Episode 32: Who’s running for Governor and what do they stand for? (Part 1)

Virginia's gubernatorial race is just around the corner, taking place in November 2021. And with 13 candidates in the running--7 Republicans, 5 Democrats, and an independent--it's a crowded field. This week, we begin a two-part series diving into the five Democratic candidates for governor: who are they, and what do they stand for?

Jennifer Carroll Foy is a former state delegate who represented Virginia's 2nd District; Lee Carter is a delegate representing Virginia's 50th District. We asked both candidates plainly about their campaign strategies and their policies to help working Virginians, including:

• What makes you the right person for the job?

• What are your top priorities to help working-class Virginians -- to get them a living wage and affordable healthcare?

• How do you plan to win the election and then get things done once in office?

The Virginia Democratic primary takes place on Tuesday, June 8th, and early in-person and absentee voting start on April 24th.

Episode Transcript

Nathan Moore: This is Bold Dominion, an explainer for state politics in a changing Virginia. I’m Nathan Moore.

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When it comes to state politics, there’s no role that’s more important than the governor. And 2021 happens to be an election year for statewide offices in Virginia. Governor Ralph Northam can’t run for re-election. Virginia’s constitution actually limits governors to just one consecutive term. That means that there’s an open field of candidates.

Or maybe “clown car” would be a better metaphor than “open field. Thirteen people are vying for the governor’s mansion -- seven Republicans, five Democrats, and one independent. And don’t even get me started on the Lieutenant Governor’s race… 

Here on Bold Dominion, we’ve been tracking the Blue-ing of Virginia politics in recent years. Republicans haven’t won a statewide office in Virginia for 12 years. And two years ago, Democrats flipped to majority control of both the House of Delegates and the State Senate. So whoever wins the Democratic primary will have a good shot at claiming a victory in the general election. By the way, that primary takes place on Tuesday, June 8th. And early in-person absentee voting starts on April 24th. To that end, we wanted to find out more about these five Democratic candidates and what they stand for. 

Here at Bold Dominion, we prefer to explain issues and systems rather than horse race coverage. So we came to each of these candidates with a few straightforward questions.

What makes you the right person for the job?

What are your top priorities to help working-class Virginians -- to get them a living wage and affordable healthcare?

How do you plan to win the election and then get things done once in office?

Lee Carter: My strategy is to walk the walk. Right? It's to say: "Forget about all the rhetoric, forget about everything that you've heard. I'm doing it the hard way. Because it needs to be done the hard way. It's the only way we're going to fix this." And that gets people out to vote.

NM: That’s State Delegate Lee Carter, who represents Virginia’s 50th district. We’ll hear more from him in the second half of the episode. And in our next episode, we plan to share our interviews with former governor Terry McAuliffe, state senator Jennifer McClellan, and Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax.

But to get the ball rolling today, we turn to Jennifer Carroll Foy. She’s a former state delegate who represented Virginia’s 2nd district before resigning last December to focus on her gubernatorial campaign. She spoke with Bold Dominion producer Dave Hunt. Here, she describes her background and what sets her apart from the rest of the field.

Jennifer Carroll Foy: I'm the best choice for Governor here in Virginia because I intimately understand the challenges that Virginia families face. Being born and raised in Petersburg, Virginia--Petersburg, having one of the highest child poverty rates, rates of unaccredited schools, and was named one of the most dangerous places to live per capita in all of Virginia. And that's where I'm from.

And being raised by my grandparents, especially my grandmother, Mary Lee, a Southern Christian woman who had me in church several days a week, who taught me the values that I hold true. That if I have it, I have to give it. And so I'll never forget watching her as she gave all that she had, even though we had very little to give. So I'll never forget sitting at my dining room table with my aunt, after my grandmother had a stroke and became a quadriplegic and having to decide if we're going to pay for our mortgage that month or for the medications keeping my grandmother alive.

