Red to Blue in the 2020 Elections

Prof. Stephen Farnsworth at the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Media and Leadership Studies provides us with an update on Virginia’s 2020 elections. The team takes a deep dive into Virginia’s 5th congressional district to interview Dr. Cameron Webb a Doctor at UVA Hospital's Coronavirus unit to discuss the impact of COVID on his race. Finally, we get a campaign update from Qasim Rashid in VA-01 and discuss rural broadband.

Michael Pope
Welcome to Transition Virginia, the podcast that examines the transition of power from Republican to Democrat. My name is Michael Pope.

Thomas Bowman
And I'm Thomas Bowman. Today on the podcast, we're going to take a look at the congressional races on the ballot in Virginia. Will Republicans be able to keep their four House seats, or will Democrats be able to turn any of those red seats, blue? Later in the podcast, we'll talk to two Democrats running in seats currently held by Republicans.

Michael Pope
But first, we're going to take a look at what's on the ballot this year, and what we can expect to happen on Election Day. To help walk us through the candidates, were joined by a friend of the podcast, who appeared on one of our last in person episodes, way before the pandemic happened. He's Director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington, and he's the author of several books, including his latest, "Late Night with Trump: Political Humor and the American Presidency." Stephen Farnsworth, thanks for joining us.

Stephen Farnsworth
It's great to be back.

Thomas Bowman
Dr. Farnsworth, let's just get the presidential election out of the way. Most observers now believe Biden will carry Virginia, and presuming he wins, what kind of margin do you think we can expect to see from his campaign in Virginia?

Stephen Farnsworth
The polls show an advantage to Biden of about 11 points, in some polls, and closer to five in others. I'm inclined to say probably split the difference, eight or nine point margin is the most likely outcome.

Michael Pope
Now I want to ask you about the race for Senate. This is at the top of the ticket. And it's not a race that's really attracted a lot of attention. It's not on anybody's list of races to watch. But then again, this also wasn't a race on anyone's list back in 2014, when Mark Warner came really close to losing against Republican Ed Gillespie. Now he's facing Republican Daniel Gade, who's been criticizing Warner for casting, what he calls, the deciding vote on the Affordable Care Act. Now, during a recent debate on NBC, Warner attacked Gade for wanting to get rid of protections for people with pre-existing conditions. That prompted this exchange. Now first, you'll hear Daniel Gade, followed by Mark Warner's response.

Daniel Gade
Yeah, there were 25 states when the ACA was passed, that it already protected people with pre-existing conditions. And the idea that I would take away protections for people with pre-existing conditions is offensive. And it's false. And it's defamatory. Look, you can't see my body because I'm behind this podium, but I have a pre-existing condition myself, because I got my leg blown off in Iraq. And since then, I've worked with people with disabilities. I've been on the National Council on Disability. There's nobody who cares more about people with pre-existing conditions in this country than I do. And the fact that he's putting out these ridiculous mailers? Listen, 2014 called Mark, it wants its campaign back, that's not who I am. It's a lie.

Mark Warner
You can't have it both ways. If my opponent wants to change his position, and say he supported my decision, along with John McCain, to keep the ACA, he can make that change. But you can't go out and criticize me for the ACA, and then cherry pick which parts of the ACA you want to preserve. It just doesn't work that way.

Michael Pope
Stephen Farnsworth, is it possible for Daniel Gade to be against the ACA, and also for protecting pre-existing conditions?

Stephen Farnsworth
Of course, everything is possible in politics, including inconsistencies. The reality is that if the Affordable Care Act is defeated in the courts, there will not be pre-existing condition protections for people under the Affordable Care Act Law. The challenge that the Republicans have had to face in Washington has been to offer up a viable alternative to the Affordable Care Act. The Repeal and Replace movement was really more about repeal, than ever, about any specific replacement mechanism. It's smart politics not to offer an alternative vision of a bill that would cover some people and not cover others, or have limitations in the coverage. And so you can understand why the Republicans don't want to offer a specific replacement system. But make no mistake about it, no system is the replacement right now, if the Affordable Care Act is defeated. And so it's very tough for any Republican who wants to win over conservatives, opposed to the Affordable Care Act, to do well in a statewide election, a swing state where, like in Virginia, a majority of people strongly support the Affordable Care Act. Obamacare, in fact, is more popular now, than it ever was when Obama was president.

