We are sharing this open letter with residents in Richmond in advance of election day to acknowledge the failure of our electeds on the local, state and federal level to address the genocide in Palestine. We also want to inspire hope in local action by highlighting the few brave candidates on our local ballots who have publicly called for Richmond to take action for justice for Palestine.   

We are writing on behalf of No Votes For Genocide Virginia, a group of outraged friends, neighbors, and colleagues who are joining the growing number of people across the United States working to send a clear message to all candidates and elected officials on local, state, and national levels - we will NOT support you while you continue to support genocide in Palestine. Our group includes Jewish and non-Jewish members who are united in seeing Jewish and Palestinian safety as inextricably connected, not in opposition to each other. For almost a year, we have been organizing a campaign to pressure local and state elected representatives and potential electeds to be transparent about their positions on the genocide and take actions to stop it.

Over the last year, in response to our federal government’s complicity in this genocide, cities across the country are passing ceasefire and divestment resolutions, including Portland, ME and Richmond, CA and more, recognizing that local cities can and should take action to address violence and injustice abroad. Richmond City Councilors have sat idly while the violence escalates and thousands die, despite the pleading of their constituents who spent hours upon hours at dozens of meetings at city hall. But did you know there is historical precedent for our own city taking action against a foreign genocide? 

The 1985 Richmond City Council passed a resolution calling for the end of apartheid and divestment from South Africa. They knew one city alone didn’t have enough power to end apartheid. But they joined a network of cities that had power together, and that network was part of a movement that did end apartheid. But apparently our current City Councilmembers think their 1985 predecessors made the wrong choice.

Since January, the RVA for Palestine Coalition and other constituents have pleaded with their City Council to pass a ceasefire resolution. City Council made excuses to absolve itself from any responsibility for taking local action as the apartheid state of Israel continued its genocide against the Palestinian people. Over the last year, City Councilmembers Reva Trammel, Nicole Jones, and Kristin Nye refused to meet with their constituents about a proposed resolution. Katherine Jordan, Stephanie Lynch, Cynthia Newbille, Ellen Robertson, Ann-Frances Lambert, and Andreas Addision met with constituents but never followed through on their commitments, then feigned ignorance by saying over and over that they needed more information when they had ample resources at their fingertips.

Over two months ago, our group sent out the Richmond Candidate Questionnaire on the War in Gaza to everyone running for local office and published the results in our Candidate Tracker. Only one City Councilmember was transparent enough to answer the questionnaire. For the rest, when we asked “Do you commit to meeting with your constituents about the war in Gaza when requested?” They didn’t respond. When we asked “Do you support or oppose defunding the Virginia Israel Advisory Board?” They didn’t respond. When we asked “Do you believe that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people?” They didn’t respond. And when we asked nine other questions, they did not respond.

History shows us that it doesn’t have to be like this. Our City Council has the power to make a difference but they’re too afraid to use it. Apparently they’re too afraid to even answer a questionnaire. Their silence is deafening. 

Let’s show them: Their time is up! Early voting has begun and election day is next week. Help us make a change in City Council so that we can move forward for Richmond, and for Palestine.

No Votes For Genocide Virginia supports the brave City Council candidates listed below who are willing to take a stand and work with us to end Richmond’s complicity in genocide:

• Kenya Gibson, 3rd District  (running against incumbent Ann-Frances Lambert and Maria Carra Rose) 

• Willie Hilliard, 6th District (running against incumbent Ellen Robertson and Tavares Floyd) 

• Eric Sundberg, 7th District (running against incumbent Cynthia Newbille)

P.S. There is more you can do! There will be a vote in Congress soon to block a $20 billion weapons shipment to Israel. Call Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and ask them to block these weapons and to support a full arms embargo on the Israeli government.

P.P.S. Here is the DSA Richmond City Voter Guide 2024 for your consideration.

In solidarity,

No Votes For Genocide Virginia

As we are just a month out from the election, we wanted to thank you all for putting pressure on RVA candidates to make their views on Palestine clear before we go to the polls. Here’s an update on who has provided responses to our questionnaire - you can click to read through their responses-

City Council:

• Eric Sundberg (7th)

• Stephanie Starling (9th)

• Ellen Robertson (6th)

• Willie Hilliard (6th)

• Kenya Gibson (3rd)

• Tavares Floyd (6th)

School Board:

• Kevin Starlings (3rd)

• Charlene Riley (3rd)

• Emmett J Jafari (8th)

• Wesley Hedgepeth (4th)

• Angela Fontaine (4th)

• Ali Faruk (3rd)

We’re thrilled with the progress so far, yet zero of our RVA Mayoral candidates have responded.

