According to DXC’s statement Monday night, its board determined Atos’ offer was too low and lacked certainty, and the companies agreed to discontinue further discussions. News reports last month placed the potential deal around $10 billion.
DXC, which was formed in April 2017 as a result of the merger of Computer Science Corp. and the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, had revenues last year of $21 billion and employs 138,000 people worldwide. Atos, which currently has a valuation of $8.2 billion as of the close of the Paris stock market Monday, employs 110,000 people.
Earlier Monday, Bloomberg News reported that Atos had walked away from the potential deal to purchase its rival. “The board of directors of Atos has unanimously determined not to pursue a potential transaction with DXC Technology,” the company said in a statement.
DXC’s stock fell 13% in late trading Monday, according to Bloomberg.
Virginia expects to receive about 18,000 more weekly COVID-19vaccine doses starting immediately, as the federal government‘s pledge to increase distribution by about 16% kicks in Monday. That will raise the commonwealth’s vaccine supply from 118,000 doses to 128,000 doses per week, said Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccine coordinator.
Meanwhile, the number of virus-related deaths in Virginia rose last week as of Feb. 1, with 393 recorded, an average of 56 deaths per day, or one fatality every 25 minutes. The previous week saw 342 fatalities.
Gov. Ralph Northam last week pledged to accelerate the state’s efforts “to get more shots in more arms more quickly” and also to be more transparent about the process. The governor came under fire from local officials and residents for the state’s apparent lag in vaccination, as Virginia ranked in the bottom of the nation for administering shots per capita — about a week ago, Virginia was administering just below 50% of its available supply of vaccine doses. Neighboring West Virginia, by comparison, has been at or near the top of the nation, administering 85% to 90% of available shots.
However, Virginia has seen a large improvement in recent days and is now 14th in the nation in percentage of distributed vaccines administered, according to a Feb. 1 update by Becker’s Hospital Review, which analyzes data from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. As of Monday, 67.61% of 1.2 million doses sent to the state have been administered, the CDC reports.
According to the Virginia Health Department’s most recent information, 8.4% of the state’s population — or 718,823 people — have received at least one dose, and 124,407 Virginians have received two shots and are fully vaccinated.
Although race and ethnicity information was available only for 51.4% of patients, the numbers show the vast majority of shots were received by white, non-Hispanic people, to the tune of 72.5% of patients whose race and ethnicity was given, VDH reports. Women outnumber men 65% to 35%, and the number of recipients by age is spread broadly, with people age 50-59 the top group.
The number of new COVID cases across the state declined last week, with a seven-day positivity rate at 11.7% as of Jan. 28, down nearly 1% from the previous week. There were 29,021 cases recorded, bringing the state’s total to 507,640, and the number of deaths statewide is now at 6,474.
According to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, 2,446 people are currently hospitalized with COVID or with test results pending, and 35% of the state’s ventilators are in use for coronavirus patients and others. Also, 53% of ICU beds, including surge beds, are occupied as of Feb. 1. Hospitals have administered 317,837 vaccine doses as of Jan. 26, the most current information available.
Virginia also announced last week that a more contagious variant of the coronavirus — first identified in December in the United Kingdom — had turned up in Northern Virginia. As of Monday, the CDC identifies two cases in Virginia. It is not clear whether the B.1.1.7 strain, which has been recorded in 32 U.S. states in 467 cases, is more deadly than the earlier version. There are two other variants from South Africa and Brazil that have been reported in the U.S. but not in the commonwealth.
Nationally, President Joe Biden is meeting with 10 Republican senators Monday to discuss the COP’s $600 billion coronavirus relief proposal to counter the president’s $1.9 trillion plan, which would offer $1,400 checks to Americans. The GOP proposal would reduce the amount to $1,000. Biden’s administration also is working to purchase more vaccine doses and increase the pace of vaccination, as more than 25 million Americans, or 7.7% of the population have received a first dose.