Thomas Bowman
Let's go back to 2018, when Democrats were able to flip three red districts. You have Abigail Spanberger, beating Dave Brat, you have Elaine Luria, beating Scott Taylor. And of course, you also have Jennifer Wexton, beating Barbara Comstock. We'll come back to the 10th district in a moment, for now, let's talk about CD seven and CD two. Are these races, that the Democrats won in 2018, really all that contested for 2020?

Stephen Farnsworth
Well, they absolutely are. These districts were both designed to elect Republicans. But over the years, the districts have changed a little bit since the 2010 census. And the, particularly, the unpopularity of President Trump, in suburban parts of Virginia, has created a significant problem for Republicans down ballot. We saw it, of course, in 2018, with these congressional elections. We've also seen it in the 2017 and 2019 Legislative elections in Virginia. But both of these districts have a significant number of suburban voters, and those voters are exactly the kind of Republicans who are having their doubts about President Trump. They really don't care for the combative approach. And they also tell pollsters that the focus on a Christian conservative social agenda, is less connecting to them than the more traditional small tax, low, small government rules that offered up a more moderate vision of Republicanism before Trump. I think Trump has created a liability, a challenge, for the candidates who are under the Republican label, particularly in a state like Virginia. And these two congressional districts demonstrate the challenges that Republicans have to face. The districts were drawn to elect Republicans, but Republicans found it difficult to keep them in the age of Trump. Perhaps in 2020, the Republicans will have a better outcome.

Michael Pope
I want to ask you about the most interesting congressional race on the ballot this year, and that's the fifth congressional district. This is the sprawling district that runs all the way from Southside Virginia, all the way up to Northern Virginia. This is where incumbent Congressmen, Denver Riggleman, was defeated in a drive by convention, by Republican Bob Good. He's facing Democrat Cameron Webb, who we'll hear from later on in this episode, so stay tuned for that. Dr. Farnsworth, I'm curious, what does it say about this district that Riggleman lost to Good, in this drive by convention? And do you think that Webb has a chance of turning this district from red to blue?

Stephen Farnsworth
Well, certainly of the three districts that we're talking about right now, this would be the biggest challenge for a Democratic candidate. This was a district that was drawn to a elect a Republican, like other districts in Virginia, and this district, which stretches from the outer suburbs of Northern Virginia, all the way down to to Danville in the North Carolina line, going through Charlottesville, Lynchburg, and elsewhere, this is a district that is going to have a significantly larger Christian conservative population. This is an area where Trump style Republicanism, is going to be more effective, in terms of reaching voters, than in either the second district or the seventh district, that we were talking about a moment ago. In this district, though, the Congressman, the incumbent Republican Congressman, who Denver Riggleman, would have been, I think, a more compelling candidate for the Republicans to put forward in the general election. But he did not win a lot of support among christian conservatives, when he officiated at a same sex wedding during his time in the public eye. That created, I think, an opportunity for a socially conservative Republican to win the nomination, the fifth district. But it's important to recognize that the reason that Riggleman lost, has as much to do with the choices that the Republican Party makes about the nomination process itself. If this had been a primary, a conventional primary, Republicans would have, I suspect, supported the incumbent, who would have been a stronger general election candidate. But the convention process, particularly during the days of COVID, is going to have an extraordinarily small number of people participating. And of course, as the day went on, there were fewer and fewer people sticking around. I don't know if either of you were there that day, but it was an extraordinarily hot and ugly day, even by summer standards in Virginia. And so only the true believers went there in the first place, and only the truest of those true believers, stuck around until the final decision was made. The Republicans, I think, have taken In a district that would have been an easy Republican win, and have created a more competitive district. Right now, the Cook Political Report has all three of these districts as tossups. But of the three, I do think that the fifth district is the one that Democrats are least likely to win.

Thomas Bowman
We're gonna hear from Qasim Rashid later on in the podcast, but let's talk about the first district real quick. Rashid's campaign strategy effectively boils down to there might be enough new voters in Stafford, plus anger at the Republicans to push Rashid over the edge. I would imagine, he also needs some kind of significant margin of victory, from a Biden win, to make that seat competitive. What do you think it would take for Rashid to win, Dr. Farnsworth?

