Vote Luria

Rep. Elaine Luria is smart, fair-minded and someone you would like as a next-door neighbor. She has been criticized because she votes with her Democratic leadership more than 90% of the time, but this is a red herring because virtually all representatives vote with their party’s leadership more than 90% of the time. Only 13 out of 211 House Republicans voted last year for the infrastructure bill and were vilified within their own party, apparently because repairing the nation’s dilapidated bridges is not desirable if President Joe Biden gets the credit.

Therefore, in November’s congressional election a prime consideration as to who should cast the 2nd District’s vote in the House of Representatives is whether he or she aligns with Democratic or Republican party leadership.

Today’s Republican Party believes with zero evidence that the last presidential election was stolen; is working to steal the next one; rationalizes storming the Capitol Building as “legitimate political discourse”; encourages the unmoored, conspiracy-mongering QAnon; and in some circles still embraces the murderous and kleptocratic Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The party has also ginned up false wedge issues such as voter fraud, critical race theory in K-12 classrooms, and gay and lesbian adults “grooming” children, while refusing to acknowledge real concerns like the devastation we face from a warming planet.

Electing a Republican to Virginia’s 2nd District may give control of Congress to a party that is anti-democratic, wastes our mental energy with imagined issues, and does not address real ones. This November, vote for Rep. Elaine Luria.

— David Meyerholz, Virginia Beach