conversation—[health care] is one-fifth of our economy, it’s the largest sector in our economy. Our climate crisis conversation is an economic conversation, it’s about creating jobs, it’s about recognizing that renewable energies are cheaper than fossil fuels—even the free market is telling us that’s the direction we should be going. The frame here in the district does tend to have more of an economic focus, and we’re able to rise to that conversation.

 

What are your election night plans?

Believe it or not, I haven’t spent a tremendous amount of time thinking about that, because I’m so busy doing the work. It’s going to be something that honors the work that our team has put in, that my family has put in, but at the same time acknowledges that even though we want to celebrate we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic.

 

It’s good you’re calm—I’m a nervous wreck.

Well, it’s hard to shake me at this point—I was [in Washington] in November of 2016, I was up until 3 o’clock, finding out who my future boss was going to be. One thing I tell people often: President Obama’s calm the next day in the White House—I will remember that forever. I remember going to the Rose Garden the next day, and him walking out and saying, “Hey, America’s going to be okay. We just need to keep fighting, and making our argument.” And that’s what we’ll do. 

 

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Ballot breakdown: Get to know what’s on the ballot before casting your vote

Early in-person voting began in Virginia on September 18. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, more than 1.4 million Virginians have already cast their vote or requested a mail ballot. Still, there are plenty of us who haven’t voted yet. If you’re unsure what you’ll see when you stop by the registrar’s office or open that letter from the city, take a look at the sample ballot on the right for a refresher.

Though the end of the election period is fast approaching, it’s not too late to get on board. The deadline to register to vote is October 13. Vote-by-mail ballots can be requested until October 23 and must be postmarked by November 3. In-person early voting ends on October 31, the Friday before the Tuesday, November 3, general election. If you’ve been putting it off and you’re looking for a sign—this is it.

Senate

Democrat Mark Warner is running for his third term in the Senate. His Republican challenger is Daniel Gade, an Army veteran who lost a leg in Iraq before working on veterans’ issues in the Bush administration. In 2014, Warner staved off a tough challenge from Republican Ed Gillespie, winning reelection by 0.8 percent. This time around, he’s expected to win more comfortably—polling consistently shows Warner ahead by double digits, and he’s raised $13.9 million to Gade’s $900,000.

Congress

UVA’s director of health policy and equity, Dr. Cameron Webb has been running a strong race in the sprawling 5th Congressional District, which voted for Donald Trump by 11 points. Republican Bob Good is a self-styled “biblical conservative” and a former Liberty University athletics fundraiser—though he himself has fundraised poorly, and may in fact have broken campaign finance laws last month by holding a raffle for an AR-15 rifle at a campaign event.

Amendment 1

Take a look at “Party Lines” for a deep dive into this year’s important gerrymandering amendment.

Amendment 2

The second amendment on the ballot this year would give disabled veterans a tax break on one car or pickup truck owned by the veteran or their spouse. The amendment was introduced in 2019 by Democratic Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn, and passed by the Virginia state legislature with near-unanimous bipartisan support.

President

If you’re still undecided on this one, that’s on you, my friend.

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In brief: Bob’s not so good, COVID’s on the rise, and more

PC: Bob Good for Congress

Tossing it around

Bob Good, the 5th Congressional District’s Republican candidate, released a bizarre campaign advertisement this week. In the spot, Good draws on his experience as a wrestling coach—everyone’s favorite kind of authority figure—and shows how he’ll “put liberal ideas in a headlock.” As Good grapples on the mat with his son, the candidate periodically looks up from the tangle of arms and legs to deliver a zinger such as “Government-run health care? I’ll pin that idea.”

Meanwhile, election forecasters at the Cook Political Report are now rating the race a toss-up, something formerly unthinkable in a district Donald Trump won by 11 points in 2016. On Twitter, Cook’s Dave Wasserman called Cameron Webb “perhaps the Dems’ best House candidate anywhere in the country…Webb is a young, telegenic Black doctor w/deep ties in both Charlottesville & Southside.” 

Proof positive

Sticky notes in the window of Echols dorm show how students are feeling about quarantine. PC: Julia Hyde

Despite evidence from colleges around the country that inviting students back to campus would lead to coronavirus outbreaks in on-campus housing, UVA’s administration made the decision to bring first-year students back to Grounds. Now, less than three weeks later, there are outbreaks in several dorms.

