A Washington DC based PAC (Political Action Committee) has promised to make 200,000 phone calls to African Americans across the state urging them to vote for Justin Fairfax for Lt. Governor. As we reported yesterday, Democrat candidate for Governor Ralph Northam removed Justin Fairfax from campaign fliers at the behest of the Laborers’ International Union of North America who has not endorsed Fairfax. The union has contributed $300,000 to Northam’s campaign.
Justin Fairfax does not support two gas pipelines that are backed by the Union.
Northam approved the exclusion of Fairfax from the flier.
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Quentin James is the co-founder of The Collective political action committee, which supports progressive black candidates nationally. He said the image of the fliers side-by-side is “striking” and kept him awake in the middle of the night when he saw it.
While the labor union has a right to support candidates of its choosing, James said, he noted that the Northam campaign approved of literature that excluded someone on the party ticket. Leaving out Fairfax, an African-American, hurts the ability of the entire ticket to turn out votes and win, James said, because African-Americans are such an important voting block for the Democrats and promoting a black candidate to black voters drives up turnout.
“Why would it at all be questioned or even an option for you to consider dropping the black candidate from the piece when that is actually counter to helping turn out black voters who are a key constituency?” James said. “They saw him as disposable when he was actually critical to their ability to win.”
This is not Justin Fairfax’s first dispute with the Democrat party of Virginia.
Last year, when another potential Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor was booked to speak at a state convention, the Fairfax campaign called it unfortunate and puzzling that he was not invited to speak. The Democratic Party of Virginia then attacked Fairfax, then apologized for attacking him.
