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Our biggest endorsement has always been the people.
Not the Governor. Not the political establishment. Not the DCCC, big donors, nor corporate PACs anointing candidates before a single vote is cast.
It’s the people because that’s who we are running for and who we have always fought for.
Recently, Governor Abigail Spanberger vetoed collective bargaining legislation that would have given over 500,000 Virginia public workers the ability to organize and negotiate their wages, benefits, and working conditions. Teachers. Firefighters. Home health workers. State employees. Half a million people who thought a Democratic Governor would have their back.
The Virginia Professional Firefighters called the veto “an absolute betrayal [ [link removed] ].” The Virginia Public Sector Labor Coalition [ [link removed] ] said workers are now “no better off than they were under a Republican governor.”
AFSCME President Lee Saunders [ [link removed] ] put it plainly: “Governor Spanberger campaigned on the promise to end this historic injustice. But she has broken that promise.”
This is regressive politics; a blue that fades to red. The Democratic Establishment lost focus, lost its purpose, and lost its Blue despite having the State House, State Senate, and the Governor. We are supposed to be the party of working people. The party that stands with labor and workers rights, not against it. The party that fights for dignity, fairness, and economic justice, not one that folds when corporate interests push back.
So what’s actually at stake here?
Collective bargaining is workers coming together to negotiate as a unit, instead of facing their employer one by one, alone. It is how people win higher wages, better healthcare, and safer job conditions. It is how the middle class was built in this country.
Virginia is one of the most restrictive states in the country for public sector bargaining, a holdover from the Jim Crow era. State and local government workers here earn about 27% less on average than their private sector peers. That gap is not an accident. It is a policy choice. And the Governor just chose to keep it that way.
At the federal level, the PRO Act, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, is the most significant worker empowerment legislation in a generation. It restores the right of workers to freely and fairly form a union and bargain together for better pay, benefits, and working conditions. It penalizes employers who fire workers for organizing. It closes the loopholes corporations use to misclassify workers and strip them of protections
I wholeheartedly support the PRO Act because it supports the people who are the backbone of this country. And when you are not funded by the corporations fighting against it, it’s a very easy position to hold.
And here’s why it matters for our race
Abigail Spanberger endorses Shannon Taylor for Virginia’s First Congressional District. The same governor who just broke her promise to half a million workers during an affordability crisis is picking who she wants representing you in Congress. And that tells you everything.
We have seen this repeatedly. A blue that talks about working families but takes the check from the people squeezing them. A blue so cautious and corporate that it is barely distinguishable from the red it is supposed to replace.
Our district deserves better. We deserve a blue that is bright. Unapologetic for the people. Rooted in economic justice and not for sale to anyone.
Unlike Taylor, I have never taken dime from corporate PACs or their executives and lobbyists. I will not allow millionaires and Fortune 500s blur the line between public service and private profit. This campaign belongs to working people, not corporate boardrooms. And when I get to Congress, my loyalty will continue to be to the families struggling to pay rent, afford healthcare, and put food on the table.
Our mission is simple: Medicare for All. Taxing billionaires. Getting corporate money out of our politics. These ideas aren’t radical; they are what the majority of Americans want.
And I will fight for every single one of them in Congress, because I answer to you. Solely you. I answer to the people.
We have 77 days until the primary on August 4. The workers Spanberger just abandoned deserve a champion in Congress.
Unapologetically,
Salaam
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