An energetic crowd came out to the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center on Tuesday, May 10th to hear Josh Throneberg answer questions about his 5th District race. The event ran smoothly and was well-moderated by Cville Dems Co-ChairDashad Cooper and Albemarle Dems Chair Amy Laufer.
The first 50 minutes are available online (watch Josh in action!), but here are some highlights courtesy of our Co-Chair John McLaren:
- Josh made a good case for how he can win as a committed Democrat in a mostly rural Republican-leaning district; he grew up in a Republican family in a rural environment; he understands the district culture, he understands farm issues, and he takes a pragmatic approach on issues.
- He unwaveringly supports a woman’s right to choose, and argues that Democratic policies are the best policies to reduce the number of abortions, e.g. the number of abortions fell every year of the Obama administration largely because Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded access to healthcare including contraceptives.
- Farmers are acutely aware of the potentially disastrous impacts of climate change, e.g. the California drought which is drastically reducing agricultural productivity across-the-board.
- Josh emphatically called out Rep. Good for failing to bring in any federal money whatsoever for projects in the Fifth District, while Senators Warner and Kaine have done so and Democrat Abigail Spanberger brought in $6 million in federal funds for Seventh District projects.
- Josh reaffirmed that Democrats don’t want to take away peoples’ guns; we do want universal background checks and a few other widely popular, common sense loophole fixes that would help prevent tragedies.
It’s unusual to have the Democratic nominee in place so early in the cycle, and Josh is clearly hitting the ground running!
On Saturday, May 14, abortion rights supporters are holding a “Bans Off Our Bodies” rally and protest march in support of abortion access and reproductive freedom. Speakers will include our VA 5th District candidate Josh Throneburg.
