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Virginia’s unemployment rate is continuing to slowly climb
Virginia's unemployment rate has been steadily increasing for the last five months. That's the first time Virginia has seen rising unemployment numbers for that long since the Great Recession almost 20 years ago. John Provo at Virginia Tech says some of that is tied to manufacturing losses in rural areas. "Layoffs at Volvo Trucks in Pulaski, a closure of Georgia Pacific lumber supply facility in Emporia, and there are a couple of others," Provo says. "But I think these are companies that are anticipating a slowdown, and they’re tied to consumer markets ultimately."
Suhas Subramanyam on his path to Congress (and a road trip not taken)
When Suhas Subramanyam was a teenager, he got competing invitations. One group of friends wanted to drive to Florida to volunteer for John Kerry’s campaign. The other wanted to drive there to volunteer for George W. Bush. “They both asked me if I wanted to come, and I said no to both,” he says. He didn’t vote in that election at all, he says. As a student at Tulane University in New Orleans, “I didn’t care about politics as much at the time. It really wasn’t until Hurricane Katrina hit the city and I got involved in community activism that I realized politics is important.”
Williams: Trump’s phony Confederate name game is child’s play
In 1964, singer-songwriter Shirley Ellis penned a hit song of nonsensical rhymes called “The Name Game,” whose second verse went like this: Lincoln! Lincoln, Lincoln, bo-bin-coln Bo-na-na fanna, fo-fin-coln ... Her song came to mind as the Trump administration does its bit to restore Confederate surnames to Army bases, with a puerile twist. In the process, it’s reversing changes made several years ago through an act of Congress.
Republicans announce campaigns against Vindman in 7th District
Politicking is already gearing up for the 2026 midterm election. A self-proclaimed “proud MAGA Republican” from Prince William County announced Tuesday his candidacy for Congress in Virginia’s 7th District. John Gray of Woodbridge is the second Republican candidate in less than a week to announce they were running against Vindman next year. Republican Virginia State Sen. Tara Durant, of Fredericksburg, announced her campaign for the U.S. House seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Eugene Vindman on June 18, according to article in Daily Caller.
Wagner: Stop the PREVAIL Act from raising drug prices
Recently, the Virginia General Assembly took a big step in lowering prescription drug prices. A bipartisan bill passed both the House and the Senate that would create a board to oversee prescription drug prices, identify excessively priced medications, and recommend strategies to lower costs, including potential price caps. This bill represented a long-overdue recognition that the status quo is unsustainable and unfair to working families.
Democratic congressional candidates make their pitch to succeed the late Gerry Connolly
Local Democrats seeking to succeed the late Rep. Gerry Connolly sought to distinguish themselves from a crowded field yesterday (Wednesday), outlining how they would represent Virginia’s 11th Congressional District if elected. Nine of the 10 candidates vying for the Democratic nomination attended the party’s lone forum at the Reston Community Center in Hunters Woods ahead of a primary election on Saturday (June 28).
GOP ticket to hold rally amid differences
After two months of running separate campaigns, all three members of the Republican statewide ticket are scheduled to appear together next week. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, Attorney General Jason Miyares and conservative radio host John Reid will appear alongside Gov. Glenn Youngkin at a July 1 rally in Vienna. “We are ready to win this in November — up and down the ballot,” Earle-Sears, the party’s nominee for governor, wrote on social media in a post announcing the event. In another post, Reid, the nominee for lieutenant governor, said he was eager to campaign with Earle-Sears and Miyares, but alluded to at least some conflict among the candidates.
National Democrats pour $1M into Jay Jones’ bid to flip Virginia AG seat
The Democratic Attorneys General Association is putting big money behind Jay Jones, announcing Thursday a $1 million investment in his campaign to flip Virginia’s attorney general seat and restore Democratic control of the office. “Jones is a committed public servant who has always put his constituents and their rights first, which is why DAGA is excited to make this early investment to flip the seat back to blue,” the group said in a statement.
Candidates for Virginia governor respond to the words of an immigrant mother with U.S.-born children
President Donald Trump is removing people without legal status from the United States, and Virginia, at a breakneck pace. It’s brought federal agents into communities across the Commonwealth, including Chesterfield County where more than a dozen people have been removed in recent days. They’re targeting folks like the one mother of three U.S. born children who lives outside of D.C. We’re only referring to her as “the mother” because she fears deportation. Her husband, and the father of two of her children, who we’re not naming for similar reasons, was deported in front of those kids last month.
Spanberger, Hashmi advocate in Charlottesville for abortion access
Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a crowd of about 300 people gathered Tuesday in Charlottesville to hear Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger discuss the future of reproductive health care in Virginia. Spanberger was joined on her “Span Virginia Bus Tour” by her running mates, state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D–Chesterfield) and former Del. Jay Jones, to say that a potential Democratic trifecta in state government would work to codify reproductive rights in Virginia’s Constitution.