Brown: Davis Clear Winner of Virginia Beach Candidate Forum
by Pamela Brown
As a past Norfolk Republican Party Chairman and Virginia Federation of Republican Women State Central Member, I’ve seen more than my share of candidate debates. I’ve seen candidates shine and others fade, and most of them try to put their best foot forward when talking about their performance. But there’s positive spin and then there’s just saying things that didn’t happen.
It seems more like fake news than a press release to read emails from Senator Jill Vogel claiming how enthusiastic the crowd was for her Virginia Beach debate performance. While she had some “vocal” supporters there, she did not have the commanding presence on site Glenn Davis had.
Virginia Beach is hometown territory for Delegate Glenn Davis, and he controlled the room from the outset. Supporters held up Glenn Davis paddle signs throughout the auditorium. The cheers and applause for Glenn Davis’ answers throughout the debate were by far the loudest and most energetic. All you had to do was watch all the paddles fly up.
Davis presented far more depth and substance to the debate than his opponents, stayed on message, and delivered a true energy to the race. Davis was the only candidate with real enthusiasm and strength in his message. I was convinced that he is truly engaged in making Virginia #1 for jobs again, and he presented real substance.
His answer to reforming the tax code, for example, illustrated this. Virginia double-taxes many companies, thus the corporate tax rate is in double digits and will remain so, even if it gets cut. He has a plan similar to Vice President Mike Pence’s to reform Medicaid and transfer people to private insurance, lowering the cost of Medicaid for the first time this century.
Glenn Davis is the jobs candidate, with over 30 bills focused to cut regulations, taxes and obstacles to Virginia job creation. Glenn Davis proved to me that he understands the true path to reviving Virginia’s economic engine.
On every single issue, Davis delivered a more substantive response. At every single turn, Davis had the audience. At no moment did the other two candidates come anywhere close to Davis’ performance.
In my opinion, this is the business leader we need on our ticket. Period.
Most telling was the moment when Vogel gave an answer that couldn’t have been longer than ten seconds, handed the microphone to Sen. Reeves, and after he answered the question, Vogel took the mike again to give another answer to the question, out of turn, since she said she had more time left. Really?
Senator Reeve’s presence was somewhat lackluster, and he seemed to have the least amount of support in the room. When asked a question about Virginia Beach, he talked about Fredericksburg.
From my perspective, and I believe the objective observer in the room, Glenn Davis clearly won the debate. It’s almost absurd that anyone could say any different.
Pamela Brown is the former Chairman of the Norfolk Republican Committee, a former member of the Republican Party of Virginia State Central Committee and a former Bearing Drift contributor.
