Video, Highlights From Nelson County Dems’ 2025 Virginia Lt. Governor, Attorney General Forum

See below for video from the Demcratic Lt. Governor and Attorney General candidates’ forum held by the Nelson County Democrats earlier this week. Participating were both candidates for Attorney General (Shannon Taylor and Jay Jones) and five of the six candidates for Lt. Governor (Alex Bastani, Ghazala Hashmi, Babur Lateef, Victor Salgado, Levar Stoney; Aaron Rouse not in attendance). For previous videos of forums and events at which these candidates spoke, see:

• Rep. Gerry Connolly’s St. Patrick’s Day Event (All candidates in attendance)
• Mt. Vernon Dems’ Mardi Gras Party (All candidates other than Jay Jones in attendance)
• Prince William County Democrats forum (All candidates in attendance)
• “Red Wine and Blue” Democratic Lt. Governor forum in Roanoke (All candidates in attendance except for Alex Bastani)

And now, here are a few highlights from the Nelson County Democrats’ forum – in order of appearance by the candidate. Oh, and remember, we’re just 32 days from the Democratic primaries on June 17, with early voting going on right now. So make sure you make your voice heard!

• Shannon Taylor: “What we know, we have right now is a current attorney general by the name of Jason Miyares who’s doing one of two things – he’s either sitting back and allowing these terrible executive orders to happen and not challenging them, not constitutionality, not legality. Or worse, he takes them and he doubles down and he threatens organizations and institutions if you do not follow them. The result is the same – Virginians getting hurt. So what we know that we need is we’re going to have to have the best Democratic candidate to take him on in November and take him out…We’re going to take Trump to court, because as your attorney general there’s going to be a lot that needs to be done on that first day. But we’re going to take him to court because we’re going to find out for all of these good lawsuits that have been going on, why we haven’t been able to take advantage of that and push back. So we’re going to find out what lawsuits we can join, what lawsuits we have to initiate on our own. And then what I call the X factor – what else is going to happen between now and the end of the year? Because what we know is that we’ve got the four guys hanging out together – Miyares and Youngkin flanking Trump and Musk – we know that they’re going to come up with more terrible things before this year is over. Our goal is to make sure that as few Virginiaians get impacted as necessary, because not only are we going to join those lawsuits and do the best we can to make Virginiaians whole, we’re also going to bring back the good work that Mark Herring had done.”
• Babur Lateef: “I believe I’m uniquely positioned to be your next lieutenant governor because I bring to the table things others haven’t done. I’ve won in districts I have the most votes of any lieutenant governor candidate. I’ve done that three times in Prince William County in a county that’s gone from red to blue in the off-off year, elections when you know it’s hard to get Democratic schoolboard members and county supervisors elected. So I think it’s really important to have someone who’s done that, but also because I see patients every day – they’re Republican patients, Democratic patients; they’re English-speaking, non-English- speaking; 40 to 50 a day. And so I know what people are going through and I can bring their issues to the table.”
• Victor Salgado: “I check many boxes…for the type of LG candidate that we’ll need in the next 3 1/2 years. If you want somebody who can… draft and promote this legislation that passes court scrutiny, you can check that box with me. If you want somebody who can advise our Democratic AG and Abigail Spanberger on when and how to file suits against Donald Trump, you can check that box with me. If you want to appeal to a broad electorate this November who can talk with authority about law and order and safety, you can check that box with me. At the same time that you want a strong progressive candidate who believes that rising tides lift all boats and that we leave nobody behind, you can check that box with me. That is why I jumped into this race. The value proposition of my candidacy lies in the fact that nobody checks these boxes the way that I do in the LG race…let’s get a little bit animated in here because I think we need some energy in this cycle. Let’s make sure Donald Trump hears us all the way across from the Potomac…so folks are you ready to step up for women’s rights? Are you ready to step up for our federal workers? How about our small business folks? How about our immigrant communities our LGBTQ plus communities?”