And I like to say that is the moment when my journey for Governor began. The minute I realize is so many of our communities have been ignored, neglected and left behind. The wealthy and well connected have had a lot of representation in Richmond. But now it's time for a working mom to represent working families. A woman who has gone without health care, who's worked minimum-wage jobs, who understands the challenges that Virginia families face, and who's willing to bring bold transformational solutions to address them and move Virginia forward.

David Hunt: Today, I want to ask about economic issues for working people in Virginia. What pocketbook issues are your top priority?

JCF: So I'm excited to say that I am the first governmental candidate to put forth my jobs and economic development plan because I know how important it is to everyday Virginians at this moment, specifically. My top two issues are getting shots in arms and people in jobs and creating a successful post-COVID economy. And I do that by ensuring we make investments into our small businesses who are the economic engine of Virginia. So I'm excited to say I'll put $10 million into my Rebuild Virginia Small Business Grant, so businesses can have the resources in order to stay open and those who have closed can open their doors. Expanding the angel investor tax credit so we can get private seed money into businesses who have that entrepreneurial spirit and helping our veterans who also want to dab in innovative entrepreneurship. I'll put $5 million to the side for my MVP program--my Microloans for Veterans Program here in Virginia. While also shoring up the safety net so families can survive this economic and health crisis, by addressing the backlog in our Virginia unemployment insurance, also ensuring that we codify an eviction moratorium, because people can't shelter in place when they don't have shelter, and continuing the utility moratorium as well. So people's light and heat and water aren't cut off in the middle of this pandemic. My plan differs from everyone else, because not only will I ensure Virginia is the number one place to do business, but also the best place to live, work, and raise a family.

DH: As governor, how will you get quality affordable health care to all Virginians?

JCF: So I have seen so many people in my community who have had to cut up prescription pills, because that's all they could afford to do. And I've had those conversations about whether we're going to put a roof over our head or pay for medications, keeping our family member alive. And so I know that this is a serious issue that so many Virginians struggle with, and access to health care is a right and not a privilege.

So that's why I will fund our reinsurance program in Virginia, which will have the Commonwealth buy down the cost of premiums, making healthcare more affordable and accessible to more people. I will also have a Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board, whether your entire job is to negotiate down the cost of prescription drugs, where in some cases, it's gone up almost 200% in the last several years. and investing in mobile health clinics, until we can get an expansion of broadband in a real way, so we can have telemedicine and telehealth in every corner to corner throughout Virginia. So those are just some of my initiatives that I will do to ensure that everyone has access to affordable quality health care.

DH: And as governor, how will you ensure that all Virginians can earn a living wage?

JCF: So I'm excited to say that, you know, I have been fighting and put forth a bill to have a true $15 minimum wage tied to the index. So as wages go up--inflation goes up, wages go up. And that's what needs to happen. You know, I've worked minimum-wage jobs. And I know the struggle of trying to take care of yourself and a family on $7.25, which seems next to impossible. These poverty wages are holding so many Virginians back. We need to ensure that more people can reach the middle class and have an opportunity to not just survive, but to thrive. So implementing a true $15 minimum wage is what I will get done as Governor.

But also, it's about paid family medical leave. And it's also about paid sick days. These are also important job protections that we need for more of our frontline workers. Because while we're calling our frontline workers what they've always been--which is essential--when they look at their paycheck and their protections, it says that they're expendable. And that will end under a Jennifer Carroll Foy administration, because I will stand with working families every day.

DH: What political players use their power against these economic priorities? And how will you overcome that opposition?

JCF: So special interests do have a stronghold on Richmond that's been stifling progress. One of the reasons why we don't have more affordable prescription pills is because of the pharmaceutical industry. One of the reasons that there's been a lag from us moving quickly into a clean green energy future is because of the fossil fuel industry. And let's be clear, you know, we still have weapons of war on our streets here in Virginia, because of the stronghold that the NRA has been, you know, wielding down in Richmond.

