I’ve written a lot about Goldman v. Brink [1], the long-running lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Virginia’s 2021 House of Delegates elections. The lawsuit, filed back in June by my former Post writing partner Paul Goldman, poses fundamental questions about the rule of law and supposedly inviolable one-man one-vote principle.
But it’s critical to remember that for all the legal issues and questions of principle surrounding this case, politics is at its core. And on that issue, William Ferguson Reid Sr. [2] — “Fergie,” he insists — believes Virginia Democrats are missing an enormous opportunity to build their party and stand up for voting rights.
The 97 year-old Reid, who co-founded the Richmond Crusade for Voters [3] in 1956 and in 1968 became the first [4] Black member of the Virginia General Assembly in the 20th century, told me Democrats have to “seize this moment.”
Reid said, “It’s in Democrats’ interest to run this year, but they just don’t want to see it.”
Speaking with the zeal and determination of a lifelong grass-roots campaigner, Reid said the congressional midterm elections mean “there will be a lot of money available for candidates, and much better voter turnout.” Reid believes House of Delegates candidates could “ride the coattails” of their congressional counterparts on Election Day and retake the majority they lost following the November elections.
Asked why they haven’t seized this opportunity, Reid said he believes it’s because Virginia Democrats are “happy with the status quo.”
That doesn’t mean they like being in the House minority. But getting involved in the Goldman v. Brink case and actively pushing for the court to use the Cosner v. Dalton [5] solution to fix the problem of facially unconstitutional House of Delegates districts requires both a long-term plan and the will to carry it out.
Reid says Democrats don’t have either.
“They don’t have a plan for getting out the vote if an election does happen,” Reid said, noting that “most politicians take elections for granted and don’t want to do the gut work of getting people organized and getting them to the polls.”