Stephen Farnsworth
Well, my initial reaction, if it doesn't sound too sarcastic is, he would need different lines in this district. The boundaries of the district are particularly Republican friendly, more so than any of the districts we've talked about so far. This is a district that includes significantly large elements of religious conservatives in the area, stretching South of Fredericksburg, down the Northern neck in the middle peninsula. This is a district that goes from Prince William County, pretty much, all the way down to Hampton Roads. And that is a district that has a lot of rural voters, a lot of conservative voters. And a lot of voters that have voted for Rob Wittman, repeatedly, in the past. Remember, he's a pretty experienced Republican, one of the more senior Republicans out of the delegation in Congress right now. And that creates an environment where, it's an uphill struggle for a Democrat. Whitman also, I think, over his career, has been careful not to be too conservative, so that he has more appeal to suburban voters then some of the some of the other Republicans that we might have, that we've been talking about, like, say David Brat, in particular. And that creates an environment. I think Rashid is an effective campaigner. He he was part of a debate that we hosted at Mary Washington a few weeks ago. He was able to, to also compete in a State Senate election, in Stafford County, previously, a year ago. And so he has some experience, but ultimately, his his prospects, I think, in politics, are going to be brighter after a new census, and perhaps some different line drawing, maybe he'll end up in the Senate, or in the State Senate, or maybe he'll end up at Congress in a future election. But the challenges here are pretty immense. And one of the key things, that to appreciate, when you look at these elections, is to get a sense of how important the donations are. You have to be able to compete effectively with a significant amount of money. And this race, the first district race, is simply not on the list of a targeted race by the Democrats. It's not on the list of getting top campaign contributions on the Republican side, either. And until you see this district being identified by potential donors as one where their money is a good investment, you're going to see a challenge to replace an incumbent.

Michael Pope
On the topic of red to blue, I'm curious about a seat that was Republican not all that long ago. In fact, it was the same wave election where Spanberger beat Brat, Luria beat Taylor. There was another election where Democrats were able to turn a red district blue, the 10th congressional district, up in Northern Virginia. That's where Jennifer Wexton was able to unseat incumbent Republican Congresswoman, Barbara Comstock. Now, unlike the second and the seventh, though, this was not a Trump district, Hillary Clinton won this district, which is why Comstock was trying to position herself as a non- Trump Republican. That did not work out so well for her. Now, this is not an election that's on anybody's list of races to watch. Dr. Farnsworth, why not?

Stephen Farnsworth
It really has to do with whether it's a good investment of time and money, and the 10th district, very large element of suburban voting in that district. It includes parts of Prince William, it includes Loudon County, it includes a lot of areas where Republicans used to do well, but not not so well during the age of Trump. I think, even if you go back to the 2016 Republican Primary in Virginia, there was a much more effective environment, in the suburbs, for the Marco Rubio campaign than the Trump campaign. President Trump is at his strongest when he's talking to rural voters, not suburban voters, and particularly when you're talking about the suburban voters who live in the district that Wexton now represents, that's a district with a lot of government workers too. And so the anti- government messaging of Trump, and the attacks on a more diverse America, "Make America Great Again," I think has a reference to a less diverse America as part of the dynamic there, you can see that this is a difficult environment for Republicans in the age of Trump. I think if Trump were not President right now, this district could potentially be more competitive. But if you look at public opinion, over the last several years, one thing stands out above all else, there is almost nobody in the middle anymore in Virginia politics. People vote Republican, more or less up and down the ballot, or they vote Democratic more or less up and down the ballot. There's very little in the way of swing voters. I mean, it really is a huge change. If you think back to, say, the 2001 Gubernatorial Election, when Mark Warner won. He did very well in areas where, in the 2014 election, 13 years later, he did not do nearly as well. If you think about Southwest and Southside Virginia, and you compare Mark Warner in 2001, to Mark Warner in 2014, there's almost no crossover voting in those areas. And that goes on both sides, the areas where Republicans in the suburbs used to do better. The Republicans, whether that's President Trump, or Republican running for Congress, they really struggle in those suburban districts. And so, I think what's going on now is, is a kind of a big sort in American politics. And that is creating an environment where your party label has as much, or more to do with your outcome, than what you say as a candidate. If you have an R after your name, and you're running in Loudoun County, good luck.

