Bold Dominion

Virginia's gubernatorial race is just around the corner, taking place in November 2021. And with 13 candidates in the running--7 Republicans, 5 Democrats, and an independent--it's a crowded field. This week, we begin a two-part series diving into the five Democratic candidates for governor: who are they, and what do they stand for? Jennifer Carroll Foy is a former state delegate who represented Vi...

Another session of the Virginia General Assembly has come to a close. This marks the second year that the House of Delegates, the State Senate, and the Governorship were all in Democratic control. That’s the first time in decades--a change so remarkable that it inspired us to start this very podcast in 2020. So what did the General Assembly manage to pass this year? And what has the blue legislatu...

There's an underlying principle to Virginia politics that often goes unmentioned--it's called the Dillon Rule, and it effectively says that local governments only have powers that are explicitly granted by the state. How does this affect our local legislators and our state as a whole? To answer that question, we talk to Richard Schragger, the Parre Bowen Professor of Law at the University of Virgi...

Episode Note With the 2021 legislative session in full swing, hundreds of bills have been introduced into the General Assembly. Some have passed and some haven't -- and some are yet to be debated. A lot of these bills are written and promoted by big-money industries and lobbying groups who have the time and money to spare. But this week on Bold Dominion, we dig into two examples of citizen activis...

Episode Notes More and more, it seems like all political conversation is happening at the national level--Presidential elections, Congressional ratios, party divides and infighting. So much so that we forget just how much of our lives can be affected by our local politics right at home. Your mayor, your sheriff, your county Board of Supervisors--these are the people who decide where to build your...

Episode Notes With absurd and dangerous events going on in D.C. and the Capitol this week, it's easy to forget about the state and local legislators are soon to be meeting in Richmond, our own state capital here in Virginia. With the General Assembly meeting for its regular session in 2021, a host of important economic issues are slated for discussion as Virginia struggles to survive the pandemic...

Episode Notes 2020 has been one of the longest, most painful years in most of our lifetimes. While it's impossible to do justice to every story that struck Virginia this year, we're covering a few of the biggest changes across the state over the last twelve months. To help, we're joined by Michael Pope and Thomas Bowman of Transition Virginia , a state politics podcast covering many of the same to...

Episode Notes Virginia has been transforming in many ways over the last few decades, and that's most clear when it comes to government and tech. From defense contractors to Amazon's new headquarters to thousands of data centers, Virginia has slowly but surely shifted toward an economy based in technology and defense. What does that mean for workers in Virginia? For our energy needs, our demographi...

Suddenly, and seemingly out of the blue, legal weed in Virginia seems like it could be a real thing in the not-too-distant future. But legalization won’t be as easy as flipping a light switch. Should past weed convictions be expunged? Should business owners with past marijuana convictions get a leg up? Virginia (and the nation) have a long history of racially disparate enforcement of marijuana law...

As we step away from national politics and the presidential election, it's worth looking at other referendums and ballot initiatives that passed on a state and local level. In their most recent election, Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, and Portsmouth approved casinos entering their cities in landslide votes. What might an influx of casinos mean for Virginia's economy? To find out, we sat down with Rya...

Election Day has come and gone, but the election process still continues. And while it looks like Joe Biden has the presidential election mostly secured in an election that bucked the polls, a whole host of state and local races in Virginia were also on the ballot, as well as a state Constitutional amendment for redistricting reform. This week, Nathan Moore sits down with producer Aaryan Balu and...

After two long months of socially distanced and Zoom-based negotiations, the Virginia General Assembly has finally finished its 2020 Special Session--called to deal with police reform and amending the state budget. This week, we're joined by state Delegate Sally Hudson; she walks us through some victories on police reform and the state's strategy for economic recovery--and the ways we need to impr...

With gun sales up, violence in the streets, and an overwhelming majority of the nation thinking that we're heading down the wrong track, it's no secret that America is in a troubled place right now. That isn't helped by the actions of President Trump, who, in the last few weeks, has suggested that he wouldn't accept the results of the upcoming election if he lost, encouraged supporters to watch po...