Last Wednesday, the school announced at least five cases of COVID-19 were found in the wastewater of the Balz-Dobie freshman residence hall. The dorm immediately went into lockdown and all residents were tested Wednesday evening. The tests turned up 15 cases of COVID-19 in a dorm of 188 students, says the university. Students who tested positive have been placed in isolation housing and their close contacts (such as roommates) have been placed in quarantine housing.

Thursday evening, residents of the Lefevre dorm were instructed to undergo mandatory asymptomatic testing after wastewater tests indicated possible infections there, too. That dorm turned up three more positive cases. Then on Friday, the Echols and Kellogg dorms underwent the same routine, and 17 additional cases were confirmed.

“All students with positive tests are doing well,” says UVA in an official statement.

As of Friday, 19 percent of the university’s quarantine rooms were occupied by students and 1 percent of isolation rooms were occupied. Quarantine rooms are for those who have been exposed to COVID-19 and isolation rooms are for students who have tested positive for COVID-19. The school’s coronavirus tracker shows 241 active cases as of Tuesday morning, including students, staff, faculty, and contracted workers.—Amelia Delphos

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Quote of the week

“The issue is that y’all don’t have your facts together. You’re trying to cite me for a [Black Youth Action Committee] event, claiming that it took place in Washington Park and it didn’t.”

—community organizer Zyahna Bryant on the $500 fine the BYAC received for hosting Black Joy Fest, criticizing City Council for not being consistent with enforcing the ban on large gatherings

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In brief

The lost art

Seven paintings by Charlottesville artist Megan Read, worth a total of $12,000, have gone missing. They weren’t stolen in a dramatic art heist, though: FedEx lost track of the packages, which were en route to a gallery in Denver. Read has tried to track the paintings down, and says she thinks they’re stuck in a shipping center in Kernersville, North Carolina, but she hasn’t been able to find anyone who can help her. 

Sign of the times

A blunt sign on the door of one of UVA’s historic Lawn rooms has caught the attention of some of the university’s more traditionally minded alumni. “FUCK UVA,” it says, before reminding passersby of the school’s history of slavery and other crimes. The sign prompted Bert Ellis, class of ’75 and CEO of Atlanta’s Ellis Capital, to drive to town and indignantly knock on the Lawn room door, where, according to his own Facebook post, he was given an eye-opening history lesson from the student who lives there.

Name game

After debating the issue late into the night during multiple recent meetings—and getting nowhere—City Council decided on Monday to send proposals for honorary street names to the city’s Historic Resources Committee. Several proposals would honor local Black figures, including activist Wyatt Johnson and enslaved laborer William Henry Martin, while two others suggest honoring UVA men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett.

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In brief: Back to UVA, bewildering ballots, and more

Community organizer and UVA student Zyahna Bryant recently handed out college dorm essentials to nine first-gen Black college students, who all graduated from Charlottesville High School. Bryant, also a first-gen student, raised $12,000 to purchase the items and award scholarships—ranging from $750 to $1,000—over the course of a few hours. PC: Eze Amos

Comeback kids?

On August 4, UVA announced that move-in and the beginning of in-person classes will be delayed by two weeks, meaning face-to-face instruction will start on September 8. University President Jim Ryan released a video August 7, explaining that the decision to delay was made in response to a rise in Virginia’s coronavirus transmission, as well as “recent volatility in the supply chain for testing.”

The school has instituted additional safety measures in an attempt to minimize spread of the virus, including changes in classroom capacities to accommodate for social distancing, installing plexiglass shields between faculty and students, and enhancing its classroom sanitation protocols. UVA has even begun testing the dorms’ wastewater to try to detect the virus early.

Meanwhile, the state of Virginia has surpassed 100,000 cases since the onset of the pandemic, and cases have increased 16 percent in the last two weeks, according to The New York Times. New daily cases in Virginia reached an all-time high with 2,015 reported cases on August 7—less than one month before students return to Grounds.

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Quote of the week

“I promise that’s just black water in my glass. It was a prop only.”

—Jerry Falwell Jr., longtime president of evangelical Liberty University (where alcohol is banned) in an Instagram post in which he posed with his fly down on a yacht. He was placed on indefinite leave shortly thereafter.

