2017 General Election Lost 55 – 45
Can Democrats win a majority in Virginia’s House of Delegates?Loudoun County Virginia (which includes HD 33) is right in the middle of a large, nearly isosceles triangle. The base is Route 66 which runs east west, north of Manassas straight into Route 495, the District of Columbia Beltway. The apex of the triangle is Hagerstown, MD. Route 81 slopes southwest from Hagerstown, intersects Route 66 and continues along the edge of the Shenandoah Valley. Route 78 slopes southeast from Hagerstown to Frederick Md, and continues as Route 278 straight into Route 495, the District of Columbia Beltway. At Frederick, Route 78 turns sharply east and continues to Baltimore.
Many people in Loudoun County think of themselves as belonging to a western, rural, Route 81-like County even if that is not exactly where they live. Tia Walbridgehttp://tiawalbridge.com/helps people think of themselves as part of rural Loudoun County. She’s a sheep farmer.
Tia Walbridge is a sheep farmer who wants to turn Virginia into a more Democratic state. Virginia already has a Democratic Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, and two Democratic US Senators. It is voting this year because Virginia has state elections in odd years. All state offices except the state senate are up for election in 2017. Virginia needs to flip seventeen seats this fall to create a Democratic House of Delegates. Every one of the one hundred House of Delegates seats is up for election this November. Flipping seventeen seats would be hard, but not impossible. Hillary Clinton carried seventeen HD seats held by Republicans in 2016. Those seats are the target.
Tia Walbridge reminds her prospective constituents that they may have met her at a farmer’s market. She canvasses for votes like her colleagues, but her campaigning is a little different. Her schedule of upcoming events includes a potluck supper and a “Breathe for Change Yoga” fundraiser.
Tia Walbridge is like other Virginia politicians in one important respect: her connection to the military. In her case, it is her husband’s connection. He is a disabled navy veteran working for the Defense Department.
Tia Walbridge’s work experiences are with animals. She graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington and focused on caring for animals in rescue centers, animal hospitals, and farms. She is a preservationist — explaining that the air quality, water quality, and the soil itself are crucial, not only for her personal business, but for all Virginians. She suggests that rural areas are particularly appropriate for reliance on solar energy and other renewable energy sources.
Like virtually every political candidate,Tia Wallbridge’svery first priority is more and better jobs. She is pro-business, but in a way that reflects her rural vision. A Virginian might say her vision is Jeffersonian — small farms and businessmen who are craftsmen. She expresses gratitude for state-funded small business development centers which helped her start her farm and dismay that the Republican dominated legislature has decreased the resources for those centers.
Tia Walbridge is an advocate for universally available health care, public education (opposing the succession of funding cuts experienced by Virginia Public Schools). She advocates funding full day kindergartens and second language instruction in elementary schools.
Tia Walbridge thinks about a bucolic world. She became interested in politics because she hates the current partisanship. She longs for American values like “honor, integrity, civility and community.” She would like to see those qualities in politics and in business.
Loudoun County is predominantly Republican. In 2015, the Democrat candidate for Delegate won only 36% of the vote in HD 33. Senator Warner did a little better in 2014. Hillary Clinton carried the district in 2016. From New Hampshire to Oklahoma, Democrats are demonstrating the capacity to win elections to state legislatures. Help Tia Walbridge https://www.tiawalbridgefordelegate.com/ make Loudoun a blue county and Virginia a blue state.