If you've gotten your ballot for the upcoming election, you may have noticed a question about a proposed Amendment to the Virginia State Constitution. The Amendent proposes a bipartisan commission to end the process of gerrymandering--politicians drawing districts to suit their own interests--in Virginia. That's important, because next year, Virginia will be holding its state elections based on th...

In some ways, we have two different Virginias that live side-by-side. On one side, white-collar workers who have adjusted to the pandemic with Zoom meetings and social distancing; on the other, blue-collar workers who have faced losses of their jobs, healthcare, housing, and economic stability in the face of a global pandemic. But COVID-19 has only exacerbated trends that have plagued Virginia for...

Virginia's General Assembly convened on August 18 for a special session, originally dedicated to balancing the state budget in the face of COVID-19. Now following nationwide protests, the special session also promises to tackle the issue of criminal justice reform. This week, in a special crossover episode the Transition Virginia podcast, we talk to hosts Michael Pope and Thomas Bowman about the f...

For five months, we've known that to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, we need to stay at home. But how can Virginians stay at home if those homes are taken away? With no end to the crisis in sight, thousands of Virginia citizens are facing evictions from their homes. What can lawmakers do about the crisis, and why are Virginia tenants so uniquely vulnerable? This week, we spoke with Ned Oliv...

“The Virginia Way” is an old-fashioned ideal here in the Commonwealth--the notion that our public servants have so much integrity that we don’t need laws to regulate money that goes into the political process. As a result, we have almost no campaign finance regulation--a fact that's been exploited by aristocrats and corporations for decades, if not centuries. This week, we sat down with state Dele...

For the last six years, Dominion Energy has been working to build a natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Hampton Roads. But just a few weeks after winning a Supreme Court case to regain permits for the project, the pipeline was cancelled--leaving Dominion is out more than three billion dollars already spent. This week, we sat down with Richmond-based journalist Peter Galuszka and New York Ti...

Facebook ads, Twitter bots, TikTok teens—over the last decade, social media has played an increasingly important role in our social and political discourse. This week, we continue our conversation with UVA Media Studies Professor Siva Vaidyanathan to discuss the way social media algorithms can unintentionally help organize radical groups and why social media platforms don’t bear the same liability...

It’s been a tumultuous month across the country and across the world—that’s no secret. Today, we’re talking to Chelsea Higgs Wise, a longtime activist in the Richmond community, about recent protests in the state capital; Black Lives Matter, the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue, and the work that still needs to be done to achieve equality in Virginia. After that, UVA Professor Siva Vaidyanathan...

Both Virginia's 7th and 2nd U.S. House districts voted for Trump in 2016. But then two years later, they flipped in the midterm elections. Democrats Abigail Spanberger in the 7th and Elaine Luria in the 2nd both won by razor thin margins. This fall, these first-term lawmakers will face their yet-to-be-determined Republican challengers. Today, we’re talking about their potential opponents, their ch...

With all the news of the pandemic going on, it's easy to forget that we have elections coming up quite soon. This episode looks at Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, a huge, gerrymandered region that stretches from the North Carolina border to the Washington, DC exurbs. Freshman lawmaker Denver Riggleman is the Republican incumbent. But he’s facing a challenge from far right candidate Bob Good...

Well, we’re in May now. It’s been a month and a half since everything started closing and authorities urged social distancing. But work hasn’t stopped for people working in essential industries – health care, of course. But also grocery stores, fire and police services, construction, buses, meat packing, and more. That doesn’t mean the work is always safe. Around the country, there have been more...

The General Assembly has arrived back in Richmond for a highly unusual special session. The task at hand: figure out Virginia’s state budget during this pandemic related economic seizure. Also: sort out the bills that Governor Ralph Northam sent back for revisions. What now for Virginia's budget and minimum wage hikes?