美国国家公共电台 NPR Shut Out Of Power In D.C., Democrats Try To Make Inroads In Virginia This Fall

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Although Republicans hold a big majority in Virginia's legislature, Hillary Clinton won the state last year. Now Democrats² hope to use President Trump³'s unpopularity to gain ground in the Commonwealth⁴. Virginia is just one of two states holding statewide elections this fall, and local Democrats are trying to prove they can channel national energy into state elections. Mallory Noe-Payne of member station WVTF reports.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: Hey, how's it going? Hey. My name's Schuyler VanValkenburg. How are you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I'm good. How are you?

VANVALKENBURG: I'm running for the House of Delegates this upcoming November.

MALLORY NOE-PAYNE, BYLINE⁵: VanValkenburg is the first Democratic candidate vying⁶ for the state's 72nd district outside of Richmond in a decade.

DIANE ROBINSON: Take care, and good luck to you.

VANVALKENBURG: Thank you. I appreciate it.

ROBINSON: I'm going to go on your website and check you out, buddy⁷.

NOE-PAYNE: Voter Diane Robinson has lived here for years. But between raising three kids and working, she hasn't had time for local politics. She didn't even know her state delegate was a Republican. She says that might have been different if a Democrat¹ had come knocking earlier.

ROBINSON: But it's been 10 years. I feel like the wool's been pulled over my eyes. So maybe we need them to come over here and see what they can do instead of throwing the towel in because that's not giving me or any other Democrat a chance to vote.

NOE-PAYNE: So that's what VanVolkenburg is trying to do. He's never run for office before. He teaches high-school students government and history at a nearby public school.

VANVALKENBURG: I literally⁸ teach them, like, democratic citizenship⁹ and how to be a democratic citizen. That's, like, my day to day life, is doing that. And so I had never thought I'd run. But after November, it just seemed like the right thing to do and hopefully bring good to a community.

NOE-PAYNE: Across the state, Democrats are now fielding candidates like VanValkenburg in districts they weren't contesting. Thomas Bowman is a legislative¹⁰ aide for a state delegate. He ran the numbers and found that by just putting a Democrat on the ballot¹¹, the party could win as many as 4,000 more votes per district, half of whom used to vote Republican.

THOMAS BOWMAN: Because if you don't have a candidate representing your party, you can't have a dialogue, and you're telling that whole area that you don't care about them.

NOE-PAYNE: So last October, Bowman co-founded a political action committee that will offer money and expertise¹² and make it easier for new candidates to run for office. Since President Trump's victory, Democrats have had no trouble recruiting those candidates. Last election, only 39 of the 100 state legislative seats were contested. This year, 67 are.

But Virginia's Republican Party Chair John Whitbeck isn't worried. He says Trump hate alone isn't enough to appeal to moderate voters.

JOHN WHITBECK: You can have a, you know, county supervisor¹³ in a Hillary Clinton-district that wins as a Republican because they're talking about the issues that matter to those voters.

NOE-PAYNE: And Democrat Schuyler VanValkenburg actually agrees. Knocking doors, he says getting voters to the polls rests on him, not Donald Trump.

VANVALKENBURG: It's actually very rare that I hear about Donald Trump, which I actually think is nice. (Laughter). You know, I think that speaks to voters' sense of, you know, that's not what it's about. It's about this race, it's about the local community, and I think everybody realizes that you have to be looking forward.

NOE-PAYNE: Voters here will also be electing a new governor this fall, a race Democrats are cautiously optimistic about. But long term, Democrats say winning local races like this one is key to rebuilding their party. For NPR News I'm Mallory Noe-Payne in Richmond.

1 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 vying   

adj.竞争的；比赛的

参考例句：

• California is vying with other states to capture a piece of the growing communications market.为了在日渐扩大的通讯市场分得一杯羹，加利福尼亚正在和其他州展开竞争。
• Four rescue plans are vying to save the zoo.4个拯救动物园的方案正争得不可开交。

7 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

10 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

11 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

12 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

13 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。