Democracy for America (DFA) denounced Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam on Thursday after Northam flip-flopped in favor of banning sanctuary cities.
Ralph Northam flip-flopped this week, signaling that if elected governor he would sign legislation to ban sanctuary cities in the commonwealth of Virginia.
“If that bill comes to my desk … I sure will. I’ve always been opposed to sanctuary cities. He knows that,” Northam said, speaking of his Republican opponent, Ed Gillespie.
In response to Northam’s flip-flop, Democracy for America disavowed the Democratic gubernatorial candidate and pledged to stop supporting him for the remainder of the election.
Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, said in a statement:
Ralph Northam’s gutless, politically senseless, and morally debased decision yesterday to openly backtrack on his commitment to standing up for immigrant families is a picture-perfect example of why Democracy for America never endorsed him in the primary and focused the entirety of our efforts in Virginia on down-ticket races, like Justin Fairfax’s campaign for Lieutenant Governor. It’s also why, today, we’re announcing that we will no longer do any work to directly aid Northam’s gubernatorial efforts.
Despite our profound reservations about Northam’s commitment to the inclusive populist agenda Democrats need to embrace to win, following the conclusion of Virginia’s Democratic primary, we have continued to work alongside the Virginia Democratic Coordinated campaign for our endorsed candidates, raise tens of thousands of dollars in grassroots donations, and make tens of thousands of calls to voters to expand the electorate.
Those concerns proved justified when, a few weeks ago, the VA Democratic Coordinated campaign (dominated by Northam operatives) bought literature for canvassers that purposely left off Fairfax, who, if elected, would be just the second Black man to ever serve statewide office in the Commonwealth. Following that racist action, we decided to remove Northam’s name from the tens of thousands of volunteer Get-Out-the-Vote calls our members are making in Virginia, but, for the sake of Democratic comity, we refrained from publicly discussing that decision.
DFA also cited the Northam’s campaign decision to remove Justin Fairfax, a black candidate for lieutenant governor, from their campaign fliers, which sparked controversy.
Quentin James, the founder of Collective PAC, a political action committee that supports progressive black candidates, including Justin Fairfax, alleged that the move to exclude Fairfax from the campaign smells of subtle racism.
James said, “It reeks of subtle racism, if not a tone deafness about how we are going to win in November. Leaving Justin Fairfax off … even if it’s only for a small universe of union members, still sends the wrong message.”
The Northam campaign is ensconced in controversy as reports revealed that they coordinated with the Latino Victory Fund to push an ad featuring an Ed Gillespie supporter attempting to run over minority children.
Ed Gillespie campaign manager Chris Leavitt slammed the Latino Victory Fund’s ad.
“This is not an attack on Ed Gillespie anymore,” said Chris Leavitt. “This is an all-out attack on the people of Virginia. This latest ad gives a clear indication of just what Ralph Northam and his national Democratic allies think of all of us, and it’s sickening.”
Breitbart News reported that the race between Gillespie and Northam remains tight. The election is on Tuesday, November 7.
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