And so that's why this election is so important. We need someone who's going to change the soft structures in Richmond and stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Virginia and not special interests. So unlike some of my opponents, I don't represent special interests, I stand up to them. And so I'm very clear about who I fight for and why I fight. And that's why this election is important, because we as Virginians need someone who will side with us, and not with the corporations who've padded people's pockets with millions and millions of dollars.

DH: So Terry McAuliffe is up in some early polls, and his campaign, of course, has a pile of money. How will you win this election?

JCF: So I'm excited to say that elections aren't about who can raise the most money; it's about who can get the most votes. And so we will win this election by out-organizing, out-mobilizing, and out-inspiring our opponents. Because it's very clear: there's one person in this race that people see themselves in and who they know will do the right thing when they're in a position of power and will not turn their back on working families. Who has a record of getting things done and delivering results for working families. A person who has dedicated her entire life to public service. And that's me. As a former public defender, foster mom, community organizer, legislator, and now candidate running for Governor, I've dedicated my entire life to fighting for people who can't fight for themselves. And Virginians are ready for change.

And we don't get changed by recycling the same old policies and politicians of the past. We get change by electing a new leader with a clear vision and bold transformational ideas on how to move Virginia forward. So polls change day-to-day. But I can tell you that the polling and the endorsements and the voices that matter are those of Virginia voters. And that's why I'm excited to share my positive vision for Virginia, have these community conversations, run the most aggressive field campaign Virginia has ever seen, and build the most diverse coalition of supporters in Virginia's history. And that is how we are going to bring home the win on June 8. So please join me.

Nathan Moore 

Jennifer Carroll Foy is a former state delegate running for the Office of Governor here in Virginia. Stay with us…in the second half of this episode, we talked with Lee Carter, who represents Virginia's 50th district, and is also running for governor.

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You’re listening to Bold Dominion, a state politics explainer for a changing Virginia. Visit us online at BoldDominion.org. Have a friend who’s trying to figure out Virginia state politics? Tell them about this show. And then subscribe in Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever fine podcasts are served up. And while you’re there, why not leave a five-star review? 

Bold Dominion is a member of the Virginia Audio Collective, online at VirginiaAudio.org. I highly recommend checking out all the podcasts from the Collective, and usually I would plug one right now. But I also want to give a plug for Transition Virginia. It’s not one of the podcasts in the Virginia Audio Collective. But hosts Michael Pope and Thomas Bowman are friends of Bold Dominion. And they recently broke down all the Democratic candidates running for Lieutenant Governor in Virginia. Find it online at TransitionVA.com.

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Well, next up on our interviews with the Democratic candidates for governor, we've got Lee Carter. He represents Virginia's 50th District, which includes Prince William County, and the Manassas area. Bold Dominion producer Aaryan Balu spoke with Lee.

LC: The thing that I want people to understand about me is I don't come from a typical background for a politician. I'm not a lawyer, I'm not wealthy. I am an enlisted Marine Corps veteran and an electronics repairman. And I got involved in politics because I got hurt at work in the summer of 2015. And I had to deal with the worker's comp system and it was just so abysmal that I said, you know, "someone needs to fix this." So I started going around to people that I knew that worked in and around politics and saying: "What are you going to do to fix workers comp?" and nobody had an answer. And I realized that if it was going to get fixed, it was going to have to be by someone who has actually been through it.

I decided to run for office, and I took on a fight that the Democratic Party said was impossible. I challenged a member of Republican Party leadership, an 11-year incumbent in a district that was gerrymandered specifically for him by the Republicans back in 2011. And we turn that from a district that was unwinnable for Democrats to one that is now sort of a bastion of progressive politics. And we did that by creating a multi-racial working-class coalition of people to go out and talk to folks who had never voted in a General Assembly race before.

So I'm taking that same exact strategy to my campaign for Governor and continuing this fight to make things better for working people in the Commonwealth both inside and out of the workplace.