>>>> Can you help us put pressure on the following candidates by emailing them and tagging them on social media, with strong requests that they make their views known to constituents? Find contact info and a script you can use here.

Mayor:

• Andreas Addison

• Danny Avula

• Michelle Mosby

• Maurice Neblett

• Harrison Roday

In addition, the following City Council and School Board candidates have not responded. Feel free to send them a nudge as well:

City Council: 

• Zac Walker (1st)

• Andrew Breton (1st)

• Ann-Frances Lambert (3rd)

• Sarah Abubaker (4th)

• Stephanie Lynch (5th)

• Cynthia Newbille (7th)

• Reva Trammell (8th)

• Frank Wilson (8th)

• Nicole Jones (9th)

School Board:

• Matthew Percival (1st)

• Mariah White (2nd)

• Katie Richard (2nd)

• Garrett Sawyer (4th)

• Stephanie Rizzie (5th)

• Mamie Taylor (5th)

• Shonda Harris-Muhammed (6th)

• Cheryl Burke (7th)

• PH “Cruz” Sherman (8th)

• Shavonda Dixon (9th)

These City Council candidates declined to respond:

• Paul Goldman (1st) - said he won't respond as it's not within to the City Charter to address genocide and that city council is only responsible for addressing local problems

• Katherine Jordan (2nd) - said she won't respond as she is running unopposed, doesn't have time to respond and is handling family matters after the death of her father.

Finally, there is a City Council Forum coming up next week on Wednesday, October 9 at 6:00PM. You can request a ticket to attend AND submit a question. As Israel’s attacks on the Middle East increase, let’s demand they make their stances on divestment + ceasefire very clear.

Thanks for all the support!

Hello friends,

We are less than 2 months away from Election Day– this is a critical time to have a big impact on candidates who are seeking your vote. They need to hear that their positions about Palestine will be on your mind when (or if) you vote, and that genocide is your red line!

No Votes For Genocide VA needs your help getting candidates to stop hiding and tell us where they really stand when it comes to ceasefire resolutions in city council and the school board, the defunding of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board (what’s this?), and more! 

We have sent a questionnaire to every candidate running for Richmond mayor, city council, and the school board and have shared their responses on our website’s Candidate Tracker so that you have access to candidates' positions on Palestine and the war in Gaza when deciding about your vote. But, as of today, only 7 of the 38 candidates who received the questionnaire have filled it out. That’s where you come in!

Use our sample script and email contact list to send a quick message to your candidates to tell them you need this information in order to decide how you’re going to vote. Or if a candidate has already filled it out, you can thank them! (Click here to view our sample script and  email contacts for the candidates in your district)

Want to see the questionnaire first? Find it here.

Don’t know which district is yours? Go to this website and plug your address into the search bar.

Thank you for joining us in making sure our candidates know: We won’t vote for genocide!

In solidarity,

No Votes For Genocide VA

We've compiled a list of all candidates running for office in Richmond elections. 

Check out the tracker below to see where they stand on Palestine. 

We are joining the growing number of people across the United States working to send a clear message to all candidates and elected officials on local, state, and national levels - we will NOT support you while you continue to support genocide.  #NoVotesForGenocide  

Since the start of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians, residents have been demanding Richmond City Council call for an immediate ceasefire and acknowledge and divest all city funding tied to Israel. Citizens have been drafting resolutions, meeting with council members, and attending and speaking at countless biweekly public meetings. 

Richmond City Councillors have refused to take action. Richmond's Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, and both Senator Tim Kaine and Senator Mark Warner, have also refused to take action to divest from Israel and protect Palestinian lives. They ignore our pleas and continue to send billions of dollars of military aid and weapons to Israel. 

If our elected officials are unswayed by our appeals to their humanity, let’s ensure they know this in the upcoming election cycle: 

Our support for a Free Palestine is unconditional- 

Our support for our elected officials is not!

