February 10, 2019

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam Just Said That He Won’t Resign

He also called slaves “indentured servants from Africa.”

Steve Helber/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has been facing calls to resign since a photo of a man in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan hood in his medical school yearbook surfaced earlier this month. After apologizing for the photo, then backtracking and saying he wasn’t in the photo at all, and then admitting that he donned blackface in 1984 for a Michael Jackson dance contest, the Virginia governor is now saying he has no plans to resign.

“Right now Virginia needs someone that can heal. There’s no better person to do that than a doctor,” Northam said Sunday in an appearance on CBS This Morning. 

In the immediate aftermath of the controversy, Virginia Democrats called on Northam to resign and allow Lieutenant Gov. Justin Fairfax, a black man, to take his place.

But then Vanessa Tyson, a college professor, accused Fairfax of sexually assaulting her in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention, an allegation Fairfax denied. A second woman, Meredith Watson, accused Fairfax of sexually assaulting her in 2000, while they were undergrads at Duke University. The Lt. Gov. retained the the same lawyers who represented Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexually abusing Dr. Christine Ford while the two were high school students. On Sunday, Fairfax called on the FBI to investigate.

The next in line, should both Northam and Fairfax step aside, is Attorney General Mark Herring. But shortly after the allegations against Fairfax were made public, Herring admitted that, he too, wore blackface in the 1980s. 

The Virginia Black Legislative Caucus has called for the resignations of both Gov. Northam and Lt. Gov. Fairfax. Gov. Northam has, however, earned the support of the National Black Farmers Association.

Now, with the state at a crossroads, Northam believes that he can be the one to lead Virginia in grappling with its own racist history. “I have thought about resigning, but I’ve also thought about what Virginia needs right now,” he said on Sunday. “And I really think that I’m in a position where I can take Virginia to the next level and it will be very positive.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate