Presidential Primary for Democratic and Republican Candidates
March 5, 2024, is Super Tuesday Election Day.
Early voting began in Virginia on Friday, January 19.
U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate Primary for Democratic and Republican Candidates. June 18, 2024, is Election Day.
Early voting begins in Virginia on May 3.
General Election for U.S. President & U.S. Senate & House
November 5, 2024, is Election Day.
Early voting begins in Virginia on Friday, September 20.
Abigail Spanberger, our U.S. Congresswoman in Virginia's 7th Congressional District, is not running for a 3rd term, because she's running for Virginia's Governor in 2025. Eight Democrats and nine Republicans are running for this seat. This toss-up election is in the national spotlight.
The primary is June 18.
Each candidate will be invited to speak at our meetings.
Carl Bedell, 45, is an attorney, small business owner, a former Army intelligence officer, and a life-long Democrat. He grew up in a military family – his mother retired from the Army after 34 years of service and his father is an Army veteran. Carl is an avid outdoorsman and often hikes in Shenandoah National Park with his dog, Frisco.
Margaret Franklin, 37, is a public-affairs professional and former congressional aide for Alma Adams (D-N.C.) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and legislative director for Al Lawson (D-Fla.); she is serving her second term on the Prince William Board of Supervisors, where she created grant programs for small businesses and housing assistance.
Elizabeth Guzman, 50, is a Peruvian-American who immigrated to the U.S. with her young daughter to seek a better life. She worked her way through college to became a social worker with several advanced degrees and served in Virginia’s House of Delegates District 31 for six years, where she championed immigrant rights, public education and organized labor.
Cliff Heinzer, 63, is a former army and special forces officer and political analyst for the Foreign Service; he’s a political activist involved in education, workers and women’s rights issues and was Political Action Chair of the NAACP's Stafford Branch, and was chair of the Stafford County Democratic Committee.
Briana Sewell, 33, is the daughter of parents who both served in the U.S. Air Force for more than 20 years. She’s a former District Director for a U.S. Congressman, a community organizer, former Chief of Staff to the Prince William County Chair, and currently in her 2ndterm in Virginia’s House of Delegates, HD 25.
Eugene Vindman, 48, is a Ukrainian-American who immigrated to this U.S. at age three with his twin brother and father. He’s an Iraq combat veteran, a retired Colonel of the U.S. Army, a deputy legal advisor, and senior ethics official for the National Security Counsel; he and his twin were instrumental in bringing about the first impeachment of Donald Trump, who later retaliated against them.
We have no information on Andrea Bailey, Mohamad Bourakba, and Monique Cheruti, who each filed in ealry February. Monique dropped out in late February.
Reprinted by permission from the Virginia Mercury, January 5, 2024
by Peter Hall
WHITPAIN TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Reflecting on the fight to establish America as a democracy and the events that nearly toppled it three years ago, President Joe Biden warned of the danger he believes former President Donald Trump poses to American ideals.
“Today we’re here to answer the most important question. Is democracy still America’s sacred cause?” Biden said. “It’s what the 2024 election is all about.”
In his first campaign speech of 2024, Biden said there is a clear choice between him and Trump, his likely Republican opponent. “Donald Trump’s campaign is about him, not America, not you,” Biden said. “He’s obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power.”
Biden said his campaign, in contrast, would strengthen and preserve American democracy and reflect people of every age and background. “It’s about the future we’re going to continue to build together,” he said.
Biden, who walked out on stage with First Lady Jill Biden to chants of “four more years,” delivered his speech a few miles from Valley Forge National Park, which he visited after landing there in Marine One on Friday afternoon. Biden invoked the imagery of the harsh winter that the Continental Army spent at Valley Forge, without proper clothing or supplies, under the leadership of Gen. George Washington, who led Americans to victory in the Revolutionary War.
“This ragtag army, made up of ordinary people, their mission, George Washington declared, was nothing less than a sacred cause … freedom, liberty, democracy, American democracy,” Biden said. Biden spoke, he noted, one day before the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol when the United States came close to losing everything Washington and his troops had suffered and fought for.
Throughout his speech, Biden referred to Trump by name nearly 40 times, invoking the string of lawsuits, personal attacks, false statements and what he called the former president’s dereliction of duty in the lies and incitement that led to the insurrection.
“As America was attacked from within, Donald Trump watched on TV from a small private dining room off the Oval Office. The entire nation watched in horror, the whole world watched in disbelief and Trump did nothing,” Biden said. "In the years since the insurrection", Biden said, Trump has embraced the violence of that day, calling the people arrested for their role in the attack “patriots,” and even cracking jokes in a campaign rally about the hammer attack by a supporter “whipped up by the big lie” that left former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul severely injured. “He laughed about it. What a sick …” Biden said, without finishing the sentence.
Biden, who was fiery for most of the speech, paused to contain his anger as he recalled Trump referring to soldiers as “suckers and losers” during a visit to a cemetery where U.S. soldiers killed in World War I were interred in France. “How dare he? Who in God’s name does he think he is?” Biden asked. His late son, Beau Biden, was an Army officer.
In the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, conservative members of Congress and political commentators publicly and privately condemned Trump’s conduct, Biden noted, calling it embarrassing and humiliating for the nation. But as time went on, many have renewed their allegiance to Trump and abandoned democracy. Those who remain, Democrats, independents and mainstream Republicans, must make a hard choice, Biden said. “Today I make the sacred pledge to you, the defense, protection, and preservation of American democracy will remain, as it has been, the central cause of my presidency,” Biden said.
Spanberger declared her candidacy for governor in a campaign video posted on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Our country and our commonwealth are facing fundamental threats to our rights, our freedoms and to our democracy," Spanberger said. "While some politicians in Richmond focus on banning abortion and books, what they’re not doing is helping people."
Spanberger said Virginians must stop "extremists from shedding women’s reproductive rights" and from "using teachers and our kids as political pawns."
"Even in this moment of deep division, we can seize the opportunity," she said. "I am running to serve all Virginians in every community across our commonwealth because it’s about time we do what’s right for everyone."
Spanberger’s announcement comes after Virginia Democrats reclaimed full control of the state’s General Assembly in last week’s election. Spanberger is serving her third term as representative of Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. Democrats will have to defend Spanberger’s competitive seat in Congress in 2024.
Spanberger is seeking to fill Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s seat after his term ends in January 2026. Under the state’s constitution, Youngkin cannot run for a consecutive term.
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