We are Americans!

 Check out and share this beautiful video about the history of America who Americans are: 

https://youtu.be/N0gg40cb9Mc

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next speakers at the hdc meeting:

Matt Rowe and Abigail Spanberger

Next meeting: Saturday, August 11

 Abigail Spanberger

Matt Rowe

Star-Studded Lineup

Don’t miss our star-studded lineup at the next monthly meeting of the Hanover Democratic Committee on Saturday, August 11 at 10 a.m. at Ashland Coffee & Tea. Seventh Congressional District Candidate Abigail Spanberger and the Chair of the First Congressional District Chair Matt Rowe will be our guest speakers, giving us an overview of the Midterm Elections. In addition, there will be updates from the Tim Kaine campaign and from the Vangie Williams Congressional Campaign.

Remember, it was not too long ago that Hanover was included in the 7th District until a court-ordered redistricting moved Hanover to the First Congressional District. Many of us still remember Dave Brat's win in 2014, and we are rooting for Spanberger to take Brat’s seat. Spanberger has gotten national publicity as being a likely upset race in Virginia!

Rowe, who ran for the First Congressional District Seat in 2016, and now chairs the overarching First Congressional District, will give an overview of the race, as we are all working hard for Vangie Williams’ election in the First District. Matt, who has served on the Bowling Green Town Council, was a former chair of the Caroline Democratic Committee, and has been involved in local campaigns for years, will have a great overview of how this year's Midterm Election is different from other years.

This will be an exciting meeting. Don't miss it. As always the coffee is on us.

YES, WE ARE MEETING AT ASHLAND COFFEE & TEA!

Never mind the notices that Ashland Coffee & Tea is closing during renovations. Owners Kate and Mike Hawks will keep it open for our Saturday meetings throughout the renovation. We are very grateful. Be sure to stop by Ashland Coffee & Tea for lunch whenever we can. The menu is delicious, and changes to the facility are exciting!

Special Free Drawing

Don’t miss our special free drawing. You have to be present to win!

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 Coffee is brewing!

Wednesday, August 22 at 10 a.m.

At the home of

Jane Lux

12253 Silverstone Drive

Mechanicsville  23116

All Democratic Women are Welcome! 

Please join us for our August Coffee, a morning get together this month,  at 10 am on Wednesday, August 22, at the home of Jane Lux at 11253 Silverstone Drive, Mechanicsville, 23116.  All Democratic women are invited to come for great fellowship and spirited conversation with like-minded women from all over Hanover.

For those who don't know, we are a growing group of Democratic women of all ages who meet monthly, sometimes in the day and sometimes in the evening, at the homes of volunteer hostesses at different locations around the county. Our goal is to enable as many women as possible to get to know one another so that we can better work together.  We have no formal memberships or dues.

For more information or to RSVP, please contact Diane Neergaard at daneergaard@comcast.net, or 804-304-1951.

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Men's Forum

At the home of

Rick Lux

11253 Silverstone Drive, Mechanicsville  23116

Wednesday,  August 22 at 7 p.m.

The next monthly gathering of the Hanover Democratic Men's Forum will be held on Wednesday, August 22 at 7:00 pm at the home of Rick Lux, 11253 Silverstone Drive, Mechanicsville 23116.  These Democratic Men's Forums provide an opportunity for Hanover Democratic men to meet, socialize, talk politics and hear interesting speakers.  The host and Chair of these Democratic Men's Forums, Nelson Vaughan, says hors d'oevres will be served.

This month's speaker will be Ola Hawkins a member of the Hanover County School Board.  Ms. Hawkins is a native of Richmond, attended college in New York and Virginia and is, I believe the only member of the school board with any hands-on educational experience.  Come and learn how our children and grandchildren are being educated to be viable members of our society, what issues they have faced and what issues they will face in the future.  Come prepared with questions/issues.  We are hoping also to be joined by a representative of the Vangie Williams for Congress campaign and the coordinated Kaine/Williams campaign who will give us updates on their campaigns.

The purpose of these monthly Men's Forums is to socialize, invigorate, educate and elect Democrats and is a great opportunity to get to know like-minded Democratic men in a way that you just can't in other venues in this predominantly Republican county.  The monthly Saturday morning committee meetings are great but you don't have the opportunity to talk and to get to know one another on a more social level.  It also gives those who can't attend the Saturday morning meetings a chance to get involved.  So please join us on Wednesday, August 22 at 7:00 pm.  Don't miss this opportunity to socialize and mobilize. 

RSVP to Nelson Vaughan at vnvaughan@aol.com or call the cell phone and text messages 201.826.7093; home 804.496.6217.

If you are a woman and receive this, please send to your favorite Democratic male relative, neighbor or friend.

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Why I Support Vangie Williams For Congress

By John Suddarth

As you know, I was one of the candidates for the Democratic Congressional Nomination in Virginia’s First District. Even though I lost to Vangie, I feel very good about her and her candidacy. I support her enthusiastically for three reasons.  First and least importantly, I, like the other candidates, committed to supporting the eventual nominee of our party on numerous occasions and I’m as good as my word. Secondly, I’ve gotten to know Vangie quite well and think very highly of her both as a person and as a candidate and think she will make an excellent congresswoman who always votes in our interests and third, it is absolutely essential for the future of our country that we send a Blue Wave of progressive Democrats to Washington to stop the self-aggrandizing and malevolent monster the GOP has become under Donald Trump and his enabling minions like Rob Wittman.

