New Candidate Alert-- Guest Post By Matt Rogers

You may know me from Twitter as "Politidope" or at least you know someone who does. If you lived in Downtown Richmond, VA around 2012, you remember me as the tall black guy with braces asking folks, "are you registered to vote at your current address" non-stop. Every year, I take it upon myself to adopt a campaign to knock thousands of doors during the summer and until Election Day. In 2017, it was to help Democrats hold on to the Executive Mansion. In 2018, it was Jennifer Wexton's campaign in our nationwide effort to help Democrats flip the House of Representatives by the largest margin in American history. In 2019, it was Dan Helmer's campaign in order to help Democrats flip the Virginia House of Delegates and add 21 flipped districts since Trump was inaugurated. Now I'm running for the Virginia House of Delegates to give Democrats in my district a choice for the first time in over a decade.

I'm not just a tireless activist and someone who gets involved in efforts like the successful one over the last few months to recruit candidates in every single Florida state legislative district. I actually already work in the Virginia General Assembly for a state senator and have passed numerous bills like the one that will finally prohibit officers from having sex with individuals in their custody and exploit the "police rape loophole." While other offices have multiple staff people-- for which the Commonwealth provides us a budget-- I man the affairs of my state senator alone. It's not because he isn't busy. He's the Chairman of the Transportation Committee and the Caucus Recruitment Chair. It's because I live and breathe this stuff.

I first realized this was my life's work the minute I stepped foot in Tim Kaine's campaign office in his run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. The energy, the jokes, the competition to reach goals, the opportunity to hear why others were willing to volunteer their time were all formative experiences in my political life and informed my decision that this work is what I absolutely love to do.

Throughout my time in the world of politics, however, it has become clear to me that progressive Democrats absolutely need to keep the pressure on in order to keep our agenda from being watered down. African American operatives have to be vigilant in our efforts not to simply be campaign operatives, and specifically not just "field" operatives, but to actually rise in this world full of individuals who look differently and who honestly... often fail-up because they know somebody who knows somebody.

That is why I am running for the Virginia House of Delegates. I know many will ask, 'Well, we've already got a Democrat. Shouldn't we focus our resources on flipping districts?' To that, I answer that we can and absolutely must do both.

As I said in the introductory paragraph, the early days of my political activity was in voter registration on my college campus and has always been tethered to the need to bring new voters into the process. We simply cannot do that if our 'democracy' is a turnstile form of democracy where-- instead of Democrats having to campaign and find out the mood of the electorate-- we simply rubber-stamp the same individuals back into office term, after term, after term simply because they share our assumed party affiliation. We cannot do that if voters in our most liberal districts-- to whom we return every few years when we again have a statewide election in which we need to turn out-- are told that their votes essentially only count for President and for statewide offices.

I'm also running for this office because I believe the most liberal area represented in the Virginia House of Delegates deserves a progressive voice who embodies the generational and representational shift in our movement right now. For context, Governor Ralph Northam won Arlington County with 79.9% of the vote. The 47th District is even more Democratic than that. We don't simply need progressive words. We need action.

I have been on the front lines of creating Virginia's medical cannabis industry. In fact, I created the nation's first Legislative Cannabis Caucus just this year. I was invited to speak at NORML's statewide convention earlier this year, as well. That is not simply because I share the goals of that organization. It is because they and others in the movement know that I have been instrumental in implementing this system-- which now provides every Virginian access to safe, legal medical cannabis products for which their physician can recommend for any condition they believe can be alleviated through the use of those products. They also know that I understand how much further we need to go on this issue.

Too many Democrats have congratulated themselves for doing the rational bare minimum of decriminalizing the possession of less than one ounce of cannabis products in the year Two Thousand and Twenty. That is the bare minimum. I will move much more swiftly to legalize and regulate the responsible use of cannabis. I will immediately begin undoing the harms of prohibition that have victimized literally millions of Virginians. I will ensure the next round of pharmaceutical licensing isn't opaque and offers more diversity in the realm of cannabis processors. Let's immediately release and expunge all those incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses and use the tax revenue brought in from regulating adult use to adequately ensure that expungements are successful. I will re-establish parole for all offenders and create an expedient process for individuals to demonstrate their ability to be released from parole. I will implement a State Accountability Board with subpoena power and the resources to fight the inevitable attempts by police departments to quash discovery of incriminating material.

The Senate version of the bill to allow individuals to be automatically registered at the DMV was my bill. I am proud that it was signed into law. However, I will move much further in terms of expanding voting rights. That has to immediately begin with ending the policy of stripping people of their right to vote based on a felony conviction. That shameful policy was implemented in early 20th Century Virginia to, "eliminate the darkey as a political factor in this state" and to "ensure the complete supremacy of the white race in the affairs of government." Democrats have to have the courage to explain that when we redistrict, we count the populations of incarcerated people in the areas in which they are incarcerated despite their inability to vote-- which sounds just like and follows in the footsteps of the ugly legacy of enslaved people being counted despite not being able to vote.

I will index the minimum wage to inflation. I will champion the repeal of the deceptively phrased "Right To Work." I will expand project labor agreements and provide workers with a private right of action so that they can advocate for themselves in court. I will crack down on the despicable culture in our society of wage theft that disproportionately victimizes immigrant workers as they fear reporting lost wages. None of this will happen if we simply allow 'business as usual' to dictate the politics of the 2021 election. I'm getting started now to let folks know that WE mean business, and by business, I mean dignity for working people.

In 2019, we had Democratic challengers in 92 out of 100 House districts. I am working right now not only to win my election, but to recruit candidates so that number is 100 out of 100 next year. We've already got people filling up those ballot lines and this is going to happen. I will not allow it not to happen.

If elected, I would be the first African-American elected to serve Arlington in the Virginia General Assembly since Civil War Reconstruction. In a time in which our country is finally waking up to the realization that black lives matter, we have to continue pushing because life is literally the bare minimum. We have to promote and elevate black voices to positions of power. We can't simply point at the racism of the GOP while-- in the most progressive area of the state, Northern Virginia, we only have ONE African American elected to the General Assembly. The odds are obviously not stacked in my favor and they never have been for black candidates in Virginia. I'm in this race because I already know that and I know what it will take to win this. 

Please join me at FriendsOfMattRogers.com to read more about my vision. I can't do it without the support of grassroots individuals like you. Thank you for reading. You can leave a note to me on my website or follow me on Twitter: @Politidope/@MattForDelegate.