Aaryan Balu: What is it that makes you a better choice for governor than the other Democratic candidates in the field?

LC: The thing that sets me apart from the rest of the field is, you know, there has never been a statewide campaign that's been run truly with clean money from top to bottom. Where the candidate has never accepted a single dime from any for-profit corporation or industry interest group.

I'm the only one in this race--in this Democratic primary--that can say I've never taken a single dime from fossil fuel companies. The other four have. I'm the only one that can say I've never taken a single dime from the big banks. The other four have. I'm the only one who can say I've never taken money from organized police. The other four have. And the reason that that's important is it gives me the flexibility to go out there and actually talk about the issues and the real root causes of the issues that are impacting people's lives and not just throw out sort of superficial talking points, but actually dive into--you know, take for example, housing. All the other candidates will say: "I have a housing plan and it relies on increasing spending in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund." I'm not talking about the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, because the last four years in the General Assembly has taught me the Affordable Housing Trust Fund doesn't actually work. Right? It relies on a fundamentally flawed assumption, which is that you can subsidize landlords enough to fix the problem of unaffordable housing, which is one that's being caused by corporate landlords.

And so I'm able, because I'm not taking money from the corporate landlords, I'm not taking money from real estate developers, I'm actually able to say, you know, we don't have a housing supply issue in this Commonwealth, we actually have more empty houses than homeless people. The problem is that we have such landlord-friendly laws. And we have such a weak public housing system, that essentially most of the value of housing that goes into the price is based on the ability to speculate on it--to use that property to make money, rather than to put a roof over someone's head. And so I'm fighting for statewide rent control. I'm fighting for good-cause eviction laws and cooperative ownership of multifamily units, right? So instead of a big company like Bainbridge or Capri owning your building, it could be you and the 99 other tenants. I'm fighting for a public option for housing, where local governments can own and operate residential housing units and rent them out at below-market rates, which gives people a cheaper place to live and gives an income stream to the locality as an incentive for them to do it. All the while driving the average price of housing way down.

So I'm able to talk about all of these solutions that no one else is discussing, because I've never taken money from that industry.

AB: What are the pocketbook issues in addition to housing that are your top priorities?

LC: So number one is changing our economic development model. For the last several decades, we spent tens of millions or hundreds of millions every year to try to bribe these massive corporations into coming to Virginia and pretty please giving us some jobs.

The biggest example of that is the Amazon deal from a few years ago with HQ2 where we created a quote unquote "incentive package" of $1.8 billion worth of cash and tax breaks, and infrastructure upgrades, specifically for the benefit of Amazon. And Amazon is a corporation that does not give back, you know, it's infamous for not paying its taxes. And here we are giving almost $2 billion to them, all on the promise of 30,000 new jobs in Northern Virginia.

But Northern Virginia doesn't have a joblessness crisis. Northern Virginia has a problem that it's too expensive to live here. And so instead of fixing the problem, right, instead of making anybody's life actually better, what this deal ends up doing is giving Amazon an incentive to transfer people in who already work for them and move them all into Northern Virginia to compete for the same exact housing stock that we're already struggling to afford.

We've got to stop doing that. Instead of using that money to try to bribe these corporations to come in here and fix the problem for us, we've got to do the hard work of fixing the problem ourselves. So we've got to take that money that we've been using to subsidize these corporations, put it directly into the hands of working Virginians, and say: "This is the money that you need to start your own employee on business." Right, we've got to build an employee sector of Virginia's economy, because when you have employee ownership, you have the completely different incentives for making business decisions. Right, when the next crisis hits, instead of the company, just laying off thousands of people and saying: "good luck, you're on your own, because we have to protect our profit margin," well, the people who are making the decision in that workplace are the people who would be laid off, so they're never going to vote to do that to themselves. Everybody's going to take a little bit of a hit, and everybody's going to get through it together.