There was also news regarding new vaccines by AstraZeneca, which has been approved by the European Union for all adults, and Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine, which reported an efficacy rate of 72% in the United States but only 57% in South Africa, where a highly contagious variant strain has developed. Both vaccines are still in the federal approval process in the U.S.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said more people need to be vaccinated quickly to avoid broader spread of the three variants in the U.S.
As of Jan. 28, many of the state’s health districts have positivity rates above 10%. The state’s highest rates and/or sharpest one-week spikes are in the following districts:
Chesapeake — 19.5%, down from 21.6% on Jan. 21
Portsmouth — 19.3%, down from 22.3%
West Piedmont (Franklin, Henry and Patrick counties and the city of Martinsville) — 18.3%, up from 16.3%
Hampton — 18.0%, down from 18.3%
Pittsylvania-Danville — 17.9%, up from 16.7%
Virginia Beach — 16.2%, down from 16.9%
Central Virginia (Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell counties and Lynchburg) — 15.8%, down from 18.3%
Rappahannock (city of Fredericksburg and Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties) — 15.8%, up from 14.2%
Lenowisco (Lee, Scott and Wise counties and the city of Norton) — 15.7%, down from 18.7%
Norfolk — 15.7%, down from 17.4%
Peninsula (Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg, James City and York counties) — 15.0%, down from 16.2%
Western Tidewater (cities of Franklin and Suffolk and Isle of Wight and Southampton counties) — 14.4%, down from 16.4%
Mount Rogers (cities of Bristol and Galax and counties of Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, Washington and Wythe) — 13.8%, down from 17.1%
Prince William — 13.8%, down from 14.7%
Globally, there are 103.1 million reported COVID-19 cases and 2,231,324 confirmed deaths, as of Feb. 1. The United States, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths worldwide, has seen 26.2 million confirmed cases so far, with 441,454 deaths attributed to the coronavirus since February 2020.
A week after being censured by the state Senate, Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield County, is suing the legislative body and its clerk for violating Chase’s civil rights, including her First Amendment right to freedom of speech, she announced Monday.
Virginia Beach attorney Tim Anderson said Monday he has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Chase in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia. The suit seeks an injunction to prevent Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar from publishing last week’s censure resolution in the official journal of the Senate of Virginia.
Chase, who is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, also seeks a declaratory judgment that the passed censure resolution — which focused on Chase’s speech and behavior over the past two years — is in violation of her right to free speech under the First Amendment. The suit also seeks to force Schaar to expunge the record of an earlier version of the censure, which argued that Chase engaged in “fomenting insurrection” by participating in a pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, a few hours before Trump supporters participated in a violent insurrectionist breach of the U.S. Capitol. She left the area before the siege and had left Washington altogether by mid-afternoon.
In her statement Monday, Chase says that the censure resolution against her, which passed 24-9 last week, “was unlawful and contrary to the plaintiff’s constitutional rights,” including the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Chase contends she “is being singled out and selectively penalized for taking unpopular political positions that the majority of the members of the Virginia Senate disagree with.”
The suit also seeks a reinstatement of Chase’s seniority rank, which was removed after the resolution passed, although with little material effect because Chase had already been stripped of her committee assignments.
Last week, as the Senate was considering the censure — its first since 1987 — Chase said she would sue if it passed. Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun County, was chief sponsor of the resolution, which censured Chase for “failure to uphold her oath of office, misuse of office and conduct unbecoming of a senator” for multiple controversies since 2019, including an argument with a Virginia Capitol police officer over parking, several social media posts that were broadly criticized for attacking Black people, rape victims and state Democrats, as well as other posts that shared disinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 presidential election, which Chase contended was “stolen” from former President Donald Trump.
Chase argued on the Senate floor that she was covered by the First Amendment for her statements and called the censure resolution, which was supported by three Republicans and all 21 Democrats, as a “politically motivated hit job” related to her campaign for governor.