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In brief

In the doghouse

On Sunday, Carrie Pledger, owner of Pawprints Boutique, which sells clothes and accessories for pets, asked an unhoused Black man to move because she felt he was dancing too close to her business’ sign. That request inspired the ire of a handful of nearby Black Youth Action Committee activists, who were handing out free water and snacks. After the activists voiced their concerns, Pledger called the police. Video shows Pledger telling the police, “This is scary to me,” gesturing to the scene in front of her.

Bewildering ballots

If you received a mailing from the Center for Voter Information, be wary. The nonprofit isn’t attempting to scam you, but it is demonstrably incompetent: This month, the organization mailed out a half-million ballot applications directing potential voters to send their ballots back to incorrect registrars’ office addresses, and in 2018, voter registration forms were mailed to 140,000 Virginians who were already registered to vote, reports The Washington Post. The safest way to vote absentee is to register online via the Virginia Department of Elections.

No Good?

A press release from Democratic congressional candidate Dr. Cameron Webb says his Republican opponent Bob Good has declined to participate in a proposed October debate. The district has been steadily Republican for a decade, but Webb has so far out-fundraised Good by leaps and bounds.

ICE facility outbreak

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement immigration detention center in Farmville, Virginia, is now home to the worst coronavirus outbreak of any detention facility in the United States, reports The Washington Post. Testing last month showed that 70 percent of those detained had the disease, and one person being held there died last week.

 

This article has been corrected to accurately reflect the timeline of events described in the brief titled “In the dog house.” Pledger called the police only after the activists spoke up, not before.

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In brief: Black at STAB, a win for Webb, and more

Black alumni and students at the St. Anne's-Belfield School have anonymously shared their experiences online, including microaggressions from teachers and uses of racial slurs by other students. PC: Skyclad Aerial

Private protests

For decades, students in collared shirts and plaid skirts have strolled across St. Anne’s-Belfield’s well-manicured lawns. But even this historic bastion of prep has felt the effects of our transformative moment, at least in a small way.

After the murder of George Floyd, a group of STAB alumni, led by Sophia Hunt, created a petition with a list of demands for the administration, including publicly condemning racial violence, acknowledging the presence of racism in the community, hiring a full-time global diversity and inclusion officer, and diversifying the faculty, board of trustees, and student body.

Meanwhile, students have begun calling for change on the Instagram page @blackatstab. On the account, Black alumni and students have anonymously shared their experiences, including microaggressions from teachers and uses of racial slurs by other students.

When asked for a statement, STAB did not address the Instagram page, instead directing C-VILLE to an email in which the school says it’s “launching a series of dialogues within our entire community.”

STAB declined to release a detailed breakdown of its student body’s demographics, only sharing the statistic from its website that 32 percent of students are “of traditionally under-represented groups.” Elsewhere in town, The Covenant School’s student body is 87 percent white, and Tandem Friends School is 78 percent white. The city public school district is 42 percent white.

(The phenomenon isn’t unique to Charlottesville: Nationally, 69 percent of private school students are white, though just 51 percent of the country’s school-aged population is white, according to research from the University of California Los Angeles.)

Piper Holden, one of the STAB alums who started the petition, says she felt like the message was received. “But obviously this isn’t over,” she says. “I’m really hoping to see those changes. But we’re going to have to wait and see.” — Claudia Gohn

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Quote of the week

“November Cook Political rating: Lean R. But if
you’re looking for an upset, this is one to watch.”

—Election forecaster Dave Wasserman, on the race for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District

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In brief

Fireworks frenzy

People have been launching fireworks around town for weeks—and it’s not just happening in Charlottesville. In New York City, the fireworks have been so prevalent that conspiracy theories have started circulating about their origins. If you haven’t had your fill of fireworks, the city’s annual Fourth of July show hasn’t been canceled. But instead of gathering in McIntire Park, you’re advised to stay socially distant and look toward Carter Mountain, where the show will go on, beginning at 9:15pm on Saturday.

Dr. Cameron Webb PC: Supplied photo

Webb wins big

In case you haven’t heard, UVA doctor B. Cameron Webb picked up a landslide victory in last Tuesday’s primary for the Democratic nomination to represent the 5th District in the House of Representatives. If Webb beats Bob Good in November, he’ll be the first Black physician to serve in Congress. 

