by John Reid

On Friday, 7th District Congressional candidate Eugene Vindman began his ‘Shop Tour’ by visiting two locally Black-owned businesses in Woodbridge. The focus was to hear from local citizens about their concerns as the upcoming elections begin. His first stop was at Fresh Unisex Barbershop & Salon in Dumfries. Joining him was Woodbridge District Supervisor Margaret Franklin and VA-7 National Convention Delegate Kimberlee Short.

He took questions from those in attendance as he was getting a haircut himself. One person asked about the rise in artificial intelligence and how it can be properly used. “As a legal advisor for the National Security Council, I was in a position to advise about emerging technologies in AI, and all of these areas which are special breakthroughs. It’s important to have that background and experience and be flexible in addressing those changes. Regarding schools in this area, we have to make sure we’re talking about these technologies to our kids. Just as we talk to them about digital literacy, so they don’t believe everything they read on the internet, we should provide basic information on computers and writing AI prompts.”

Franklin asked about the importance of minority owned businesses in the community. “I’m a big proponent of minority owned businesses in the community and economic development in general,” he said. “At the micro level, the power of corporations and billionaires have skewed vastly in their favor the past few decades, at the expense of businesses and labor. The current administration has done a few things that are taking us in the right direction. The Federal Trade Commission has passed a rule that limits non-competes, which means you can switch jobs easier. Those efforts will help balance power to small businesses.”

“At this level,” he continued, “it’s about creating a level for small businesses. I’m a small business owner myself, my twin brother and I have a consulting company. It’s about streamlining a lot of those efforts. There needs to be a rebalancing of those incentives and tax regulations to favor small businesses.”

Short asked about his commitment to voting rights on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights act of 1964. “I think we’re at the cusp of a crossroads in this November election,” he replied. “One side wants to take us down a dark path, and we have a Democratic party that wants to continue to move forward. We’re continuing to make progress. I’m glad we have Vice President Kamala Harris as the presumptive nominee for President, and it’s important to move in that direction. I’m a firm believer in the civil rights act; one of my priorities will be to enshrine the John Lewis Voting Act as the law of the land. That’s why this election is critically important.”

“While I’m a strong believer in supporting law enforcement because we need to live in safe communities, we all need to have our law enforcement follow the rules. A lot of it is training; in the military we’re taught in a civilian environment we’re taught about de-escalation of force. There’s a significant deficit of training with law enforcement in this country.”

He talked about providing resources to help with the training, citing the recent murder of Sonya Massey in Springfield, Illinois by Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Sean Grayson on July 6.

“I think we need to be able to trust law enforcement rather than inspire fear.”

One gentleman asked why the Democratic party doesn’t provide to the Black community updates on their efforts to thwart extremist policies because, as he put it, “young Black men are running around supporting the Republican party.”

Vindman said that a lot of it is due to the information not shared outside of sources other than MSNBC. Another gentleman concurred in another reason for the rise in misinformation.

“We don’t have an appetite to tackle white supremacy in its totality. Until we figure out what we want, we can’t simply throw everything at our elected officials.”

During the visit we asked Arthur, a barber, on what it meant to have Vindman meet with them. “We appreciate the initiative to meet and have conversation with the average folk, that don’t always get the chance to meet them in Congress. It shows that at least in my opinion, everyone matters.”

Next, Vindman visited Kadi’s Hair Gallery in Woodbridge. There, he shared his story of coming from Ukraine to serving in the military. One of the questions he took was about immigration policies and the Supreme Court.

“The stand that I and my twin brother took when I was Ethics Attorney, we had a sworn duty to protect the Constitution against enemies former and domestic, and at the time it was the president who had the greatest threat by having a foreign power investigate his chief rival. I wouldn’t change that for a second.”

“Regarding the Supreme Court,” he continued, “it has made someone taking that type of stand that much less likely in the future. To me, as a former prosecutor who has argued no one is above or below the law, to me it didn’t matter what their rank was, and SCOTUS has changed that for the first time in history. I’m going to charge everyone to take an action, and that action is to vote in November.”

Someone asked how a convicted felon can’t vote, but one can run for the highest office in the land. “That doesn’t make sense,” said Vindman. “What we can do is mobilize, and every vote counts. My commitment is enshrining Roe v. Wade as the law of the land, and co-sponsor the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.”

We asked him about the rise in awareness of the conservative agenda Project 2025. “So, this is a huge issue,” he said. “It is written by 34 members of [former President] Trump’s staff. His name is mentioned in it 300 plus times in a 900-page document. This document is his agenda, and the MAGA manifesto of the next administration’s goals if it’s Republican.”

“There are aspects of the program that call for kids being taken away from parents which don’t mean some sort of purity test and given to foster families, to politicizing federal employees. A plan to eliminate 50,000 sort of non-partisan positions, and make them Schedule F employees, which could be positions that are tied to loyalty to the next president. Every aspect of people’s lives, elimination of Social Security and Medicare will be affected by this program. It is important to educate people, so they know what is on the chopping block.