Michael Pope
All right, we're gonna take a break now, and we're gonna hear from Cameron Webb, that's the Democrat trying to turn a red district, blue in Central Virginia. Then we're gonna hear from Qasim Rashid. He's the Democrat running against incumbent Republican, Rob Wittman. Later in the show, Stephen Farnsworth will be returning for question time.

Welcome back to Transition Virginia. It's time to head over to the fifth Congressional District, which is one of the hottest congressional races on the ballot this year in Virginia. And we're now joined by the democrat in that race, Dr. Cameron Webb. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Webb.

Cameron Webb
Thanks for having me, Michael. Great to be with you all today.

Qasim Rashid
Well, I want to start by asking you the most important question for any candidate. And I'm going to ask it in a way that I'm stealing this from a good friend of mine, the publisher of Connection Newspapers, this is the question she always asks candidates. Dr. Webb, why are you doing this to yourself?

Cameron Webb
Well, I'm doing it to myself because I'm passionate about serving my community, that's always been the thing that that animates me. And that's what led me into a career in medicine. Yes, I'm a physician, but I consider myself a healer in so many ways. That's, that's the work that I aim to do. And that's also what took me into doing social justice work and, and, and really helping out our communities in different ways. And for me, it was just seeing that, you know, the reality is that health doesn't happen in hospitals and clinics, but it happens in our communities, the places where we're born, grow, live, learn, eat, play, and pray. And because of that, I, I always go upstream. I have folks coming in with medical conditions. And I say, "What are the social conditions that drive that?" So I've been in the policy space, thinking about those issues, for years, and just recognizing things are just getting worse with every year that passes, for a lot of parts of our community, a lot of the patients I serve, and then finally with the imminent threat to the Affordable Care Act, and and the reality that we have to be ready to to build a health care system that truly works for everybody. And I want to be on that line helping to do that work.

Thomas Bowman
Let's talk about healthcare real quick. How has the Coronavirus impacted your district, and do you think your opponent would do enough to stop it?

Cameron Webb
Well, the The Coronavirus has had a big impact on on not just, you know, the United States, with at this point, where I think we're hitting 200,000 deaths sometime in the next day or two. We've had over 3000 deaths here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And in my direct area, I'm in Albemarle County, we're still seeing a lot of cases and it's definitely brought things to a halt. Yes, there are health implications of COVID. But there are huge economic implications of COVID as well. And we've lost a lot of our small businesses that are so important to our community. In terms of my opponent, to be quite honest, I haven't heard much in terms of thoughtful plans on how he would address the Coronavirus pandemic. I've heard him say that we need to safely reopen. And and I tell them to spend a little bit more time on that word, "safely." That means there's there's quite a bit that you can pack into into those six letters. And I think that, from my standpoint, that means we're testing adequately. That means we're leaning into making sure that folks have the resources they need, to make the good decision to stay home, rather than go to work, and that may be paid sick leave. You know, again, I have a deep expertise on this, I actually work in the Coronavirus unit. And so you know, I see this up close and personal. And we have a huge task in front of us, the vaccine is going to be coming in some point in the next few months, and we have to restore the public confidence that this is something that will work for us. And so, I think that when it comes to COVID, both on the economic front, and on the health front, I'm better equipped to deal with it than my opponent, just based on my my deep expertise in this virus and how it's impacting our communities.

Michael Pope
Speaking of your opponent, Dr. Webb, he's thrown a lot of attacks at you. One of them is about the economy. You and he were on a virtual panel discussion recently, and he said this.

Bob Good
I want to help renew and expand the Trump economy. I don't want to reverse and go backwards to an Obama Biden economy. But I'm going to continue to support the free market capitalism, versus what my opponent, his allies would do with more socialist policies. We need to preserve and expand the Trump tax cuts. Biden has already announced that he and my opponent would raise taxes by $4 trillion, on 82% of Americans would experience a tax increase if Biden were elected.

Michael Pope
Dr. Webb, do you want socialist policies? Do you want to raise taxes?

