The Democratic statewide ticket was all together Wednesday for the first time since earning the nomination. Gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, lieutenant governor candidate Hala Ayala, and attorney general candidate Mark Herring toured the William H. Talley III Center for Workforce Development at John Tyler Community College in Chester.
While speaking in front of the new workforce training center, McAuliffe said his administration put $32 million into the budget during his first term as governor to fund its construction, calling it a beautiful new facility. “Come down here for four weeks and get you a trucker’s license and walk out of here making $65,000 a year,” McAuliffe said in an interview. “It’s about jobs and building the economy of the 21st century.”
McAuliffe continued to talk about businesses wanting to come to Virginia and how he believes that he and his Republican opponent differ in ways that might attract or turn away new companies. “There is a difference,” McAuliffe said. “You think of Glenn Youngkin, the most anti-gay, anti-woman candidate in Virginia history. Businesses do not want to come to a state that discriminates.”
Youngkin’s campaign said that McAuliffe is recycling old attack lines. “Poor Terry shouldn’t be so desperate, it’s only June,” said Matt Wolking, Youngkin’s communications director. “It’s kind of sad he’s reduced to recycling these tired, old, buffoonish attacks year after year, decade after decade. New ideas and fresh thinking may not be Terry McAuliffe’s strong suit, but lying certainly is.”
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