And so I call on you as patriotic, passionate, and concerned Democrats to support Vangie wholeheartedly as well. This is no time to stand on the sidelines. All of us have friends who voted for a third party candidate in 2016, either because they were Bernie supporters who felt he had been treated unfairly or they just did not like Hillary. Some of them smugly thought they were making some type of subtle or sophisticated point by voting for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein while in fact all they were doing is help put Trump in the White House. We can’t afford to let our friends make this mistake again. Our country is in dire straits and this is an all-hands-on-deck moment. We have to take back the House and the Senate.

The primary nominating process, for all its imperfections, is the vehicle through which we select our candidates. Each candidate in the Democratic primary was asked at least 10 times if he or she would support the eventual nominee. Each time asked I replied simply with “Absolutely.”  I meant it then and I mean it now. My support for Vangie is total without caveat or qualification. Any participant who does not support the nominee is just a user of the system, not a participant. A party is a team and an organization, a body whose members are obligated to support its objectives and its candidates. But being a good team player is not the only reason I support Vangie.

Vangie and I had over 20 joint appearances together during the course of the campaign and I got to know her quite well as a person as well as a candidate.  I always found her to be friendly, sincere, and open and honest, even about some of the personal challenges she faced like her bankruptcy due to outrageous medical bills.  Perhaps she was born empathetic to others or maybe she is thoughtful and considerate because she has been through the ringer herself during her long career as a civil servant, strategic planner, and government contractor. Contrast her with Rob Wittman, who remains silent while students are mowed down with assault rifles and President Trump wenches suckling infants from the arms of their mothers, who vote to take away healthcare from hardworking Americans and refuses to invest in our infrastructure while giving tax cuts to the wealthy and lavishing money on the defense contractors who donate to his campaign. This is what Vangie is fighting against as she fights for us.

I’ve also met her husband numerous times and some of her six daughters. She has a wonderful and supportive family, which is a testament to her as a woman, mother, and wife. And she is also hardworking and tireless. After a late Friday night debate in Northern Virginia, we found ourselves scheduled to be in New Kent for another debate early the next morning. There she was when I arrived, having traveled from King George, much further than I, looking fresh and ready to present her views and engage in discussion.  She confided in me that she had had only four hours of sleep and even though she was probably even more exhausted than me, no one would ever know it.

On another day, the fledgling Democratic Committee in Richmond County tried to have a debate. Only Vangie and I, and seven or eight citizens showed up and the organizers were clearly embarrassed.  Vangie and I conferred with each other though and then asked the participants to just gather around the table so we could have a conversation instead of a debate. We spoke about how our party was dedicated to improving things for the working people and middle class, how we wanted to work to ensure everyone had healthcare, a good education, homes, schools, and workplaces safe from gun violence, equality, respect, a living wage, and a secure retirement with dignity.  

The other participants that day told us about their concerns, hopes, and dreams, and how they were even more worried about the future prospects for their children and grandchildren. It was a great discussion which all of us enjoyed. Others might have thought that spending two hours with 8 potential voters a waste of time. Not Vangie. Like me, she saw it as an opportunity to engage with citizens and support our party. And we helped jump-start the Richmond County Democratic Committee.  

What I also learned about Vangie on the campaign trail is that she has the personality and temperament to be able to work with others, even those who may be of malevolent intent and difficult to work with.  During her long career as a civil servant, contractor and strategic planner, she has had to deal with those who did not put the overall good of the country first and foremost and I know that she has at times faced headwinds as an African-American woman. But she has persevered cheerfully and remained focused on mutually-beneficial win-win outcomes like we will want her to do in Congress.

When I was growing up in an America that still worked to lift the lot of every citizen, we were taught to treat each other with respect and to listen more than we talked. We learned about how our democracy worked and the dangers of populism. There were phrases of speech we don’t hear much anymore.  Civic-minded. Can-do spirit. American Know-How. Just being neighborly. Our differences end at the water’s edge. All those things that are no longer true as the rich get richer, our infrastructure crumbles, more and more of us are denied a living wage as our healthcare costs soar, nothing is done to stop gun violence, and our president alienates our allies and refuses to confront a virtual invasion by the Russians. The republicans work to keep their base angry and misinformed because anger motivates voters and anger sells and misinformed Americans to vote against their own interests. We need to convince them to vote for themselves by voting for Democrats!

By sending a progressive wave of leaders to Washington, leaders like Vangie, we can begin lifting the national dialogue above all that mean-spirited nonsense and refocus government on the people’s interests. We can learn again to appeal to each other’s better natures and change the tone and tenor in Washington, to put the people first.

In Vangie, we have a nominee who can mobilize the base with her progressive positions. She is also someone who can appeal to the 20% in the middle up for grabs, the folks tired of the bickering and backbiting and want someone who is objective and logical, who has the proven experience to build consensus, work together to understand complex situations and create win-win solutions.  

We have a nominee who is strong and courageous and not afraid to say no to special interests and their money and not afraid to appear in public. When she wins we will have a congresswoman who fixes problems, not who turns every problem to political advantage, a leader who can always be trusted to act in good faith to get America back on the right track for our children and grandchildren.   A leader named Vangie Williams. Please join me with your contributions, your efforts, your gifts of persuasion and your vote in getting her elected this November.

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