• Ghazala Hashmi: “I have a legislative track record from six years in the General Assembly and I would ask you to take a look at that legislative track record, the work that I have been doing. I understand what the work is of the lieutenant governor; I have been in the Senate chamber for six years. And as you all know the lieutenant governor serves as president of the Senate. I know that what happens with the
  lieutenant governor’s position happens in Richmond, not in Washington DC – it happens in our state capital with our General Assembly and our state agencies, all of whom I have worked very closely now for these past six years. But I am a
  former educator…I felt particularly shattered in 2016 with the election of Donald Trump when he challenged every structure of our belief system, what we value, who and what we thought we were as Americans. And certainly as an immigrant myself and as a Muslim American, I felt so challenged by the breathtaking ways in which he was ready to destroy our fundamental constitutional democracy. And so I knew I had to run for office. I did that in 2019, i stepped out of the classroom so I could take on these issues now for six years.”
• Alex Bastani: “I’m fighting to end the ‘Right-to-Work’ statute. I know our future governor says that she won’t sign the bill. I will fight to make sure that Abigail Spanberger is our next governor. On January 1st I will celebrate her as the first woman governor of the state. And on January 2nd I will contact the entire Virginia AFL-CIO we’re all coming to Richmond and we’re going to repeal that law come hell or high water…The best DEI in the world is the American labor movement; it unifies people across race, across genders unlike any other organization…I would never ever vote for John Reid for any office, but he deserves a right of human dignity; his privacy should not be violated…Winning in November will not be easy. Despite all the crazy things Donald J Trump has done, the Democratic Party is still unpopular unfortunately; only 27% of Americans support the Democratic Party. I would show you on the other hand that the most popular organization right now is the American labor movement – 65% of Americans believe in the American labor movement. Therefore, I’m here to tell you today, I believe I’m the best candidate to help Abigail Spanberger win in November because of the support of the union movement and that we can bring back all those working class Virginiaians who drifted to the other party.”
• Jay Jones: “Nobody in this room has any excuse, because we have a big job to do this year – we have to go elect Abigail Spanberger as our next governor. We’re going to get the gavel back in the Senate. We’re going to go beat Jason Miyares and we’re going to grow our majority in the House of Delegates…We’re going to grow this majority because we’re in this together, because we have this really unique opportunity to show not just Virginia but the country and the rest of the world that we are better than what we’ve seen over these last 100 days. But we have to get it right. We’ve got to make the right choices in these elections. We’ve got to have people who are poised to go and win in the fall and make sure that we can use these offices as best as they can be. Because for the last three years, I think you guys just like me are sick and tired of being sick and tired. So this is our chance to step up. And so I thank you all for your energy, your passion, your vision, your conviction. Because it does feel like sometimes these days are dark and the road is long. But this is our chance to step up to show everybody that Virginia is better than what we have seen, that we will lead the way and that we can make history come November of 2025.”
• Levar Stoney: “Over the course of the last 111 days, we have seen day by day Donald Trump showed that he doesn’t care about us. Whether it’s Donald Trump at Mar a Lago after he put his tariff plan together driving around in a golf cart while 401ks crashed. He demonstrates that he doesn’t care about us. Or whether it’s when he’s talking to a reporter and he says that our children will just have less dolls around the Christmas tree this winter, he simply doesn’t care about us. Now we’ve always known that Donald Trump will be someone who would fight for those who have the most or those who were born with the most. And right now I just like to think in this very moment we need more leaders who are willing to fight for those who have the least or those who were born with the least. And I know a little something about that, because some 44 years ago I was born to a couple teenagers – my mother was 16 my father was 18…What I did in the summer of 2020, I led the city of Richmond through the pandemic, but also through a social reckoning as well. And in the summer of 2020, I was the man who ordered the removal of every damn Confederate monument in the former capital of the Confederacy. And here’s the thing – Donald Trump didn’t like it, but who cares; we were going to do the right thing.”

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