Cameron Webb
I have no desire for socialist policies that would raise taxes. I think that, you know, even hearing that quote, again, I remember how how bewildering it was the first time I heard it. My opponent throws a lot of scary sounding things out, I think he just tries to confuse and conflate. But the fact of the matter is, that very tax bill that he's talking about, from 2017, that added $1.9 trillion to our federal deficit. So he's not exactly the poster child for austerity, I think that what we're talking about is making sure that any kind of tax benefits, they accrue to the middle class to working class individuals, that's certainly not what that 2017 bill did. And so sure, I'd like to reverse that tax cut. Instead of corporate welfare, I'd like to focus on the welfare of individuals in our working class. And so yeah, I have some differences of opinion on that particular tax bill, and how it can serve Americans well. But when it comes to, to the policies that we have, like I'm focused on, on what I call, free market fairness, leaning into the the true benefit of both, what we can do through the market, and what we can do by ensuring that, that the floor for what Americans experience, is a little bit higher. And and I think that plays out in a lot of spaces. That's what drives my, my policy on on the environment, on climate change, clean and renewable energy sources are cheaper than fossil fuels. So let's stop propping up the fossil fuel technologies, because of corporate special interest. That's not looking to do anything extreme, that's looking to follow what the market's telling us to do. And I want to remind my opponent, exactly what that Obama economy looked like, it was growing at about 2.3%. year over year, the Trump economy is at 2.5%. And so we've continued to see that increase in trajectory. That Trump economy, remember, this COVID pandemic has upset that entire economy, this is a different time, this is a different moment than it was pre March 2020. And so for my opponent to just say, "I want to wind back the clock and go back in time," sir, we're in a different moment. And you've got to be ready for the moment that we're in, not the moment you want us to be in.

Michael Pope
One policy area that you might end up doing a lot of time talking about if you're elected to Congress, is healthcare. The Supreme Court is about to take up this challenge to Obamacare, and it's very possible that the Affordable Care Act could go away, which means that the next Congress, and if you're successful, you, as a member of Congress, might have to do some serious policy discussions about the health care system. Now on the campaign trail, you've talked about Medicare For All, you're not for Medicare For All, but you are for the public option. Explain that exactly. Sort of where you are on on the health care policy. And what you see Congress doing if the Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act.

Cameron Webb
I always tell people, you know, there there are competing values that folks have in the American healthcare system. For some, it's that everyone has access to care. For some, it's this notion of choice. And I think that one of the ways that we preserve that notion of choice, is we preserve private insurance. You know, for a lot of individuals, over 50% of Americans get their coverage through their employer. Now for me, I think we should move away from employer sponsored insurance and instead, employers can make defined contributions to their employees, so that they can buy, they can decide whether to buy the public insurance option, or a private insurance option. What that does is it maintains the role that private insurance plays in innovating, but also offering diverse products to the American people. And I talk about innovation with private insurance because as a health provider, I've seen firsthand, how private insurance has driven our movement to Value Based Payment Models, as opposed to just be for service, they've been one of the leading and on the leading edge of, of moving toward Value Based Payment, and Medicare is catching up some, and that's great. But again, you don't want to you don't want to say, "Hey, there's nothing good about private insurance." We want to give that space a chance to innovate, to adapt. And that's something I learned in the White House is, there's still a lot of space for that innovation and adaptation. My opponent says he wants to preserve the protections for pre-existing conditions. I don't think he fully understands all that that requires in terms of working with insurance companies, of the value of an individual mandate, of everybody being covered so that you can offset the cost of individuals with pre-existing conditions.

Michael Pope
Actually, I was interested in following up on the Supreme Court issue. After the death of Justice Ginsburg, there has been a lot of talk, among Democrats, about adding seats to the Supreme Court. Now there's nothing in the Constitution that says it needs to be nine seats, and it actually has been different numbers, if you go back into the distant past, you'll see the Supreme Court sometimes was larger, sometimes was smaller. Dr. Webb, what's your position on potentially adding new justices to the Supreme Court?

Cameron Webb
I'm not a fan of court packing. I know FDR proposed that doctrine to help move things forward with the New Deal when the court kind of had some opposition. I think that it's one of those decisions that that ultimately can do more harm than good. But I'm not a not a fan of court packing.