Absentee action

With the pandemic keeping people away from the polls, 49 percent of primary voters in Charlottesville cast absentee ballots last week. (In the March presidential primary, just 7 percent of local votes were absentee.) This election could be a valuable test run for a November contest that might see large numbers of absentee votes—in this election cycle, Virginians requested 118,174 absentee ballots and submitted 87,052 a return rated of 74 percent.

Johnny Reb on the run

Legislation allowing localities to remove or recontextualize Confederate monuments goes into effect today, July 1, and Albemarle County is wasting no time—the Board of Supervisors will discuss the removal of the Johnny Reb statue outside the county courthouse at its meeting this evening. The statue could legally come down as early as September. More hurdles still remain before Charlottesville can begin the same process.

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Primary roundup: Dark horse Democrats, and how to vote in a pandemic

From left, RD Huffstetler, John Lesinski, Claire Russo, and Cameron Webb are competing for the local Democratic congressional nomination. Photos courtesy of the subjects.

 

Three Marines and a doctor walk into a bar…

Cards on the table: It’s going to be difficult for a Democrat to win the race for Virginia’s (heavily gerrymandered) 5th Congressional District.

In 2018, on the back of historic turnout and a nationwide blue wave, and running against a Republican who didn’t have an incumbency advantage, Democratic congressional candidate Leslie Cockburn still lost to Republican Denver Riggleman by roughly 6.5 percent—20,000 votes. Even Tim Kaine, Virginia’s much-loved and well-established incumbent senator, won only 48 percent of the vote in the district in 2018.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball and the Cook Political Report both rate the district as “Likely Republican.” Charlottesville-Albemarle is the 5th’s largest population center and will vote Democratic by a vast margin, but the district stretches from the North Carolina border all the way to Fauquier County, on the outskirts of the D.C. metro area, and all that rural, red territory outweighs our true-blue college town. The convoluted district was drawn by a Republican legislature in 2012.

Still, four valiant Democrats have decided to throw their hats in the ring. RD Huffstetler Jr. is a Marine who attended Harvard’s Kennedy School, worked for a Massachusetts congressman, and ran for the 5th District nomination unsuccessfully in 2018. John Lesinski is a Marine who has served on the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors and school board. Claire Russo is a Marine who, after her service, worked as an adviser to the military with a focus on recruiting and training women. Cameron Webb is a doctor and UVA health policy instructor who held a White House fellowship. (He is not a Marine.)

The candidates are all campaigning on a relatively standard Democratic Party platform. All four list some combination of combating climate change, expanding health care, improving education, and expanding rural broadband access as top priorities.

If you’re looking to pick the likeliest winner, the strongest indication at this stage is fundraising, and Huffstetler leads the field. At the FEC filing deadline in mid-April, Huffstetler had raised around $807,000, and Webb was in second place with roughly $510,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Of the four, however, Webb had received the highest sum from small-dollar donations of less than $200.

Webb and Huffstetler have articulated differing visions for how they might go about actually winning the general election, should they win the primary. In a candidate survey administered by Indivisible Charlottesville, Huffstetler writes, “Donald Trump is going to carry VA-05 in November,” and goes on to say that rural, split-ticket Trump-Huffstetler voters are the key to success. Webb, meanwhile, writes that the 5th district contains more than 70,000 black adults who are not registered to vote or did not cast a ballot in 2018, more than enough to make up for Riggleman’s 20,000 vote margin of victory. Webb, who is black, feels he is the man to energize that base.

Either way, it’s going to take a masterful campaign to flip a district that has given Republican congressional candidates 55, 61, 58, and 53 percent of votes since it was drawn into its current form.

 

How do I vote in a pandemic?

The Democratic primary was originally scheduled for June 9, but was postponed to June 23 in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Obviously, it’s difficult to social distance during an election, and many will prefer to vote by mail this year. (Please, dear readers, vote by mail.) Voters who want an absentee ballot mailed to them must submit their application by 5pm on Tuesday, June 16, a week before the election.

Many states have seriously altered their election procedures to account for the pandemic. In nearby Maryland, an April 28 special election to replace deceased congressman Elijah Cummings was held by mail-in vote only.

Some states already have robust vote-by-mail systems in place. Oregon has been automatically mailing a ballot to all registered voters since 1998—voters just have to fill it out and send it back. That’s far more elegant than Virginia’s system, which requires voters to go online, download a ballot request form, supply a reason for wanting to vote absentee, and resubmit it by mail, email, or fax, before ever seeing a ballot, which they then have to fill out and return.

