Opinion
It’s Not Your Primary — It’s the People’s
So now democracy only counts if you get to pick who participates?
Helmer’s Law didn’t “undermine democracy.” It ended your ability to hide candidate selection behind closed doors, gated firehouse primaries, and last-minute rule changes designed to shut out the very people elections are meant to serve: the public.
Firehouse primaries disenfranchise working families, disabled residents, students away at school, and military service members overseas. Even Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares agreed when he refused to block the law. Why? Because the Constitution doesn’t just protect your right to association. It protects my right to vote.
Now you’re angry because Democrats, independents, and other community members are using their legal right to cast a ballot in a public election? That’s not sabotage. That’s America. I don’t need your permission to vote. I’m not a guest in this process. I’m a citizen.
Virginia has always had open primaries. Your party embraced that system when it worked in your favor. But now that everyday people, not just party insiders, are stepping up to stop a small faction from taking over our institutions, suddenly it’s a crisis?
You claim Democrats are only showing up because we “can’t win with our own ideas.” That’s laughable, especially coming from a committee that’s spent the last five years pushing candidates who don’t even believe in the core values of the Republican Party. These aren’t small-government conservatives. They don’t believe in liberty, limited government, or individual rights. They believe in control – over our schools, our library, our families, and now our votes.
You say, “Stay out of our primary.” I say: it’s not your primary. It’s the people’s.
And if the only way your candidates can win is by shutting the rest of us out, maybe the problem isn’t the process. Maybe it’s the product.
Because at the end of the day, this isn’t about left or right. It’s about protecting our community from people who think it belongs to them alone and giving it back to the people who built it, who serve it, and who actually give a damn about its future.
You’re not defending democracy. You’re afraid of it!
Kris Nelson, Chair
Warren County Democratic Committee
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