An expanding list of lawmakers in the politically-divided Virginia General Assembly have announced they will not seek re-election or will seek another office under new district lines this election cycle.Â
Come this November, all 140 seats in the General Assembly will be on the ballot. The upcoming election cycle will be the first one under new maps drawn via the independent redistricting process in 2021.Â
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President Joe Biden gave a Memorial-Day-weekend speech at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton on Friday afternoon. He highlighted the humility and sacrifice of the military and their families and emphasized that they defended the American principle that all men and women are equal. He also mentioned the service and death of his son Beau Biden.
“He was like a lot of you. You do your duty. You don’t expect anything for it except people having a general respect,” Biden said.
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Virginia’s congressional delegation, led by Congressman Rob Wittman (R-Virginia-01), is warning the Navy not to forget the East Coast and Norfolk Naval Shipyard as international military and commercial dynamics draw attention to China and Russia.
“As we pivot towards the Indo-Pacific in our global force posture, it comes as no surprise that we’ve bolstered our presence on our Western Seaboard through increases in homeported ships. This increased presence is of such magnitude that San Diego has eclipsed Norfolk in the sheer number of homeported ships,” the delegation wrote in a letter to Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday.
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Governor Ralph Northam announced new statewide coronavirus restrictions last weekend, which went into effect Monday, that will impact a number of retail businesses throughout the Commonwealth.
“COVID-19 is surging across the country, and while cases are not rising in Virginia as rapidly as in some other states, I do not intend to wait until they are. We are acting now to prevent this health crisis from getting worse,” the governor said in a press release.
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After heavy rain Thursday, Virginia and North Carolina experienced flooding, leading to three deaths in North Carolina. In Farmville, Virginia, authorities rescued boaters on the flooded Appomattox River, according to WWBT. The Hampton Roads and Suffolk regions experienced flooding closing local roads, while fire crews had to retrieve boats that slipped their moorings due to flooding at the Smith Mountain Lake near Roanoke. Drivers had to be rescued near Salem and Roanoke.
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Jill Biden spent Thursday in Virginia, starting her day meeting with educators and military leaders in Hampton Roads, then heading to Richmond where she met Mayor Levar Stoney in front of the Voter Registrar’s Office, and then going to Henrico with Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D- Fairfax) for a round-table with working mothers.
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Both presidential campaigns have shifted their strategy in Virginia, with few ad buys and no appearances from Trump or Biden. Danny Barefoot, a partner with Democratic ad agency Anvil Strategies, said this is because both sides think Biden will win the commonwealth. However, chairman of the Trump Virginia Delegation John Fredericks disagrees. “I think this is a very competitive race, and so no, we haven’t given up [on Virginia] at all. We’re going to continue to put resources into Virginia.”
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Citing “significantly improved health metrics,” Governor Ralph Northam relaxed COVID-19 restrictions in Eastern Virginia on Thursday, allowing the Hampton Roads region to go to join the rest of Virginia in Phase Three of its pandemic restrictions.
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