See below for a new ad by Democratic VA Senate candidate Stella Pekarsky (see the Blue Virginia endorsement of Pekarsky here), who’s running against incumbent VA Sen. George Barker in the 6/20 Democratic primary. As the ad states, “On the School Board, I took on Youngkin and I won” and “Unlike George Barker, I am 100% pro-choice, pro-education, and pro-safety.”
I’d just add that I went back and checked, and I couldn’t find any cases of Sen. Barker pushing back (whether on social media, in the news media or on the floor of the VA Senate) against Glenn Youngkin’s lunacy. Now maybe, back in the “good ol’ days” before Trump and Trumpism (aka, far-right populism, nastiness, vitriol, bigotry, etc.) took over the Republican Party, it might have been perfectly fine to just do your job in Richmond in a bipartisan, reach-across-the-aisle, so-called “Virginia Way” fashion. But today, with our very democracy in grave danger – plus of course women’s reproductive freedom, a livable environment, LGBTQ equality/safety/etc., voting rights, you name it – we really need Democrats who both know how to fight and are willing to do so, both FOR our values and AGAINST creeping (galloping?) authoritarianism. And that would be someone a lot more like Stella Pekarsky than George Barker.
On the School Board, I took on Youngkin and I won.
Unlike George Barker, I am 100% pro-choice, pro-education, and pro-safety. He voted 5 times with the NRA to make it easier to carry a concealed gun.
I’ll be a strong Democratic voice in the Virginia Senate. Watch our new ad: pic.twitter.com/5wVy2IPGJ9
— Stella Pekarsky (@Stella4Senate) May 18, 2023