Because by moving ownership into the hands of the people who do the work every day, you have all sorts of incentives for better business practices, you build in much, much more resiliency into the economy. And you don't end up with this outrageous concentration of wealth and power into the hands of a small handful of billionaires like you do with the conventional model.

AB: On a kind of tactical level, if in office, how are you going to get that done?

LC: Well, I've already started from my spot in the House of Delegates. So last year, the 2020 session, I passed a bill, it was HB55, which actually legally recognized worker cooperatives as a type of business here in Virginia. And the one thing that I've noticed is that with members of the General Assembly in particular, as long as you frame it as: "this is good for business," they love it. They don't ask questions. To the point where, you know, we actually had a Republican senator putting in a bill this year that would have made it easier for cooperatively-owned businesses to qualify for state and local government contracts. It didn't get through committee in the House side, but it passed the Senate...it was like something like 35-2. I mean, it was it was very, very uncontroversial, even though it is this sort of radical shift in economic and political power away from the donor class and towards everyday people here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. But because it's in this language of business, you know, a lot of members of the General Assembly just say: "Oh, well, okay, it's good for business, it makes sense."

And so you know, that's, that's really how I'm gonna get this done. I'm gonna use the power of the veto, particularly the line-item veto in the budget. And I'm going to say, here's your non-controversial alternative. We're going to funnel this money into small community-owned businesses here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

It's actually fairly easy to get through the General Assembly, so long as you have that veto authority from the Governor's mansion to say: "The current system will no longer work. I will not allow it to continue working. And by the way, here's the alternative that you've already proven that you like."

AB: How do you plan to ensure Virginians get a living wage?

LC: You know, first of all, we need to understand that "Fight for 15"--you know, the slogan that everyone talks about when we talk about the minimum wage--Fight for 15 actually started 12 years ago now, in 2009. Inflation has eaten away 20% of that already. So if we want to achieve the goals of the Fight for 15, the original goals of the Fight for 15. It's not about $15 anymore, right? It's about what $15 would have bought back in 2009. So you do the inflation calculations, it's $18 and some change now.

You know, you look at the comparison between me and the rest of the field on that...not only am I the only one who is acknowledging that the number needs to be higher now. But we need to get there faster. And, you know, frankly, half the field voted to delay a minimum wage increase back during the 2020 Special Session, right? The Governor sent down some amendments to the minimum wage bill that delayed the first increase from $7.25 to $9.50, I believe it was, from January 1 enactment to May 1 enactment. And so we could have already had a higher-than-the-federal-amount minimum wage right now. But we don't because Governor Northam used the power of the executive to send that amendment down, and essentially put the General Assembly in an untenable position--where we could either vote to delay it, or vote to kill it.

And so yeah, I just straight up refused to vote. And I called it out. I said: "I'm not playing this game. The people of Virginia need this wage increase, and we need it right now." That's really one of the fundamental differences between me and the rest of the field is I'm actually willing to call out this kind of malfeasance coming from other Democrats.

AB: Another big issue right now: we are currently living in a pandemic. As Governor, how would you plan to get quality affordable healthcare to all Virginians?

LC: So that's another big difference between me and the rest of the field. I'm not talking about affordability, I'm not talking about access, I'm talking about healthcare. Period. Sort of a real guarantee that when you need to see a doctor, you can see a doctor.

Now Virginia is, per capita, the home to the most active-duty military and veterans of any state in America. And the military is used to a single-payer healthcare system. We call it TRICARE. And so if there's any state in America, where people are already accustomed to thinking about healthcare that way, it's right here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And the way it works, you know, the way it worked when I was on active duty, when I was a kid when my dad was on active duty was when you need something from a doctor, you just go to medical, and you get treated. And you know, everything is handled on the backend by the government. The billing, you know, the logistics, it's all handled without your involvement. As a patient, you don't have to worry about a bill, you don't have to worry about going bankrupt. The only thing you have to worry about is getting better.

