Two years ago, when I was the Democratic nominee here in the 31st district, my Tea Party Delegate Scott Lingamfelter sent out a mailer that attacked who I was as both a woman and as a candidate. The rhetoric was revolting, and implied that I was tarnishing a "good man's record.” Its patriarchal and misogynistic tone grated me. But I persevered, and thanks partially to the endorsement of the Daily Kos in 2015, I had one of the closest Delegate races in all of Virginia that year, outperforming most of the other competitive campaigns.
The rhetoric of the 2016 election sounded surprisingly similar to me. Donald Trump's casual misogyny and his famous bus video horrified me, and I volunteered and knocked doors to try and stop his candidacy. And as a teacher, after seeing the appointment of Betsy DeVos at the beginning of this year, I knew that I couldn't sit on the sidelines. I had to run again.
I'm a middle school civics teacher and I'm studying for my PhD in Education Policy. I've seen how important public education is firsthand with my students and the challenges and struggles that they face everyday. Betsy DeVos's agenda to gut our public education is being supported at the state level by people like my Delegate, Scott Lingamfelter, who has voted multiple times to gut our public education budget. We have to resist and we must stand up to Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos's reckless agenda at every level of government, from national to local. And I'm determined to do just that.
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And chip in $3 or $5 to a candidate who's running again in a district that Hillary Clinton won easily in 2016!