For Immediate Release

Media Assets: Download Here

Media contact: jenn4gaza@gmail.com

Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan Pushed to Break Silence on Gaza in District 4 Constituent Meeting, Refuses to Call Slaughter of 33,000 Palestinians a Genocide

Congresswoman McClellan Stumbled Over Voter Questions about Israel’s Assault on Gaza and Virginia Families Grieving Loved Ones in Palestine

April 11, 2024 – RICHMOND – At a virtual meeting on Tuesday evening, Congresswoman McClellan was confronted by over 50 voters in her district who expressed shock and frustration about the disregard for Gazan mothers, children, and families from a politician who has been a champion for maternal health and social justice. 

A group of four concerned voters including mothers, social workers, and long-time McClellan supporters initiated the virtual meeting to press the Congresswoman to finally share her views on Israel’s siege of Gaza. In sharp contrast to the majority of Americans in recent polling, as well as an increasing number of prominent Democrats calling for greater accountability, Representative McClellan was unwilling to criticize Israel’s actions in Gaza. 

She denied that the mass killing of Palestinian civilians constitutes a genocide, despite the International Court of Justice position finding it plausible that Israel has committed acts in violation of the Genocide Convention. McClellan has also refused to sign onto HR 786, the Ceasefire Now bill, which has been signed by 19 of her Democratic colleagues in Congress. She indicated that her office is preparing her own statement calling for a bilateral ceasefire contingent on the return of Israeli hostages, which has been President Biden’s position since the beginning of the war and has failed to result in any deescalation of the violence. McClellan did not respond to constituents who questioned whether her reluctance to criticize Israel resulted from receiving campaign donations from pro-Israel PACs, a total of $29,310 from 2023-2024, according to OpenSecrets.

Mariam Oweis, a Richmond resident, and healthcare worker, and Palestinian refugee, spoke at the meeting with Representative McClellan and shared that her grandmother died last week at a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon due to lack of medicine resulting from the loss of UNRWA funding. She also told Representative McClellan about her best friend who gave birth two months ago in Gaza. She had to walk to the hospital, birthed without anesthesia, and had no water to clean her newborn. Without bed space, she was discharged immediately and was forced to walk back to her shelter. She is unable to breastfeed due to malnutrition. Representative McClellan did not offer any solutions for providing Gaza with immediate aid. She countered, “We are working to include UNRWA funding in the fiscal year 2025 budget.” This is after March 22, when Representative McClellan voted to ban UNRWA funding until 2025, while 80 percent of Gaza relies on humanitarian aid for survival and is at risk of starvation due to Israel’s blockade on aid.

“There is a very real and troubling disconnect between Jennifer McClellan’s platform that champions the lives of women, children, and families, and her voting record in support of the atrocities unfolding in Gaza. I’m horrified by her lack of concern for women giving birth while malnourished, unhoused, unsafe, and without proper medical care. I have been haunted by the knowledge that women are having c-sections, an operation I needed to save my life and the life of my youngest child, without anesthesia. When Mariam spoke of her best friend having experienced an unnecessarily risky and traumatic birth, it infuriated me. Given McClellan’s record for maternal and infant care, I expected a compassionate response, unfortunately, she gave none.” said Sarah Okolita, a Richmond mother.

Representative McClellan did state that she would consider making a public statement in support of ending weapons sales and transfers to Israel but did not provide any timeline for making such a statement. Last week, Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined 26 other members of Congress in a letter to President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling additional weapons transfers “unjustifiable” after the Israeli military killed seven international aid workers. 

At this time Representative McClellan has no primary challenger in her November reelection campaign. However, 100% of respondents to a Zoom poll conducted during the meeting indicated that they are reconsidering their vote for President Biden due to the Democratic Party’s inaction to stop the genocide in Gaza. Among those was Allison Prilock, a District 4 resident and previous McClellan voter who noted, “Jennifer McClellan has let me down. As her constituent, and a mother, I was absolutely appalled.”

# # #

Four outraged friends, all long-time constituents and supporters of Representative Jennifer McClellan, are organizing a meeting with Rep McClellan to demand she immediately call for a permanent ceasefire, act to reinstate UNRWA funding, and end military aid and assistance to Israel.  Our goal is to publicly voice these demands and to provide an opportunity for other constituents to be heard.

JOIN US IN DEMANDING AN IMMEDIATE AND PERMANENT CEASEFIRE - DOWNLOAD OUR TOOLKIT HERE!