Voting absentee is “strongly encouraged” on the state’s website, though Virginia leaders did not elect to simplify or expand the state’s mail-in voting process. (Voters staying home because of the pandemic are instructed to select “My disability or illness” on the absentee application form.) On April 13, Governor Ralph Northam passed Executive Order 56, which postponed the primary by two weeks and mandated that election administrators “prescribe procedures in accordance with the CDC,” with no further specifics.

The General Assembly did pass two critical voting-rights expansions this year, when it repealed voter ID laws and made Election Day a state holiday. Those new rules will go into effect in November, but will not apply to these primaries.

 

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In brief: Sad grads, Spanish cuts, running for justice

The cancellation of UVA's graduation will have effects all across town.

 

For the first time in nearly 200 years, the University of Virginia will be honoring its graduates not on Grounds—but online. Starting at 1pm May 16, students, their families, and friends will be able to tune in to the university’s virtual celebration and conferral of degrees on its website, as well as on UVA’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The 30-minute ceremony—planned by a committee of students, faculty, and staff—will open with a surprise performer, followed by the university’s annual year-in-review video. President Jim Ryan, along with the deans of each school, will then confer degrees to UVA’s more than 7,000 graduates. After a student-led performance, Ryan will deliver congratulatory remarks, and introduce a second surprise entertainer. The ceremony will wrap up with a performance of “The Good Old Song” by the University Singers.

Graduates will still get to walk the Lawn, but when remains unclear: An in-person graduation ceremony is planned for either October or next May, depending on future social-distancing guidelines and restrictions.

When Final Exercises do happen, Courtney Cacatian, executive director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau, expects it will bring a “much needed boost” to the local economy, specifically with lodging taxes. The city’s hotel occupancy in May is typically around 75 percent, with rooms sold out during graduation weekend. And the average daily rate for a room is $150—the highest for the entire year.

According to the latest data available (from the week of April 19), Charlottesville hotel occupancy was down to 25 percent, not including the places that have closed because of the pandemic.

Charlottesville’s restaurants are also losing out on big bucks (not to mention the city’s loss of meals tax revenue). Over graduation weekend, The Local, for instance, typically hosts more than 1,500 guests—“by far our busiest time of the entire year,” says operations manager Michelle Moshier. “Now, restaurants are not only faced with trying to recover from months of closures, [but] they are also taking a huge financial hit by losing much-needed sales that restaurants count on to carry them through the slower summer months.”

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Quote of the Week

“When we beat this, people will still have to battle with insurance companies and choose between groceries and medicine. We have to do better.”

—Dr. Cameron Webb, candidate for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, in his first television advertisement

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In brief

Hasta la vista

As the pandemic continues to crunch budgets, Charlottesville City Schools has decided to sacrifice its elementary school Spanish program. The city hadn’t met the school district’s requests for funding even before the pandemic, and now, after further cuts, the district finds itself on the wrong end of a $1.16 million deficit, reports The Daily Progress. School board members have expressed a desire to bring the program back once the pandemic’s effects have passed.

Run with Maud

Dozens of Charlottesville residents donned black T-shirts last weekend, and embarked on a 2.23 mile jog in a show of solidarity for Ahmaud Arbery, the black man who was murdered by two white men while jogging in Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23. Arbery’s alleged killers were charged with murder May 7. The Charlottesville group, organized by former vice-mayor Wes Bellamy, was one of many around the country that ran in Arbery’s honor.

Pass the test?

UVA President Jim Ryan appeared on “Face the Nation” over the weekend to discuss the school’s still-mysterious fall plans. Ryan hopes to have as many students on Grounds as possible, but said, “we would need to test students when they first arrive, and faculty and staff before the students arrive.” That seems like an ambitious goal, given the difficulty that even state governments have had in procuring tests.

Pole position

Even with fewer people on the roads, those pesky telephone poles still jump in front of cars sometimes. A driver downed the pole outside of Vinegar Hill Theatre on May 8, resulting in a brief power outage downtown and a day-long road closure.

