Campaigning for a Better Tomorrow!

The question is why I would run for political office at this stage in life when many would be resting on their laurels. I have worked over thirty-four years in public service; is it not time to enjoy my golden years. I believe in that old saying from those whom much is given much is expected. I have not begun to serve the public. 

I am running for the majority of Virginians who struggled during the COVID crisis and cannot scrap together 500 dollars to survive a personal emergency. I may be successful and secure, but I know what it is like to struggle, I know what it is like to be a forgotten Virginian. This election is a battle between the prosperous few and many forgotten Virginians. I am running for Lieutenant Governor for the rest of Virginia, the best of Virginia. 

I will never forget feeling like my life was on hold until my student debt was erased, the paralyzing fear when the phone rang that it was a debt collector. I did not serve but I have tried to serve our Veterans and was repulsed by their mistreatment by their employer constantly pressing them into early retirement due to the very disabilities they earned defending our nation. I have campaigned for both my union and party but faced working people of Forgotten Virginia who rightly did not see the purpose in voting between two parties who only cared about the wealthy and not the rest of Virginia, the best of Virginia.

While we still bear the scars of a civil war from one hundred and fifty years ago, we still create more division every day between the prosperous few and the many who do not possess a college degree. The answer is not to simply not to send everyone to college but to create an economy, a society where struggling is the exception not the rule. We must make the rest of Virginia our number one priority in the Virginia legislature, the forgotten Virginia.

First, we need not only student debt relief for college graduates but also those graduates of trade schools and union apprenticeship programs. This debt relief will more than pay itself as the pent-up demand for housing of millennials and generation Z. This will do more resuscitate troubled communities than any welfare program. This freedom will allow thousands to start a family which seems impossible to them now.

Second, we should not celebrate another Veterans Day while there is a single Virginian Veteran who is involuntarily unemployed. We must not only make the state the employer of last result but provide financial incentives for the private sector. There is nothing radical about providing for those Veterans who often face physical or mental health issues because of the military industrial complex from which this Commonwealth’s moneyed elite have so greatly profited.

Finally, we must bring the working class back to the halls of our legislature. During the 2020 election, 64 percent of American college graduates voted as opposed to only 36 percent of those Americans without a college degree. Those without a college degree are the overwhelming number of people in our state, and they rightly believe government does not serve or care about them. I will use my office as a bully pulpit to turn Virginia blue collar.

While we celebrate independence, we must acknowledge of great achievement of this state, this nation is through cooperation and community. Government is no more nor no less than cooperation and community. We have forgotten most of our neighbors and our communities because we have forgotten that idea. We see our government as something alien, from the outside that only bills and taxes us to be cruel and controlling. Our state and local government is simply our friends and neighbors cooperating to create a greater community. We must not forget these ideas and we must remember the rest of Virginia, the best of Virginia who struggle every day to feed, house and clothe their families while keeping the corporate wolf at the door. 

If you give me your Vote on June 10, 2025, I will use the bully pulpit of my office to fight the wolf at the door of forgotten Virginia!