Michael Pope
One more question before we go. So this is a pretty solidly Republican district. Ken Cuccinelli won this back in 2013, with 52% of the vote. Donald Trump won this in 2016 with 55% of the vote, and Gillespie won this in 2017 with 54% of the vote, even Corey Stewart won this district. What makes you think you can turn this red district, blue?

Cameron Webb
Well, because I disagree that this is a solid Republican district. I think it's a conservative leaning district. And I think what's happened is, by ignoring the fact that a large number of the conservatives in are district are Moderate, are Libertarian, by ignoring what their values are, and their views are, they're looking for somebody who can represent them a little more appropriately. And then furthermore, you know, we've had a lack of voter participation in certain segments of the district. I always remind folks, this district is nearly 20% African American, there are nine counties in the Southern portion of the district, with more than 35% African American population, and certainly not suggesting that every Black voter in this district is going to vote Democrat. But I think that this is rooted in kind of a historic dynamic of voter suppression. And I think a big part of what we saw in 2008, when Tom Perriello won, albeit by 727 votes, was large African American voter turnout, and that kind of energy that we saw in '08, we're seeing it again now.

Michael Pope
All right, we're gonna take a break. And when we come back on Transition Virginia, we're going to hear from Qasim Rashid. He's the Democrat running against incumbent Congressman, Rob Wittman, hoping to turn the first congressional district from red to blue.

Thomas Bowman
And we're back on Transition Virginia. Qasim Rashid, the Democrat for the first congressional district, is in the house today. Qasim, how are you?

Qasim Rashid
I'm great, Michael, Thomas. Great to be with you guys today.

Thomas Bowman
Excellent. Well, we are glad to have you. So let's go and talk about your congressional race. Qasim, why are you running?

Qasim Rashid
You know, my whole life has been focused on the element of service to humanity. It's what our parents ingrained in us from the very getgo. We're immigrants to this country. We left a country that persecutors for faith to pursue that equal justice promise in our Constitution. And along with that promise, our parents really ingrained in us, as teachers, they're both teachers, that your job here is to serve humanity. And if you're failing at that, you're failing at life. And so that kind of was ingrained in us from the get go. And even though we struggled, when my brother enlisted in the U.S. Marines, we were a military family, and like one in five military families in Virginia, today, we were on food stamps. Now, I've been working since I was 15 years old to make sure we can make ends meet. But that's just what we had to do. Now out of that struggle, a lot of good has come. All through my siblings are successful in the business world. I'm a human rights lawyers. My wife convinced me to go to law school in the first place, and at Richmond Law, where I really got hooked. I started working pro bono at the Virginia Poverty Law Center, the Office of Domestic and Sexual Violence, I've worked with nonprofits across the country, around the world, to expand Health Care and Education access, work in criminal justice reform as a prison chaplain for about four years. And the two things I've learned from that, one, is that these issues that plague our society, you know, mental illness and addiction, and homelessness, and domestic violence, these don't have a political party, they impact all of us. And the second thing that I learned is that, advocacy alone isn't enough. There are broken systems, unjust systems that need reform. And so that's why I'm running for Congress, to take my years of advocacy working across the political spectrum, in a bipartisan manner, to serve humanity, the same mission my parents ingrained in me from the get go.

Michael Pope
So let me ask you about your district. Here, you're running against Rob Wittman, who is a Republican incumbent, he's been re-elected many times, Trump won this particular district pretty handily, with more than 10% of margin of victory. So this is a Trump district, this is a red district. What makes you think that you can beat a Republican incumbent in this district?

Qasim Rashid
Well, we look at the history and we look at how people's views are shifting. This is a district that yes, has historically been a red district. But I think people are beginning to recognize that the partisanship vitriol is not working. And that's why this district has consistently moved more to the center, and to the left over the years. For example, as recently as 2018, when Tim Kaine ran for re-election, he lost this district by only 1.4 points. The margin of victory for the Republican in this district was only 4000 votes. And this year when we're expecting, you know, hundreds of thousands of votes being cast, 4000 votes is really within the margin of error.

Thomas Bowman
Qasim, so not very many people actually know Rob Wittman, he keeps a pretty low profile. And one thing that I always counsel candidates trying to take out an incumbent, is that you need to show to the district why they should fire their incumbent representative. So who is Rob Wittman? And why should the constituents of CD one fire him?

