Among the Democratic primaries for U.S. House from Virginia two weeks from today, on August 4, is in one of the reddest districts in America, namely VA09 in Southwest Virginia. How red are we talking? According to VPAP, it’s so red that even in the massive “blue wave” Virginia gubernatorial election of November 2025, which Democrat Abigail Spanberger won overall by 15 points, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears dominated VA09 by over 36 points (68.1%-31.7%). And in 2024, in addition to Trump winning VA09 by 44 points, far-right-extremist/nutjob Hung Cao actually beat Sen. Tim Kaine in VA09 by around 35 points.
In sum, to describe VA09 as a challenging district for Democrats to win would be a massive understatement. Which is maddening, because the fact is, Republicans have badly hurt the people of VA09, of Appalachia, and of rural America more broadly – yet they keep winning elections there. As I said, it’s maddening. It’s also kind of astounding, given that as recently as 2010, VA09 was represented by Democrat Rick Boucher. And as recently as 2006, Democrat Jim Webb was still able to win a respectable 46% in Wise County, 44% in Tazewell County, 44% in Henry County, and even a narrow majority 51% in Russell County (also 56% in Buchanan County). So there are a lot of theories for what changed, and I’m not going to get into them here, but the bottom line is that VA09 went hard right sometime around 2010 (after the historic election of Barack Obama, the Great Recession, major changes in how people get their news/information, the rise of Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/etc., smartphones)…and has basically stayed locked in deep-“red” since then.
So now, we’re heading towards a midterm election in which the party in the White House – Donald Trump’s MAGA/far-right-extremist Republican Party – is highly unpopular, as it pursues disastrous policies on the economy, foreign policy, our democracy, energy, environment, civil liberties, you name it. The question is, will voters in November decisively repudiate Trump, MAGA, etc, as they so richly deserve to be repudiated? And will that repudiation, assuming it happens, not just be confined to “purple” districts, suburban districts, exurban districts, but also spread to rural America? We’re going to find out.
Anyway, on August 4, there’s a Democratic primary to select the nominee to take on the egregiously godawful Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA09), who’s truly a disgrace and embarrassment to Virginia and the nation (for a few examples of what I mean by that, see Far-Right-Extremist/Bigot Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA09) Brags, “I am a member of the Sharia-Free America Caucus in Congress to fight back against Islamic fanaticism infiltrating our communities.”; For Signing on to Seditionist TX Lawsuit, Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA09) Rightly Ripped on His FB Page as “TRAITOR. COWARD. DOUCHEBAG”; “Spineless Jellyfish,” a “Disgrace to the Office,” etc.; Video: Virginia’s Disgrace, Rep. Morgan Griffith, Makes Fool of Himself on National TV; Climate Zombie Morgan Griffith: Vikings, Mars, And Global Cooling; Video: Virginia’s Embarrassment, Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA09), Badgers Dr. Rick Bright on Discredited Hydroxychloroquine; Appalachian Women of Action Demand Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA09) Step Down Following the 1/6 U.S. Capitol Riot; Morgan Griffith: Science, Truth, and English Challenged; Virginia’s Four Republican Members of Congress All Get “F/Very Poor” Ratings On New “GOP Democracy Report Card”).
So pretty much ANY Democrat would represent a major upgrade from this lunatic. With that, see below for the latest VA09 Democratic forum (h/t to “the story of kody” for the video!), with the candidates Joy Powers, Adam Murphy and Douglas Crockett, plus the moderator, “long-time Democratic leader” and “legal scholar” Oliver Keene. In general, I agreed with the vast majority of what the candidates had to say. But here, I just wanted to highlight the superb introduction by Oliver Keene, and encourage everyone to share it widely – great stuff!
“It’s always good to come home. Folks, I got in politics long time ago about 2015, 2014. And at that time, things were going downhill here pretty bad. And since then, the Republicans in this area have got everything that they wanted. They’ve got control of all the local boards. They’ve got control of all the local legislature seats. They’ve got the congressional seat. And folks, Morgan Griffith ain’t done nothing in the 16 years that he’s been up there. And [applause] I got to thank him though, because he got me fired up to get involved in our local politics, so that we can try to get this region moving forward, to make Southwest Virginia a place where everybody has opportunity, no matter who they are, where we can build communities to where we can lift everyone up and bring the poverty down.
I want Southwest Virginia to be a place like the people in this room. You’re all here because you give a shit. Morgan Griffith is in Washington DC and he don’t give a shit. He’s been there 16 years and you can’t find me one thing in any part of this district that he has had anything to do with to move our district, to move our communities forward. When he ran the first time, he said, ‘mountain values.’ Let me tell you about the mountain values that I know. The mountain values that I know in Tazewell County and Buchanan County and Russell County and Bland County, too. If somebody’s hurting, we come together as a community. We come together to make sure that those people have what they need. We try to not leave anybody in the holler behind. Morgan Griffith doesn’t know what that means, because in the 16 years that he’s been up there in Washington DC, he has not authored one piece of legislation that had will do anything for this district to give your kids and my kids and their kids the opportunity to stay here and to raise their kids in the same mountains and hollers that they grew up in. [applause]
That, ladies and gentlemen, that is why I’m proud to be a part of this party. Because at the end of the day, when you pull down all the issues, we are the party of the people who give a shit. We are the party that wants to make government work for everybody, who wants to make sure nobody’s left behind, who wants to make sure that your constitutional rights are protected – no matter where you’re from, no matter where your parents were from, no matter what your immigration status is, no matter what health conditions you may have. So ladies and gentlemen, I got to thank Morgan. He has inspired three wonderful people to run against him that will actually move this region forward and make these mountains and hills a place that works for everybody, where everybody is welcome and everybody has opportunity. This is what we need. [applause] So, I thank you all for this run running now.”
