State and county fairs are a place for families to go in the summer for carnival rides, funnel cakes, cotton candy and maybe a little bingo. You can visit a petting zoo, take in a tractor pull or demolition derby and enjoy bluegrass music while eating kettle corn or a caramel apple.
You can also count on politics being at the front and center of fairs of all sizes with political candidates shaking hands, giving out balloons and even kissing a cow for a photo-op, anything to land the politico on the front page of the local paper or on the 11 o’clock television news.
Locally, candidates for everything from Board of Supervisors to the General Assembly have been known to hand out popcorn and man the local party booths.
A few years ago, at the Rockingham County Fair, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin went on stage before a sold-out concert on the fair’s track. His one job that night was to introduce headliner Dustin Lynch, who he called Dustin Parker, mixing up the opening act, Drew Parker, with headliner Dustin Lynch, and proving he knows nothing about country music.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, you may recall, hammed it up for the national media, eating a pork chop at the Minnesota State Fair last summer, visiting the dairy barn and even scooping some ice cream while he was there.
Earle-Sears to visit county fair Friday; rally to be held outside fairgrounds
It’s no surprise, in an election year in Virginia, that candidates for governor will be making the rounds at local fairs throughout the Commonwealth.
On Friday night, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is the Republican nominee for governor, will make a stop at the Augusta County Fair to shake a few hands, give a speech to rally her base and pose for photos. She is scheduled to appear at the Augusta County Republican Committee tent at approximately 6:30 p.m.
Likely not a coincidence, the local chapter of Virginia Organizing will hold a rally in advance of her visit at the intersection of Tinkling Springs Road and Expo Road from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The rally will not only greet Earle-Sears and her motorcade on her arrival, but the signs will serve as a reminder to anyone attending the fair of the cuts Republicans have made to Medicaid, childcare and food stamps, cuts that will make it harder for working families to make ends meet, especially in rural communities like Augusta County.
On the right track? Waynesboro leaders evaluate living wage
The rally is being organized to show support for a living wage for fast food, retail, healthcare, local government and all workers in Augusta County and Waynesboro.
In Waynesboro, City Council calculated the living wage for its residents in advance of budget discussions this year.
Waynesboro found that a living wage in Waynesboro is $19.42 per hour as of June 30; the City of Waynesboro has a starting pay of $14.33 per hour for three positions: utility worker, refuse collector and a custodian.
The $19.42 figure was determined using a living wage calculator which considered the annual family budget (childcare, food, healthcare, housing, internet, mobile, transportation, other necessities), plus the additional cost of income and payroll taxes. That figure is then divided by the number of working adults and full-time hours at 40 per week for 52 weeks.
City Manager Mike Hamp said at present all full-time classified employees are earning more than the city’s minimum rate of pay. Waynesboro has 396 active full- and part-time positions.
Implementation of any changes to the pay scale in Waynesboro likely won’t occur until October, Hamp said. Staff, including the city manager and human resources director “are in the process of determining the new rate and a precise date of implementation.”
The new rate, Hamp said, will be in effect until the Council appropriates funds for and establishes a date for the next increase in employee compensation.
“Addressing compensation for our city works has been a priority for us,” Waynesboro Mayor Kenny Lee told AFP before the final vote for the 2025-26 budget. “Getting that briefing a few months back on the living wage and where we are, it was an eye opener, and we want to address that. We need to address that, and I think we’re taking the right steps in doing so.”
Minimum wage in Virginia is set at $12.41 per hour; the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
Virginia: A barometer for how Trump is doing
Virginia’s race for governor could be a barometer for how well President Donald Trump is doing in his second administration.
If early polls and fundraising are any indication, well, it’s not going well.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger currently has a lead over Earle-Sears in polls. Spanberger has also raised nearly twice as much money in June as her Republican opponent, with $15.2 million cash on hand, compared to Earle-Sears $4.5 million.
In an attempt to turn things around, Earle-Sears brought on a new campaign manager this week, Pennsylvania political strategist Corey Barsky, who faces an uphill battle. For more than half a century, the candidate from the opposite political party of the sitting president has gone on to win the gubernatorial race in Virginia putting the onus on Earle-Sears and Barsky to change that trend.
Coming to Augusta County, a very red part of a blue state, is likely an attempt for Earle-Sears to shore up her conservative base before the general election on Nov. 4. She’ll need a strong showing from people living in the Shenandoah Valley to offset the more liberal voters in Northern Virginia, many who are angry at Trump and his administration for messy federal job cuts.
Even as a Republican, it may be a challenge for Earle-Sears to win over voters in the Valley: Unemployment rates continue to rise in the state, gas certainly isn’t $1.99 per gallon as the president claims (it was $3.29 per gallon in Waynesboro as of this writing) and the president has lost a considerable amount of support in recent days due to the likelihood that Trump’s name is in the Epstein files. And while she’s tried to separate herself from Trump in the past, most voters will look at the “R” by her name and vote accordingly.
The Republican ticket is no doubt a mixed bag: Earle-Sears is a Black immigrant who called Trump a “liability” in 2022 turning off MAGA voters.
The lieutenant governor candidate, John Reid, is an openly gay man who was pressured to drop out of the race by Youngkin.
The sitting attorney general, Jason Miyares, the son of Cuban immigrants, is running for re-election. His opponent, Democrat Jay Jones, has said that Miyares does “whatever the president says” and asserts Miyares is not standing up for fired federal workers or challenging executive orders related to tariffs and birthright citizenship. Not exactly the person you’d want to vote for if you are unhappy with the president.
Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Trump supporter, said in a Facebook post today that the Virginia GOP is dysfunctional. To be victorious in November, he wrote, Earle-Sears must find a way to bring unity to the GOP ticket.
“If she refuses to do so, she will prove that she is not qualified to serve as governor,” he wrote. “If you can’t unify your own ticket, how can you unify a state? You’ll lose. You’ll lose big, and you’ll deserve to lose.”
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Crystal Graham