Qasim Rashid
Well, I think we have to remember that you can like somebody as an individual, and dislike their policies and dislike the way they've served. I've spoken with him and he's a personable guy. I absolutely love the way he talks about his wife, he clearly is still gaga over her. And that's a decent man right there. But I think that what we need is somebody who is going to work across the aisle, someone who will lead with compassion, someone who will put the needs of working families first, not the needs of the corporations. And for that, you have to look at his voting record. And his voting record shows a person who is hyper partisan, a person who does not really care about working families, does not care about our military, does not care about law enforcement, does not care about first responders, and certainly does not care about those who may not vote for him. And I'll give you a couple of really good examples of that. Despite this pandemic, he has voted over 40 times to repeal the ACA without a replacement. He supports the President's lawsuit to kick off anyone who has a pre- existing condition from health care. The bipartisan Heroes Act, which would have extended unemployment benefits during this critical time, he voted against it. That also provided $900 billion in funding to ensure our local and state governments and police departments could make payroll. He voted to defund the police.

Michael Pope
On the issue of things that Congressman Whitman is against, he was on WMAL recently, talking about the suggestion from this workgroup, to rename, remove, or recontextualize many of the monuments and memorials in Washington D.C. I want to play a clip from that WMAL appearance and get your reaction to it.

Rob Wittman
This is really a far left radical, completely disconnected from reality. Stunned, that's all I can think of it to be, or it's at, worse, an attempt to completely do away with our nation's history, and really erase the names of our nation's founders. I mean, it's just unfathomable to me, and you pointed out Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, George Mason Memorial, again all great Virginians, Zachary Taylor and William Henry Harrison, Woodrow Wilson, I mean, you go you down the line and you think, "Why? Why would you want to do that?"

Michael Pope
Qasim Rashid, why would you want to do that?

Qasim Rashid
You know, I'm really flabbergasted how offended he is to have accurate history recorded. Someone who is offended by contextualizing history because it dishonors, apparently, the great men and women of our history, would surely be furious that a foreign, hostile nation, put bounties on our servicemembers, paid the terrorist organization known as the Taliban to kill them, and the President did nothing. Surely someone offended by contextualizing monuments would be offended that the President referred to traumatic brain injury as headaches, and mocked those service members who suffered traumatic brain injury. Surely someone offended by contextualizing monuments would be upset, that the President called our Marines killed in action, suckers and losers. But unfortunately, my opponent hasn't had a single thing to say about all of those horrible atrocities. The fact that he has been silent on every single grotesque violation by this president, against our own military, tells me all I need to know about who he serves. It's not our military. It's not our service members. It's the one occupant in the White House, who got five deferments because he didn't have the courage or the integrity to serve his nation when when his nation needed him.

Michael Pope
I want to ask you what Congressman Rashid would be up to if you win the election, you head to Congress, you're representing the first congressional district, and you want to do something about Broadband. I feel like this is one of those issues where people talk about it over and over again. And I feel like not a lot seems to be happening. Give us some specifics here. What would Congressman Rashid do to expand Broadband in the first congressional district and across Virginia?

Qasim Rashid
We would make it a utility. Look, when you say people talk about it, I think you mean my opponent. We disagree on a lot. But the one thing that he and I have in common is that in the 13 years he's been in Congress, we've both passed the same number of bills on Broadband: Zero. And that should be a problem, that you've been in Congress 13 years, and you can't pass one single bill on Broadband, and you claim that it is a staple of your public service. We have seen the data, we have done the research, and the only logical conclusion is that Broadband internet needs to be a utility, the same way electricity, the phone lines, the water, sewage, are utility. Look, water wasn't a utility until our coal miners in rural parts of our country said, "We are literally dying, we need water." And no private company was willing to build it out, because it didn't make them any profit. And therefore water become utility. The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 did the same thing. No private entity was willing to build it out because it didn't make them money. And so therefore, they, the government, stepped in, and that's how we build up rural America. The same thing must happen now, with Broadband internet, we cannot rely on corporations. Look, according to one study, since 1990, we have invested, I would rather say sunk, $400 billion into corporations to build out Broadband internet type of technology, $400 billion. And in the meantime, our rural communities are suffering and struggling, and our lower income and Black and Hispanic communities are struggling, because of this phenomenon known as, digital redlining, where they are not building broadband internet in these lower income and in these Black and Brown communities. So our solution is to introduce the Rural Broadband Authority, which would consolidate the 40 different programs across 14 agencies, into one program that would then inject direct federal dollars into local municipalities, to build up Broadband as a utility, and make sure people have high quality, and affordable, and consistent access.

