See below for video and photos from this morning’s rally in Arlington on the first morning of early voting in Virginia. Note the long line of people to vote – a good sign in deep-blue Arlington County! Speakers at the rally included Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08), Arlington County Board Democratic nominee JD Spain, Arlington School Board Democratic nominees Zuraya Tapia-Hadley and Kathleen Clark, and – last but certainly not least – Sen. Tim Kaine. A few highlights from the speeches include:
- Rep. Don Beyer noted: “If you look at the states that mail the ballots and have early voter places like Oregon and Colorado, they have 70 and 75% voter turnout when we would have 50%. So we’re changing that and we’re getting to be among the best states in the country in terms of early voting.”
- JD Spain: “We cannot sit this one out…45 days of early voting. If a person doesn’t go out and vote this year, that’s almost uncivilized. We know what extremism looks like, we know know what attack on immigrants look like, we know what attack on our women look like and we’re not having it. We also know what attacks on veterans look like…We are not going back, Arlington! We know over the next several weeks…make sure you get on the phones and call folks, you can still volunteer with our party you can still still come out and knock doors, because when we fight we when we fight we win!”
- Sen. Tim Kaine said: “Election 2024, it is the biggest election of my lifetime; I mean, I was on a ballot once for national office, this one’s bigger, yeah this one’s more important, this one matters most to Virginia, this one matters most to the country…The battle right now is between those who stand up and those who tear down, and we are matched up against the greatest tear-down artist in the history of American politics in Donald Trump…It’s a question in Virginia, in this nation are the standup-ers more numerous, more powerful, more energetic than the tear-downers? But I think the answer to that is yes, because I know you, you’re stand up…[Tells a story about how Kamala Harris worked effectively in the US Senate] I tell you that story because it exemplifies the following: pick a problem, not a small one, a big one; gather stakeholders together, not just Democrats but Republicans too; challenge everybody to go big, not go small to do something really big, really move the needle, then persist persist persist until you get legislation passed – but it’s not about the bill, it’s about the result; then keep implementing until you can see a difference… and that’s the kind of President she’ll be…Encourage everybody to vote early…because it’s convenient…because it’s insurance… vote in case there is a 1% chance that there’s some glitch on Election Day – if you vote early you can get it fixed to make sure your vote counts. And then finally, vote early for the most important reason – we will stop bothering you…as soon as they know that Aaron has voted, we’re not knocking on your door anymore, we’re not going to call you anymore, we’re not going to send… emails to you, we’re going to focus on people who haven’t.”
P.S. Among those in the crowd were several elected officials – Del. Adele McClure and Del. Alfonso Lopez; State Sen. Aaron Rouse; Arlington County Board members Takis Karantonis, Matt de Ferranti, Maureen Coffey and Susan Cunningham; etc.
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