Dear John,
With early voting underway, 5.5 weeks to go until Election Day and one day to go until my birthday (!!), I have a whole bunch of news to share with you:
1) We're in the driver's seat in this campaign. Our polling is the best I've had since 2019, our fundraising has already eclipsed even the best of my three winning House of Delegates campaigns, and we've had more than 100 unique volunteers knocking doors for us just this month alone. Thank you so much for being a part of that -- and you can still help out more by donating $10, $25, $50, $100 or whatever you can do today!
2) During the summer, the Republican nominee challenged me to three community forums on issues he wanted to talk about. So, I accepted five from the public rather than from his campaign, and he skipped out on the first three. I was there for each of them. So last night, we finally debated in Manassas and I highlighted the work I've done to pass 41 bipartisan bills into law, including 12 to feed hungry kids; secure $33 million to fix roads in the district with innovative intersection designs; lead the fight against data center sprawl; and bring more accessibility and transparency to government in Richmond and at home.
The debate also gave me an opportunity to respond to his attacks -- and he ended up being unable to back-up his own claims.
I pressed him on one in particular where he's attacked me for voting against a crime bill I actually voted for on final passage. I had held out earlier in the legislative process so there would be discretionary protections for high-support neurodivergent kids with IEPs and, once we got that, I voted for the bill. I brought that up to him twice and he had no response. If he had read the bill, he should have had something to say about why he wanted to make it mandatory to turn over kids with IEPs to law enforcement for doing something they can't help.
When asked what constitutional amendments we would support, I cited automatic restoration of voting rights; repealing, and replacing the discriminatory Marshall-Newsman amendment with an affirmative right to marry; and enshrining your right to access safe and legal abortion care in Virginia. He said there weren't any he'd support.
He tried to attack me for why it's taken so long for a bypass around Route 28 to be built, at which point I told the audience the plan he cited as worth "exploring" would destroy dozens of homes in Manassas, something he would have known if he attended any of the town halls in Prince William County, Manassas Park, and Fairfax County I attended. He never showed up, he didn't do his homework, and it showed.
3) Now all of that is typical for a debate. What got weird was when one of his supporters stopped the debate to yell the f-word in various iterations at me during a transphobic tirade. Soooo the moderator told her to leave and on her way out the door, I responded by saying, "Thank you for reminding me why I've won three elections in this district in Prince William County, which is the most diverse county in all of Virginia and the tenth-most nationally -- where we welcome everyone because of who they are, not despite it, no matter what you look like, where you come from, how you worship if you do, or who you love because you should be able to thrive here because of who you are, never despite it." I'm fundraising off of this because, as I've done every campaign, when they go low, we raise money. So, please donate today because -- with all due apologies to William Congreve -- "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor Hell a fury like [Danica's supporters] scorned."
4) The Washington Post reported yesterday that my Republican challenger "had repeatedly lied, disobeyed orders and received police pay at least twice while moonlighting out of state." So that's a thing.
5) Tomorrow (Saturday, Sept. 30) is my 39th birthday! So if you can swing by Manassas, come party with us from 6-8 p.m . There'll be good vibes, good people and, of course, good cake.
Warmly,
Danica