Thomas Bowman
Qasim Rashid, thank you so much for joining us today on Transition Virginia.

Qasim Rashid
Thank you for having me guys. It was a pleasure to be here.

Thomas Bowman
Thanks so much Qasim.

Michael Pope
And we're back on Transition Virginia and it's question time. Now remember, if you want to ask a question on the podcast, head over to our website at transitionvirginia.com and hit the button that says, "Contribute on Patreon." We're able to produce this podcast with support from listeners like you, so please consider becoming a friend of the podcast. This week, we've got questions from two former guests on the show. The first comes from, friend of the podcast, David Ramadan, who has a question about a recent poll from Christopher Newport University. Now, unlike all the previous polls, that had Joe Biden leading Donald Trump by double digits in Virginia, this new Christopher Newport poll has Biden ahead by only five points, that's almost within the margin of error. That prompted David Ramadan to ask this.

David Ramadan
So a recent poll showed a small number between the Biden and the Trump campaign in Virginia. Who thinks Virginia is in play? And how's this gonna affect down ballot?

Michael Pope
David Ramadan tells me he does not think Virginia is in play. But he also tells me many of his friends, who work in Republican politics, actually believe they can win Virginia. Stephen Farnsworth, is there any chance Trump could win Virginia? And what kind of influence do you think I'll have on the rest of what's on the ballot?

Stephen Farnsworth
On balance, I think if you're looking at the Electoral College, Matt, as a Republican, Virginia is not the best place to spend a significant amount of time and money. As you look at the Trump campaign, it's clear they are not doing that there have been occasional opportunities for President Trump to speak in Virginia. But by and large, it's clear that the emphasis is on Ohio, and Minnesota, and a list of swing states that does not include Virginia. So I tend to be more or less in the same place where Delegate Ramadan is, that as Donald Trump, and his campaign, try to get to 270 electoral votes, it doesn't seem likely that Virginia is going to be much help.

Thomas Bowman
Our next question comes from friend of the podcast, Trevor Southerland. He wants to know what it says about Republicans, that they can't seem to file their paperwork on time.

Trevor Southerland
It seems like in these top districts, Virginia Republicans keep coming up with people that either don't know how to do paperwork, or do it wrong, or sign it fraudulently. And I'm just wondering if there's ever been a state where one party has had so many problems with candidates not knowing or doing improper paperwork?

Thomas Bowman
A number of Republicans have had paperwork problems, including Scott Taylor, Nick Freitas, and Bob Good. Dr. Farnsworth, what's the deal?

Stephen Farnsworth
Well, I really think this is an outgrowth of the inability of Republicans to use a consistent system for nomination. If I were advising the Republicans, I would say that the most effective mechanism is a primary. And if people were used to the rules that get to get you on the ballot in a primary, you wouldn't have all of these back and forth challenges. I think that it would go much more smoothly, this process, if it were a consistent one. But unfortunately, I think, that the different factions within the Republican Party, are fighting with each other over the mechanism, so that they can make sure that their favorite candidates, be they social conservatives, or libertarians, are going to prevail in the nomination struggle. It's also the case that when a party is divided as the Republicans are right now, in Virginia, that there's not necessarily an effective system of infrastructure support. In a lot of states, the party leadership can be very, very effective in making sure that all the t's are crossed, and the i's are dotted for potential candidates. But that requires a bit higher level of agreement and cooperation than you see among the Virginia Republicans.

Thomas Bowman
Thanks for listening to Transition Virginia. You can find us on the web at transitionvirginia.com and listen to us wherever pods are cast. Please send us an email at TransitionVApodcast@gmail.com. We might read it on the air. And if you want your question read on the air to our guests, don't forget to sign up and be a Patreon today.