Nice job by VA State Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) on the Politics Hour a little while ago. See below for audio and highlights (bolding added by me for emphasis).
First, Sen. Surovell was asked about Trump administration investigations into GMU over alleged discriminatory policies:
“It’s really disappointing and it’s really disturbing. George Mason has been ranked by some publications as being the number one best value school in America. Also the number one best school for social mobility in America. It’s a jobs powerhouse in Northern Virginia. The business community has has cried out about this…I’m really concerned, my colleagues in the Senate and the House are really concerned that… Governor Youngkin and the Trump administration could be doing some long-term damage to the reputation of George Mason and its competitiveness by making it this sort of political punching bag that they are, for really no good reason from our point of view…The governor and the attorney general basically told the board of visitors to ignore our action and we ended up having to file a lawsuit… This week, a circuit court sided with the state senate…the governance of the school is at stake…these boards of visitors effectively control the school if they want to. I mean, the president controls it unless the board of visitors speaks. And, you know, the governor has basically packed all these boards with ideologues that are basically taking his orders instead of exercising their own independent judgment. I mean, past governors would sort of put people on there and say, ‘Hey, do your best job, use your best judgment and have fun.’ This governor’s been telling them what to do and how to vote and who to pick – and from our point of view, likely coordinating with the Trump administration on a lot of this stuff to inflict long-term damage on these schools.”
On the politics of the Republicans’ assault on GMU and on GMU President Greg Washington:
Sen. Surovell on Youngkin’s motivations for attacking GMU:
“My suspicion is the governor’s running for president. He given speeches in Iowa and South Carolina in the last month. He seems to be sort of doing everything he can to sort of burnish or flex his sort of MAGA Trump bonafides. And I think a lot of this is performance art by him to sort of enhance his presidential primary campaign, which I expect will start probably in about 12 months.”
Sen. Surovell on ICE agents – often wearing masks – showing up at courthouses and arresting people:
“You know, it’s disappointing…my other job, I practice law and I’m in that courthouse all the time. And I’ve been getting calls from lawyers every time the ICE agents show up…there’s been some incidents where they’ve been confused about because they come in without uniforms and there’s confusion about what’s going on when, you know, people all of a sudden grab somebody. The sheriff’s had to make special precautions about it. But it definitely is creating a sense of fear in the community. You know, Fairfax County always prided itself on having a being a community of trust. And you know, what we’ve seen in Fairfax, other parts of the state is, for example, in some neighborhoods, the [number] of domestic violence complaints has gone down. It makes people less likely to call the police when there’s a problem. It makes them less likely to say, ‘Hey, I was a witness,’ or report crime. In a lot of ways, it makes our communities less safe. And you know, we’ve seen recently that a lot of the people that have been arrested in Virginia don’t even have violent criminal histories – which is what, you know, Trump said he was after. It’s just normal people that are working their jobs. It’s a weird way to find felons is just to go arrest people that are working and minding their own business and obeying the law…the fact that they’re wearing masks, I understand that they have some concern about their identities, but it’s also of concern that, you know, people don’t know if they’re being abducted by by criminals…Typically, you know, when somebody’s arrested, they’re told why they’re being arrested. You have to verify their identity. You have to explain, ‘I got a warrant. I saw you do something illegal or I saw a warrant for your arrest.’ You know, this isn’t the way we normally do business in America and it’s created a lot of confusion and I’m concerned, it could end up resulting in some harm to people, because people don’t understand what’s happening, because this isn’t how we arrest people in this country typically.”
Finally, Sen. Surovell talks about job cuts in Virginia and economic uncertainty/pain coming from DOGE, the Trump administration, tariffs, etc. – and also about the VA11 and gubernatorial races.
“It’s really going to have a significant impact on the Virginia economy. And I think most voters in Northern Virginia are looking for elected officials who are going to stand up and fight these job cuts and fight the Trump administration – unlike Glenn Youngkin, Winsome Sears, Jason Miyares, or James Walkinshaw’s opponent who has basically said, you know, he wants to make DOGE permanent and become a cheerleader for everything that Trump’s doing. That’s I think the number one issue in Northern Virginia right now, that I think most people are looking for is a fighter. And that’s what James Walkinshaw is going to do….
…I think the number one issue for Virginia right now is what is what the federal government is doing to us. We’re number two in federal employment in the entire United States of America. It’s a huge part of our economy, not just in Northern Virginia, but also in Hampton Roads. And even in other parts of the state, there’s a lot of federal work and contracting and stuff that percolates throughout. I think these tariffs are a real big problem. They’re basically taxes on Virginians. Abigail [Spanberger] has sort of spoken out repeatedly about this stuff. Winsome Sears says it’s all good, looks great to her, everything will be fine, which is I don’t think anybody is buying that stuff. I think that’s why you’re seeing Abigail with like a usually between a 12 and seven point lead. She’s raised four times more money than Winsome Sears, who can’t even figure out who her campaign manager is. So I think it’s sizing up to be a big victory for Spanberger….Unemployment has been rising in Virginia every month for, I think, the last 6 months, especially in Northern Virginia. So, this is not news to us. And it’s not a surprise given all the economic uncertainty that the Trump administration has inflicted. When you don’t know if your tariff is going to be 5% or 35% or 50%, it causes you to stop spending, stop hiring, stop making investments….we’ve seen layoffs all across Virginia. And you know, Virginia, we do a lot of trade. We have a huge port in Virginia. These tariffs are big to us. And the lack of federal spending, the uncertainty of that is causing all these government contractors to pull back. So I’ve been concerned, I’ve been raising the concern. Our governor just seems to think everything’s fine. The attorney general never wants to do anything to stop layoffs. He just sits there and cheerleads. I’m really concerned about the economy, especially here in the DMV and in Virginia as well because we’re so fedally dependent.”
