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Richmond-area voters cast their ballots in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary.
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First Lady Pamela Northam and Governor Ralph Northam wait in line to cast their ballots at the Richmond Library branch on East Frankin Street.
With a general election looming, Richmond area voters casting their ballots in today's Democratic presidential primary were laser-focused on unseating President Donald Trump this November.
Dubbed “Super Tuesday” because Virginia and 13 other states all hold primary elections on the same day, the election is one of the largest hurdles so far for the five candidates still vying for the Democratic nomination. They are: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; former Vice President Joe Biden; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg also were expected to be in the running, but backed out of the race earlier this week to throw their support behind Biden. Patricia Stauffer, 63, a self-described avid newswatcher, said their endorsements ultimately were the deciding factor in her vote for Biden, though she was undecided until she approached the door to her polling location at Woodland Heights Baptist Church.
“We have to get Trump out of office,” she said. “He doesn’t regard the presidency as a service role, it’s an authoritarian role (for him), and that’s not what this country was built on nor should it strive to do that. If he’s reelected, I don’t even want to imagine what’s next.”
Meghan Lamberta, meanwhile, left the polling place sporting a T-shirt that said “Families Belong Together,” and said Sanders’ stance against separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border resonates with her as a clinical social worker.
“I just believe that what’s happening is awful in regards to families being separated,” she said. “I think it has such a negative impact on people and kids, and I think it’s just absolutely insane that’s... happening in the here and now.”
Woodland Heights: Voters cast their ballots at Woodland Heights Baptist Church along West 31st Street.
The Democratic primary drew plenty of interest, with the Virginia Public Access Project reporting that 54,653 Virginians cast their votes ahead of the election, far outpacing the 26,046 absentee ballots cast in the 2016 presidential primary election.
Nearly 300 voters cast their ballots at Henrico County’s Charles M Johnson Elementary School as of 10:45 a.m., chief election officer Robin Lee said. Retirees Anita McCarty, 79, and Dathel Moore, 85, carpooled to the polling location and said they both supported Biden’s more moderate outlook.
“We can’t have Medicare for all, we can’t afford Medicare for all, but we can have a good health plan, that’s my reason. I have a daughter that has an incurable disease, and Trump has taken away all of the Medicare for her,” Moore said about her daughter, who lives with metastatic breast cancer and relies on assistance from the American Cancer Society to pay for medication.
Meanwhile in Chesterfield, small business owner Rashad Mitchell said he was originally attracted to Biden’s history serving alongside President Barack Obama, but ultimately threw his support behind Sanders.
Shortly after polls opened at 6 a.m., voters began trickling into the main Richmond Public Library branch on East Franklin Street, one of the city’s busiest polling locations. David Cox, 31, said he woke up early to cast his vote before heading to work, and although he originally supported Warren, Cox said he ultimately was swayed by Sanders’ more progressive message.
“[Warren] didn’t look like she had a path to viability, so [Sanders] is the next person that I thought more closely aligned with her views, and considering the remaining candidates, he’s the one that was most attractive to me,” he says.
Alexander Michael Godschalk, meanwhile, voted for Warren and thinks the Massachusetts senator would pummel Trump on a debate stage. “I know she’s not one of the frontrunners, but I really support her and I think the fact that she has a plan for everything and she just seems that she’d be the most competent can-do president,” he said.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney voted for former Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday, and said he was drawn to Biden’s empathy “for the most vulnerable.”
Also casting their ballots at the city library were Gov. Ralph Northam, first lady Pamela Northam and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney. Stoney, who stumped for Biden alongside former Gov. Terry McAulliffe at a Norfolk rally last weekend, said after casting his ballot that he believes the former vice president’s decisive victory in the South Carolina primaries will propel him to further victory in Virginia.
“Vice President Biden has had a great impact on the African American community with his work with President Obama over the last eight years, so I think a lot of African Americans in our state and also across the south will remember that, and he will do well this Super Tuesday,” Stoney said.
