Terry McAuliffe, the main candidate on this yr’s Democratic main for Virginia governor, confronted a flurry of assaults from his rivals at a debate on Tuesday night time as they aimed to decrease his broad help from Black voters. In essentially the most extraordinary broadside, the state’s Black lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, accused Mr. McAuliffe of treating him like George Floyd or Emmett Until after Mr. Fairfax was accused of sexual assault by two girls in 2019.
Mr. McAuliffe, a white former governor of the state who has the backing of most of the state’s prime Black elected officers, issued a public name that yr for Mr. Fairfax to resign.
Mr. Fairfax’s remarks on Tuesday — wherein he in contrast himself to 2 Black folks killed in episodes of white violence — had been essentially the most pointed try by one of many three Black candidates within the race to attract a racial distinction between them and Mr. McAuliffe, who’s aiming to reclaim the workplace he held from 2014 to 2018.
The accusation got here on the finish of the talk, the primary for the 5 Virginia Democrats working for governor. Responding to a query asking the candidates to check the way forward for legislation enforcement in Virginia, Mr. Fairfax stated theoretical descriptions had been pointless as a result of he was a dwelling embodiment of the hurt that false accusations and a rush to judgment can produce.
“Everybody right here on this stage referred to as for my instant resignation, together with Terry McAuliffe three minutes after a press launch got here out,” Mr. Fairfax stated. “He handled me like George Floyd, he handled me like Emmett Until, no due course of, instantly assumed my guilt. I’ve a son and I’ve a daughter, and I don’t need my daughter to be assaulted, I don’t need my son to be falsely accused. And that is the actual world that we dwell in. And so we have to communicate fact to energy and we must be very clear about how that impacts folks’s lives.”
Mr. McAuliffe didn’t reply to Mr. Fairfax on the talk stage. His spokesman declined to handle the remarks.
In February 2019, amid a concurrent scandal involving a medical faculty yearbook {photograph} of Gov. Ralph Northam in blackface, two girls accused Mr. Fairfax of sexually assaulting them in separate episodes — allegations that Mr. Fairfax has at all times denied. Mr. Fairfax confronted a torrent of requires his resignation. Weeks later, in a speech on the ground of the Virginia Senate, he in contrast himself to lynching victims.
Mr. Fairfax was not the one candidate on Tuesday night time to attempt to cleave Black voters from Mr. McAuliffe. The scant public polling of the race has discovered Mr. McAuliffe holding sizable leads over his 4 opponents, and no survey has proven him with lower than a two-to-one benefit over his closest rival.
Jennifer McClellan, a state senator who’s working for governor, accused Mr. McAuliffe of underfunding the state’s parole system, chopping offers with the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation throughout his time period as governor and being a late advocate for racial justice.
“Racial justice is about greater than prison justice reform,” stated Ms. McClellan, who’s Black. “It’s embedded in each system we have now in authorities, and I didn’t want George Floyd’s homicide or the Unite the Proper rally to show me that.”
Mr. McAuliffe, throughout his turns to talk, emphasised his relationships with Mr. Northam and President Biden, two Democrats who each owe their places of work to sturdy relationships with and help from Black voters. He highlighted his transfer to revive the voting rights of 206,000 felons within the state and stated each police officer within the state ought to put on a physique digicam “so we will see what’s occurring.”
“Thank goodness we had all these people there who had these cellphones when George Floyd was murdered,” he stated.
Mr. McAuliffe barely talked about his rivals through the debate, besides to remind the viewers that Ms. McClellan was a frequent accomplice of his when he was governor. However Mr. Fairfax, by the talk’s finish, sought to outline himself because the chief rival to the loquacious former governor.
“There seems to be two units of guidelines up right here, one the place the governor can speak so long as he needs to and do no matter he needs, and one for everyone else,” Mr. Fairfax stated. “I feel that’s a part of the difficulty, that we do have so many disparities in our society.”