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Meet the candidates: The 2020 5th District ballot is already crowded

Clockwise from top left: Kim Daugherty, RD Huffstetler, Cameron Webb, and John Lesinski have all expressed interest in running for the 5th District seat. (Daugherty photo: Ralph Alswang, Huffstetler and Webb: provided, Lesinski: Ray Boc)

Labor Day has traditionally represented the start of the presidential and congressional election seasons, providing candidates a window of one year and two months during which they campaign, meet with voters, and raise money. With the federal holiday now in the rearview mirror, that season is underway in the 5th District of Virginia.

Three (potentially four) Democrats are seeking the nomination to challenge Republican Denver Riggleman for his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. So far, only one other Virginia district has at least four candidates running, making the 5th one of the most highly contested seats in the commonwealth. Here’s a look at the Dems who’ve either announced or are actively considering challenging incumbent Riggleman.

Kim Daugherty

Lawyer, Fauquier County

Daugherty, the only woman in the race thus far, is making her first run for office. Raised in Stafford after moving around a lot with her military family, Daugherty attended Longwood University for her undergraduate degree, graduated from the Florida Coastal School of Law, and has spent her entire professional career practicing law in Virginia.

A family law attorney in private practice, Daugherty says she doesn’t have a “cushy” job. “I work [what feels like] 80 hours a week advocating for families…and on top of that I make time to be with my own family,” she says. “This is the type of lifestyle and these are the types of challenges that so many people in the 5th District face, and I understand it.”

Focused on serving working-class citizens, Daugherty believes many in the 5th haven’t felt economic success and she hopes to advocate in Congress for people who have to work countless hours a week.

“In traveling the 5th District and talking with voters, it’s clear to me that they are really one step away from financial ruin,” she says. “We need to make sure that we’re working for working-class families and working-class people, and not so much giving tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and the elite.”

Roger Dean “RD” Huffstetler

Entrepreneur, Charlottesville

Huffstetler is making his second bid for the 5th District seat after conceding the Democratic nomination to Leslie Cockburn in the 2018 election. The former owner of a startup tech company who grew up in a rural family, Huffstetler spent four years in the Marines before attending the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University with help from the G.I. Bill.

“My campaign is not going to take a dime of corporate PAC money; we don’t believe in that,” Huffstetler says. “And if you have a business in my district, I’ll meet with you, you just don’t have to pay me to do that. That’s literally the job of a congressman to try and meet with their constituents.”

Huffstetler says the three distinct issues most important to voters are: health care, education, and infrastructure.

“People just really want to know that they’re going to be able to have quality, affordable health care in their hometown…they want to know why their young people are going away—they’re not getting the skills they need at their local high school or community college to compete in the changing economy—[and] if you go to Buckingham County, 90 percent of the residents do not have broadband internet,” he says.

Cameron Webb

UVA physician, Charlottesville

Another first-timer like Daugherty, Webb graduated from UVA before obtaining a medical degree from Wake Forest and studying law at Loyola University. He was a White House fellow from 2016-17 and now works at UVA, where he’s an assistant professor of medicine and director of health policy and equity.

“It’s a critical time, it’s a critical year, there are critical issues, and there’s just a lot of need for good representation,” Webb says. “I think people remain very motivated to vote for folks who are going to help press for change that’s going to help improve lives.”

Webb’s biggest area of concern is health care, having talked to patients who say the current system hasn’t helped them obtain the coverage they need. He plans to advocate for combating climate change and racial prejudice, but says health care is the top issue on the minds of district voters he’s spoken with since launching his campaign.

“As a physician, I see every day in that role how critical health care is,” Webb says. “I hear every day from my patients how [the healthcare system] is not serving them well.”

John Lesinski

Real estate broker, Rappahannock County

Lesinski hasn’t officially announced, and says he is “still exploring” the idea of putting together a campaign.

Currently an executive vice president at the Northern Virginia branch of the real estate services organization Colliers International, Lesinski’s resumé includes 26 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, chairman of the Rappahannock County Public Schools’ Board of Education, and a spot on the county’s Board of Supervisors.

“In addition to being an elected official and a businessman, I’m also a veteran,” Lesinski says. “I [did] four years of active duty in the reserves. I currently serve on the Board of Veterans Services and the Veteran Services Foundation Board, and I still remain active in trying to support our veterans in a lot of their needs, from mental health to homelessness to suicide prevention.”

Lesinski says he’d focus on expanding broadband internet access to the entire district, boosting employment, and supporting local military veterans.

