Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) is one of 70 House Democrats aiming for defeat in November 2022. Here she greets voters outside the Orange County Registrar’s office on Thursday. September 18, 2020 in Orange, Virginia.
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Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) is one of 70 House Democrats aiming for defeat in November 2022. Here she greets voters outside the Orange County Registrar’s office on Thursday. September 18, 2020 in Orange, Virginia.
Win McNamee / Getty Images
At a crowded pub in Midlothian, Virginia, a group of voters are gathering at long wooden tables, ordering burgers and pimento chips and talking about the Democratic Party’s legislative agenda.
“I think universal pre-K is a good idea,” says Lindsay Sherrard, a local doctor.
“NS [child] Yael Levin, who works on educational issues, added. “I like the tax credit because that gives people choice back.”
Both policies are central to the Democrats’ Rebuild Better bill, passing the house on friday morning.
But this is not a Democratic event. It’s a meet and greet for Tina Ramirez supporters, one of at least seven Republicans are vying to challenge incumbent Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger, who was first elected in 2018 by a narrow margin.
The pub is located in Chesterfield County, which has the largest percentage of Spanberger County, 7th Virginia. It moved from former President Trump in 2016 to President Biden four years later and most recently Republican Glenn Youngkin for governor.
Republicans have enjoyed a lot in recent year-end elections, and they want to maintain that momentum. The Republican National Congressional Committee is targeting at least 70 incumbent Democrats, eyeing key opportunities to topple suburban counties like Spanberger’s, once a GOP stronghold.
Democrats are hoping a legislative victory that brings in the federal dollar will boost their chances at the polls next year and allow them to retain control of the House.
But the voters’ focus for burgers and Midlothian politics are clear: sure, they can support some of these Democrats. but not enough to vote Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections.
The economy and central cultural issues
That’s because voters here generally don’t like the idea of Washington having a blank check for government spending, Ramirez told NPR.
“I think there’s a real feeling, especially in this state, that you have the idea that government knows best or that government is the answer to everything,” she said. “People are just fed up.”
Ramirez added that it is issues that people “feel every day” – like inflation – that ultimately drive their political decisions.
Republican candidate for Congress Tina Ramirez is running for the 7th district of Virginias.
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Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
Republican candidate for Congress Tina Ramirez is running for the 7th district of Virginias.
Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
“People are very disappointed,” she said. “They sense it and this is the result of bad economic policy.”
It’s an issue that resonates with voters like Levin. She considers herself an independent and has voted for both Republicans and Democrats in the past. She is adamant in staying in Ramirez’s camp and says she’s worried about inflation and the supply chain.
“My mom’s van is dying and we need to get a new one, and there’s no inventory,” she said. “I can barely afford gas. I can barely afford groceries for two athletic teenage boys.”
She likes the child tax credit, but not if it’s wrapped up in a $2 trillion spending package.
“Tax credits are always a good thing,” she said. “But if you abuse it with out-of-control spending, which puts my great-grandchildren in debt, then I’m against it.”
Another issue that almost every voter at Ramirez’s campaign event raised was the theory of critical race – a graduate-level academic approach that looks at organizations across the board. racial and racist lenses. They believe CRT has entered K-12 public schools.
“Kids – when they go to school, they want to learn,” said Carmen Williams, a supporter of Ramirez’s immigration to the US from Peru. “A white person shouldn’t say, ‘Oh, I’m white, I’m ugly.'”
While CRT scholars will question Williams’ characterization, the Republican message has turning graduate-level theory into a culture war problem and it led to side discussions in school board and PTA meetings about should ban different books from the curriculum and how the existence and history of racism should be taught in schools.
Monica Hutchinson, a community organizer and lifelong Democrat, said the furious debate about how teachers talk about race in schools is disappointing, especially as a teacher. a black mother.
“When I hear white suburban moms say, ‘Wow, I think my kids are too young to learn about racism,’ I’m like, ‘Hi – the rebuttal is simple: my kids have to. experienced racism, right?” ” she said. “We don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘Oh, my baby’s too young.'”
‘Suburban white women are more easily exposed’
Sherrard, a white mother of two who often votes Republican, said she thinks the outcry against Democratic rhetoric has helped fuel Youngkin recently. Victory.
“I think Virginia voters have been really against too much wake-up policy, if you want to call it that – just the continued focus on race and the continued focus on transgender issues. “, she listed. “We want to go back to the basics: basic economic recovery, basic education, an army that can protect us.”
A woman holds up a sign during a protest against the “critical race theory” (CRT) being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government center in Leesburg, Virginia on June 12, 2021 CRT is an issue that helped support Republicans at the polls earlier this month.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images
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ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images
A woman holds up a sign during a protest against the “critical race theory” (CRT) being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government center in Leesburg, Virginia on June 12, 2021 CRT is an issue that helped support Republicans at the polls earlier this month.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images
She argues that the district’s move from Trump to Biden is not so much a rebuke of conservative principles as a rebuke of Trump himself.
“I still vote for Trump because I like his policies better than Biden, but that man is crazy,” she said. “And I think a lot of people feel like he’s not a great leader of our country.”
The retreat of suburban white women who voted for Biden in 2020 returning to the GOP in 2021 is a story Hutchinson has heard before.
“It’s easier for white suburban women because they don’t have to live with the consequences of many of the problems that are directly affecting families like me,” Hutchinson told NPR in Henrico County, the heart of the 7th district. .
She supports the Democratic agenda, but says the party has a big political problem.
“We’ve always been terrible at texting,” says Hutchinson. “[Democrats] is fighting very hard, [but] they’re forgetting to go out and let everyone know what they’re doing. ”
Promote the Democratic Party’s message
It is a sentiment widely shared among Democrats in Henrico County.
Lorah Vizdos is An ardent Spanberger supporter – so much so that she and a group of friends she met volunteering for the congresswoman have identified themselves as ‘merger fans’. She is adamant that Democrats need to continue the offense.
“They’re too busy playing defense and trying to be nice. ‘We’re going high’ – stop it,” she said, shaking her head. “Because this culture war won’t end because you refuse to participate. It will simply get worse and worse.”
Her Disappointed Democrats Didn’t Pass Their Trillions bipartisan infrastructure bill in the time it took for the Virginia Democrat to campaign on it.
“[Republicans members are] will be there for all the ribbon-cutting and take credit for the things they didn’t vote on,” she said.
Vizdos wants Democrats to be consistent with their message – make sure they “blank” about all the things they voted for it brings resources for their community.
“Just say, ‘The person against me voted against this.” It’s not hard, it’s not rocket science. You don’t need special words or an interpretive dance or anything – just say it. ”
Vizdos can grant her wish. Democrats are planning a national public relations flash with over 1,000 events to showcase the legislation they’ve passed.
Congressman Spanberger told NPR that a lot of the national Democratic Party’s messages up to this point have obscured the very real distribution legislators are bringing to their districts.
“In the community I represent, we already have school districts that use US Rescue Plan dollars to be able to hire bus drivers. There’s still a shortage of bus drivers but to be able to use numbers That money is so important,” she gave an example. . The loss of these kinds of real interests frustrates the moderate.
Refining a national message is one thing. But perhaps the more challenging task for Democrats like Spanberger is to reach voters like those at the burger joint, who – despite supporting their policies – say that they won’t vote for a Democrat next year.
“I know that people who consider themselves Republicans see the value of the child tax credit — they see it in their own lives, they see it in their grandchildren’s,” Spanberger said. me”. “But at times, our political vision in the age of hyperpartisanship can be blinding.”
Whether Democrats can reconcile that split could be the difference between maintaining control of the House in 2022 or being swept away in a red wave.
