Governor Ralph Northam, House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, and House Majority Leader Charniele Herring endorsed Delegate Hala Ayala (D-51st) early on Monday in the Democratic Primary Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. In doing so, they are backing a candidate who would become the first Latina, first Black woman, and first person of Lebanese descent to hold the office.

In response to the announcement, one of her Democratic opponents, former head of the Fairfax NAACP, Sean Perryman, released the following statement:

For those unaware of the infamous “Byrd Machine”, it is a political machine led by the Byrd family, including Former Governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd. From the 1890s until the late 1960s, the Byrd Organization effectively controlled the politics of the Commonwealth through a network of elected officials, lobbyists, activists, and local constitutional officers in most of the state’s counties.

This statement is problematic for several reasons. It is troubling to think that someone running for public office believes that endorsing an Afro-Latina/Middle Eastern woman to statewide office is “The Virginia Way”. The Byrd Machine was the epitome of segregationist practices and rooted in racism at its foundation. Comparing a Black woman to the ways of a racist past shows short-sightedness at worst. 

Although the state has a sordid history of holding down Black and brown candidates, today’s endorsements are not part of that culture. Calling out the establishment is one thing, but to lump in a multiracial woman candidate with a racist, segregationist sect is another matter entirely.

Unfortunately, this isn’t Perryman’s first time addressing Ayala’s candidacy. Back in March one of Perryman’s volunteers sent out a tweet stating that he was the only Black candidate in the Lieutenant Governor’s race, prompting a follow-up tweet only after he was called out on it. Perryman did not immediately apologize for the tweet; only after other Twitter users began to call him out, did he formally apologize to Ayala.

One has to wonder what his true intentions are in doing so, and what does he have to gain from it?