McAuliffe launched his marketing campaign exterior of an elementary college named after Richmond’s first African American college board chai
McAuliffe launched his marketing campaign exterior of an elementary college named after Richmond’s first African American college board chair and was flanked solely by Black supporters, together with a former member of his cupboard — Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney — and Louise Lucas, the primary Black girl to function president professional tempore of the Virginia Senate.
“We’d like him to raise the Black group from the crippling pandemic as a result of he is aware of that it has hit Black communities and brown communities tougher than anybody else,” Lucas stated, “We’d like him to convey his vitality and daring imaginative and prescient for Virginia for our post-Covid restoration.”
McAuliffe, who served from 2014 to 2018, is looking for to change into the primary Virginia governor to serve a second time period in almost a half century. Virginia doesn’t permit its governors to serve consecutive phrases, and the state is one among solely two — New Jersey being the opposite — that holds its quadrennial gubernatiorial election within the 12 months after presidential contests.
McAuliffe highlighted his expertise main the commonwealth for 4 years whereas concurrently railing in opposition to “the outdated Richmond method.”
“Of us, it is time for a brand new Virginia method,” he stated.
McAuliffe has a popularity as a prodigious fundraiser and has some built-in benefits given his lengthy historical past in Democratic circles, together with a detailed friendship with the Invoice and Hillary Clinton. He additionally determined in opposition to a 2020 presidential bid and stated he wouldn’t search a put up within the Biden administration, opening him as much as run for governor.
McAuliffe additionally promoted his schooling platform, promising to make sure common web entry for Virginia college students and to boost instructor pay above the nationwide common.