So obviously, I would prefer for the federal government to implement Medicare for All. I think that would be the best. ~70% of Americans favorite. But there's absolutely no reason why Virginia can't lead the way on that. And other countries with similar sizes, similar economies to the Commonwealth of Virginia already have this. The example that I like to use is Austria: we have about eight and a half million people, they have about eight and a half million people. Their GDP is roughly the same as ours. Their universal health care system is the most expensive in Europe, right? The rest of Europe laughs about how expensive Austria's system is, and it's still 30% cheaper than our system. And theirs covers everybody. Ours leaves half a million Virginians with no health insurance whatsoever. And upwards of a million Virginians who have health insurance and can't afford to use.

Our system is built upon this idea that private corporations will somehow eventually cover everybody. Right? If we offer them enough subsidies, if we create enough rules, they will cover everybody. But they won't. It's not profitable to cover everybody. The only way to cover everybody is to just do it. Like almost every other country in the developed world has.

And so as Governor, I will fight to create the universal health care system here at the state level, that will save at least 30% on total health care spending, that will cover everybody, and that will make Virginia the first place in the nation where everyone who needs to see a doctor can see a doctor.

AB: Talking campaign strategy: Terry McAuliffe is currently up in the polls, his campaign has a boatload of money. How do you plan to win this race?

LC: Well, Terry McAuliffe has universal name recognition and still can't break 35%. So he's a frontrunner, just by virtue of the fact that he's a former Governor. But he's an incredibly weak one. But he does have the most money and he will have the most money because he doesn't have any kind of compunction about taking that dirty money, right? He takes hundreds of thousands of dollars from fossil fuel corporations, from the big banks, you know, all these bad actors that we've been fighting against for years and years and years. And so instead of trying to get into an arms race with him, like the rest of the candidates are, I'm just focusing on getting enough resources to get my message out there, and actually walking the walk.

And, you know, it's the exact same strategy that I've used in my house campaigns. You know, I'm talking about issues in a fundamentally different way, in a way that is exciting for people who have checked out from Virginia politics, because they didn't think that something better was possible. And I'm able to tie everything back to the money, right? I'm able to say: "I'm going to fight to lower your housing costs and you know I'm going to do it because I'm not taking money from your landlord. I'm going to fight to provide you with health care and you know I'm going to do it because I'm not taking money from the insurance companies. I'm going to fight to get us to zero carbon in our economy and you know I'm going to do it because I'm not taking money from the fossil fuel corporations."

So my strategy is to walk the walk, right? It's to say: "Forget about all the rhetoric, forget about everything that you've heard. I'm doing it the hard way. Because it needs to be done the hard way. It's the only way we're going to fix this." And that gets people out to vote.

You know, in 2017, Jackson Miller, my Republican predecessor, got more votes than he has ever gotten before. And he still lost by almost 10% because I got thousands of voters who had never voted in a General Assembly race to turn up. We're going to do the same exact thing. We're going to do it everywhere.

NM: Lee Carter represents Virginia’s 50th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. Thanks to him, and to Jennifer Carroll Foy, for joining us to talk about their campaigns for governor. 

Be sure to subscribe to Bold Dominion -- in our next episode, we plan to share our interviews with former governor Terry McAuliffe, state senator Jennifer McClellan, and Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax.

My name’s Nathan Moore, and I’m the host of Bold Dominion. Big thanks as always to our producer Aaryan Balu. And thanks also to our assistant producers, Rachel Liesendahl and David Hunt. Find this show online at BoldDominion.org. Really… go ahead and subscribe… it’s just a click away.

And hey! We’re always on the lookout for topics for future episodes. Send your ideas to our email address – BoldDominion@virginia.edu. That’s BoldDominion@virginia.edu. Or direct message us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. 

Hope you can get vaccinated soon, y’all. And I’ll talk with you again in two weeks!