January 2022 Chairman’s Notes

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
– Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States

Persistence is our task for 2022. We won three great statewide victories for Virginia in 2021. We won most of our local and state elections and look forward to great things from our representatives. Now we need to persist – by increasing our outreach into the community, by supporting our elected Republicans at every level, by making our political opponents feel the heat of our presence, and by ensuring a win in our new Congressional District, Virginia’s 7th, against incumbent Abigail Spanberger. We must work harder, work smarter, and work harder than our opponents. We must be determined to win and fight every step of the way. Only then can we achieve victory.

TARA DURANT SWEARING IN CEREMONY

Delegate-elect Tara Durant has invited us to participate at her Swearing In Ceremony in Richmond at 1:30pm on Saturday, January 22. The ceremony will take place at the Virginia State Capital at 1000 Bank Street in Richmond. To RSVP, or for more information, visit the TaraDurant.com website.

REDISTRICTING IS FINAL
The Virginia Supreme Court made a final decision on new elections districts for the U.S. House of Representatives, the State Senate, and the House of Delegates. Stafford County will be entirely located within the 7th Congressional District. This district is designed to be the median district in the Commonwealth, which means it will be a hard-fought election and could easily swing either way. We need to work hard – our persistence will make the difference. This election should be the only one on our ballot in November (unless the courts do something strange regarding Delegate districts). We can concentrate our efforts, once we have our nominee. There will be plenty of candidates looking for the nomination. Pick the candidate you believe will be the best to represent us in Washington DC and work hard for them, but once we have our nominee, we need to join together to win in November.

JANUARY MEETING
For our January 2022 meeting, we will be trying something new – a hybrid meeting. Several members expressed a reluctance to come to an in-person meeting due to the unprecedented number of COVID cases in the area. We will have an in-person meeting and have a zoom link for those wishing to join electronically.

The meeting will be held in person on Monday, January 10th at 7pm at the Highmark Brewery, 390 Kings Hwy and electronically on Zoom at the link at the very end of this message.

Due to the nature of this hybrid structure (and my uncertainty as to whether or not it will fully work as intended), this will be an unofficial meeting, which means nobody will be penalized (in our 3 consecutive strikes rule) for missing the meeting. That also means that any decisions will have to be reaffirmed at a later meeting or, for time-sensitive items, by the Executive Committee. But it is critical that we build our momentum, and continue to engage.

We have important work that needs to be done. At this meeting, we will discuss and request a vote on:
1. The details of the call for the Stafford GOP organizational mass meeting.
2. The details for the 7th Congressional District convention.
3. The 7th Congressional District method of nomination.
4. A proposed amendment to the Stafford GOP bylaws.
5. The Lincoln-Douglass-Reagan Dinner.
6. Other items of critical importance.

We’ll discuss redistricting, we’ll hear from 7th District Congressional candidates, we’ll have updates on some of our other recent activities, and more.

As we look at Virginia, we see such promise, such hope for the future. We are responsible for building that future. We are responsible for ensuring that our elected boards and legislatures do the jobs we elected them to do – not doing some other job they’re influenced into doing. We all have our lives – our work, our family, our church, our other organizations –  and we need to continue to embrace them and give them what they deserve. But our work together in the GOP informs and improves all of those other areas. And when we fail to do it, we risk every other area of our lives. Persistence is our path forward.

In Freedom,
Tony DeTora
Chairman