My Fellow Young Democrats-

As you may know already, today is the first day of Early Voting here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. From now until October 30, you can go down to the Arlington County Registrar’s Office and vote early with no excuse. Thanks to our Democratic trifecta, we have 45 days of early voting, which is one of the many reasons that we have gone from the worst in the United States to vote in to one of the top tier states to vote in.

I myself went this morning and was the 55th voter here in Arlington County, casting my ballot for Terry McAuliffe, Hala Ayala, Mark Herring, Rip Sullivan, Takis Karantonis, and Mary Kadera. The entire process took around 3 minutes from start to finish. It is so easy and wait times are non-existent! As one candidate said to me earlier this week, “this is no f*****g excuse with 45 days of early voting thanks to our Democratic majority.” So if you are able and have a few minutes to take a break during your work day, go down to the Arlington County Registrar’s Office at 2100 Clarendon Blvd Unit 320, Arlington, VA 22201 and vote early!

We have a lot at stake in this election this year and this is definitely the most important election to date here in the Commonwealth.

Nothing proved that more than the first gubernatorial debate last night. Glenn Youngkin spent the majority of the time calling Governor McAuliffe a liar, calling him an extremist radical, denying making statements about outright criminalizing abortions that he had been recorded saying, and denying support for his own campaign from former President Donald Trump. But one thing was clear: Glenn Youngkin and his supporters are aiming to drag Virginia backwards and undo decades of progress.

Reproductive rights and access to quality reproductive health will be all but eliminated under Glenn Youngkin, who stated that the thing that was wrong with the Texas Abortion Ban was that it was “confusing and unworkable.”

Workers’ rights and economic justice will be taken backwards because Glenn Youngkin does not believe in the worker’s right to organize, nor does he believe in paying all workers a living wage.

Our environment will continue to be in jeopardy and we will never be able to meet our environmental goals because Youngkin believes that clean energy will only lead to “blackouts and brownouts” and that we need to continue to use fossil fuels to power our energy grid.

Glenn Youngkin proved that he had a grave misunderstanding of racial and social justice when he quoted Martin Luther King Jr. last night by saying that he wanted a world “where our children are not judged by the color of their skin,” when talking about opposing teaching history on racism and injustices in our country.

On Monday, I joined many of my colleagues from the 8th CD Committee, Arlington Dems, and other Democratic supporters to support Terry McAuliffe for Virginia Governor. I will admit that It’s true. He was not my first choice in the primary. However, right now, he is the best and only option for us to move Virginia forward. I am not ashamed to say that and I look forward to his leadership, and to bringing our Progressive ideas to his desk.

I firmly believe that Governor McAuliffe will continue to do the work that we as Democrats hold dear. But just like we have done with our own President Joe Biden and even our own Senator Mark Warner, we will continue to bring our ideals and values to their doorstep to make sure that they know what their voters want to see. Governor McAuliffe will be on the side of progress for all Virginians, and yes, while we all have different variations of how far that progress should go, for right now, I will take some steps forward rather than one huge leap backward.

Our party is a big tent and it takes all kinds to continue to move us forward. I recently finished reading Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite by EJ Dionne and in it, he discusses how all great movements have been built by alliances between progressives and moderates. Progressives bring passion, energy, and movement building into the fight, while moderates bring calculated approach, negotiation, and pragmatism into it just right beside them. But the fact of the matter is that we need each other. Iron sharpens iron and right now, none of us can afford to sit out.

So I am asking you directly. If you want us to continue to move in the direction that we have been fighting so hard for, we need you to go and vote. Even if you feel like you are not as excited about this ticket as you would have been with other candidates: if you want to continue to have a Governor that you can at least reason with and have a conversation with, you need to get out and vote early. I would much rather have someone in office who shares 85% of the values and policy stances that I have, than someone who wouldn’t even open the door for us.

My fellow Young Democrats, right now, we are the largest eligible voting block in the country and in the commonwealth, and we need to turn out in droves to make sure that we elect all of our Democrats up and down the ballot. Go, fight, win.

Democratically Yours,

Matt Royer

PS: Remember to buy your Gold Card to support our Democratic ticket!

PPS: Remember to sign up to volunteer with us!

PPS: Pass the Trumka PRO Act and Boycott Nabisco.