Vanity Fair Profiles Sheila Bynum-Coleman in Her Race Against Republican Speaker Kirk Cox

From the VA House Democratic Caucus:

Vanity Fair Profiles Sheila Bynum-Coleman in Her Race against Republican Speaker Kirk Cox

RICHMOND (June 17, 2019) – On Monday, Vanity Fair published a profile of House Democratic candidate Sheila Bynum-Coleman in her campaign against the House Republican Speaker to represent the newly drawn 66th district in the House of Delegates. 

The profile comes on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting House Republicans’ appeal to defend their unconstitutional racially gerrymandered districts. Bynum-Coleman is a black woman challenging the Speaker in a constitutionally drawn map for the first time since the legislative districts were drawn in 2011, after Cox spent millions of taxpayer dollars to uphold the racially gerrymandered maps. 

Vanity Fair calls the race a “microcosm of the political trends and battles that have come to define the Trump era,” saying:

“The race for Virginia’s 66th is, in many ways, a microcosm of the political trends and battles that have come to define the Trump era. Bynum-Coleman is a pro-choice woman; Cox voted in favor of a House resolution that declared the anniversary of the passage of Roe v. Wade a ‘Day of Tears’ and has compared aborted fetuses to fallen soldiers. Bynum-Coleman wants to increase Virginia’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour; during Cox’s time as speaker, Republicans have blocked all legislation to raise it. Bynum-Coleman, whose daughter is a gun violence survivor, is an advocate for gun control legislation; Cox has called efforts to study the issue after the Virginia Beach mass shooting ‘hasty and suspect’. The list goes on. ‘I think the party is out of touch as a whole,’ Bynum-Coleman told me. ‘The reason for that is because they don’t have to be in touch. Because when you draw district lines that favor you, then you don’t have to be in touch. You don’t have to really participate with your constituents.’”

The profile also quotes House Democratic spokeswoman Kathryn Gilley, saying, “Now we’re seeing the blue wave is really coming back to Virginia and we’re here to finally flip the house. Which is going to be momentous to have a Democratic majority for the first time in 20 years.”