Dear Editor,
Virginia is at an impasse, and Craig County voters have a choice to make. Often, you’ll hear folks in rural communities lament about Northern Virginia’s ‘power’ over our region in elections. It’s just not true. 2,207,389 votes were cast in the 2013 election for Attorney General between Mark Herring and Mark Obenshain. The eventual winner, anti-gun progressive Mark Herring, only won by 165 votes. 2,153 registered Craig County voters chose not to participate in that election; an election that would later result in revoked firearm reciprocity with 25 states.
Though polling is scattered, all evidence leads me to believe that this election will be within a similar margin to the 2013 race for Attorney General. Craig County voters now have a responsibility to determine the next Governor of our beautiful Commonwealth.
Ed Gillespie will represent our shared conservative values in Richmond. Ed will keep us safe by prioritizing law enforcement funding and banning so-called sanctuary cities; he is also endorsed by Craig County Sheriff Trevor Craddock. Ed opposes removing the statues and will instead invest our valuable resources into teacher pay raises and internet infrastructure improvements. Ed will restore rights for those who have stayed out of trouble, but not for violent felons who pose a danger to Virginians.
Ed’s opponent, Ralph Northam, is extreme to say the least. He has pledged to ‘do everything in his power’ to remove our historic New Castle statue. He supported automatic rights restoration for even violent felons and worked to restore the rights of an individual who had committed heinous crimes against children and had the largest collection of obscene images of child abuse ever found within the Commonwealth. Ralph has voted several times to raise our taxes, $1.4 million of which he gave to a fake Chinese company. He also supports taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal immigrants such as driver’s licenses and in-state tuition slots. Ralph cast the tie-breaking vote against the ban on sanctuary cities.
Craig County voters have a choice to make on November 7, and should remind all of their neighbors to do the same.
– C. Jordan Labiosa New Castle Town Council Member