“Being a businessman and having some experience working with companies that are creating jobs, I think those are the issues that if I was running, we’d give a lot of attention,” he says.

CORRECTION (9:15 a.m., September 5): A previous version of this article said Huffstetler is the owner of a startup tech company. He sold the company and no longer owns it.

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In brief: Surviving the anniversary, unfinished A12 legal business, another contender, and more

First Baptist Church was the scene for August 12 reflection and moving forward—as it was two years ago. Amy Jackson

Forward together

It was a full house at First Baptist Church on West Main Street on August 12, as a diverse crowd gathered for an interfaith service. “It fills my heart to see the pews filled like this,” said deacon Don Gathers. “We’ve come together not because of what happened, but in spite of it.”

A promised appearance by several presidential candidates fell through, after Cory Booker returned to New Jersey to deal with a water crisis, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had asked to speak at the service but been denied, canceled at the last minute.

The service, which echoed similar gatherings held at the church after the violence in 2017 and on the first anniversary last year, was full of music, prayers, and reflection. It also featured testimony from August 12, 2017, survivors and faith leaders.

Activist Tanesha Hudson, a Charlottesville native, said activists of color had sometimes been left behind, and urged everyone to put action behind their conversations. “The world is watching Charlottesville, so how we recover is going to lay down the blueprint for how the world recovers.”

Marisa Blair and Courtney Commander, who were with their friend Heather Heyer when she died, said the anniversary had been harder than expected, but Blair said she wanted to talk about love. “Be kind. Be gentle. You don’t know what anyone else is facing.”

Presbyterian leader Jill Duffield spoke about living in Charleston, South Carolina, when a white supremacist gunman murdered nine people at the Emanuel AME church, but said it had taken the events in Charlottesville to make her understand the prevalence of white supremacist violence.

And Rabbi Tom Gutherz, of Congregation Beth Israel, addressed the long history of anti-Semitism, calling it “the glue that holds white supremacy together.” The son of a Holocaust survivor, he acknowledged that Jewish people in America have also been privileged. “I may have been surprised,” he said of the violence in Charlottesville, “but African Americans have always known it.”

He exhorted the audience to “be a resister, and not a bystander,” and said, “I believe that we will find a way forward together.” 

Clockwise from top left: Don Gathers, Sarah Kelley and Michael Cheuk, Tanesha Hudson, Tom Gutherz, Marissa Blair and Courtney Commander, and Jill Duffield were among those who spoke at First Baptist Church August 12. Amy Jackson

Quote of the week

“You literally have to love the hell out of people.”—Marissa Blair, survivor of the August 12, 2017, car attack

In brief

Kessler refiles

Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler took to the federal courts—again—on the second anniversary of the deadly rally in Charlottesville to sue the city and its officials for allegedly violating his First Amendment rights in August 2017. Kessler and co-plaintiff David Parrott claim police allowed a heckler’s veto to suppress their exercise of free speech by not stopping the fights that led to an unlawful assembly.

Hudson sues, too

Another civil suit was filed August 12, this one by local activist Tanesha Hudson. The lawsuit claims Hudson was denied her First, Fifth, and 14th Amendment rights when she joined Jehovah’s Witnesses counterprotesting at the Unite the Right rally. She’s seeking $400,000 in damages.

Fourth Street petition

City resident Aileen Bartels wants the mall crossing at Fourth Street closed and is circulating a petition to do so, a move unpopular with many downtown businesses, NBC29 reports. Bartels, whose petition had 325 signatures at press time, contends the crossing is a “serious safety hazard” for pedestrians on the mall, and notes the notoriety of the place where James Fields drove his car into a crowd, killing Heather Heyer and injuring dozens.

Another challenger

A UVA doctor will run against Denver Riggleman for the 5th District congressional seat. Cameron Webb, who practices and teaches at UVA, lives in Albemarle. He says he’s going to focus on improving access to affordable health care. He joins R.D. Huffstetler and Fauquier lawyer Kim Daugherty in seeking the Dem nomination.

Screwdriver killing

A jury found Gerald Francis Jackson, 61, guilty August 7 of voluntary manslaughter in the slaying of his neighbor, Richard Wayne Edwards, 55, in his Cherry Street apartment. A jury recommended a sentence of 10 years in prison.