We Hear You, Virginia

A story broke on Friday which revealed that Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s med-school yearbook appeared to feature a photo of him either in blackface or in Klan robes. Since then, the Governor has confirmed and denied that either of the men in the picture are him and then gone on to note that he once dressed in blackface to imitate Michael Jackson.

Fortuitously, Resistbot had recently expanded its ability to write to state senators and representatives to all fifty states, allowing us to make the Commonwealth of Virginia the first real full-scale test of state legislature delivery.

In 48 hours since the Northam story broke, Resistbot delivered more than 2,000 letters to Virginia’s elected officials with the vast, vast majority going to the state legislature and governor’s office.

While the governor seems to think he can weather this political storm, our data tells a different story.

Virginians are overwhelmingly focused on the idea that the governor must resign. In fact, of the 25 most commonly used terms, four of them make clear what the electorate expect— resign, resignation, needs, and immediately.

And those messages aren’t just going to the governor’s office. Virginians are writing to their state legislature as well. The implication is clear — if Northam won’t resign, Virginians expect their Legislature to remove him.

What comes next for the Commonwealth of Virginia is hard to say, but Northam will make a tempting target for President Trump at the State of the Union on Tuesday night, so expect things to move fast starting on Monday morning.

No matter what happens, Resistbot will be ready and waiting to deliver your messages to your President, Senate, House, Governor, and State Legislature.

We hear you Virginia, and Governor Northam will, too.

Tell Your Government What You Think

Virginia has a hard fight for its political soul to look forward too. If you live there or in one of the other 49 states, you can let your Governor and State Legislature know what’s on your mind by sending the word state to Resistbot. And, as always, you can write to Congress about this or any other topic by sending the word Resist to Resistbot on Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or as a Twitter direct message. If none of those work for you, Resistbot also supports old fashioned SMS: text RESIST to 50409 to get started. It takes 2 minutes to make a statement.