Anderson, the attorney representing Chase, also represented Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, in his lawsuit late last year seeking physical space to meet with constituents during the 2021 General Assembly session, during which the Senate has been convening at the Science Museum of Virginia due to COVID concerns.
Schaar said she had no comment on the case Monday, and the Senate’s counsel has not yet been determined.
With the release of a study that shows only 13.4% of all state contracts were awarded to woman- and minority-owned businesses in Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam on Friday threw support behind a reframed state bill that would raise that percentage to at least 23.1% of state contracts.
The bill would set a similar goal for all state-certified small, woman- and minority-owned (SWaM) businesses to receive at least 42% of all state contracts, which range from construction work to professional services and goods. That number would include all certified small businesses, including those owned by white men.
In July 2019, Northam ordered a disparity study focusing on state contracts and subcontracts’ distribution among businesses owned by women of all races and businesses owned by minorities. The report, conducted last year by BBC Research & Consulting, studied all contracts awarded by the state between July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2019.
Here are some highlights:
Woman- and minority-owned businesses make up 32.8% of all SWaM-certified businesses in Virginia, but they received only 13.4% of all contracts over the five years studied.
The last disparity study, published in 2011, found that only 2.82% of all state contracts went to woman- and minority-owned businesses.
White women own 10.9% of all SWaM-certified businesses and received 5.5% of all contracts.
Non-white business owners, both men and women, make up 21.9% of all SWaM-certified business owners but received only 8% of all contracts.
Broken down among race and ethnicity: Asian American-owned businesses received 1.1% of contracts but make up 6.6% of certified businesses; Black-owned businesses, 3.4% of contracts, 7.1% of certified businesses; Hispanic-owned businesses, 3.3% of contracts, 5.3% of certified businesses; Native American-owned businesses, 0.1% of contracts and 2.9% of certified businesses.
The Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity oversees the SWaM program, which includes about 15,000 small businesses, defined by the state as having 250 or fewer employees, or average annual gross receipts of $10 million or less over the past three years. Virginia currently does not use any race- or gender-conscious guidelines as part of its contracting and procurement process, but a newly reworded House Bill 1784 would introduce demographic considerations.
The bill, sponsored by Democratic delegates Jeion Ward and Rodney Willett and senators Jennifer McClellan and Mamie Locke, would substitute wording approved by the Northam administration to include the 23.1% guideline. The first version of the bill called only for 42% of contracts to go to SWaM businesses. It has been referred to the House Committee on General Laws.
“I am proud to carry legislation that will enable woman- and minority-owned businesses across the commonwealth to participate in Virginia’s procurement process,” Ward, D-Hampton, said in a statement. “I look forward to working with Gov. Northam and my colleagues in the General Assembly to ensure a more equitable Virginia.”
Aside from the percentage goals, the bill would start a new division at the DSBSD that would work closely with the Department of General Services, the state’s main procurement agency, to make sure the percentages are met annually and that prime contractors comply with the state in hiring of subcontractors. The department also would collect extensive demographic data on all subcontractors.
“State contracting, which represents more than $6 billion annually, can be a powerful tool to create economic opportunity,” Northam said in a statement Friday. “This study makes clear that the commonwealth has significant work to do to maximize the participation of woman- and minority-owned businesses in state contract work. Our administration remains committed to ensuring Virginia supports and benefits from our diverse business community, and this legislation will help advance our ongoing efforts to make the public procurement process more equitable, inclusive and transparent.”
The results of the disparity study will help inform the One Virginia Plan to address systemic racism and inequity throughout state government and create more inclusive practices. Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer Janice Underwood, who was hired to oversee the effort in 2019, expects to release the plan later this year.
Read more in our February 2021 interview with Underwood.
In the months after a blackface scandal threatened his governorship, Gov. Ralph Northam announced that he would appoint a chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer who would report directly to him — the first Cabinet-level position of its kind in any state in the nation. In September 2019, Janice Underwood took on the challenge.
A longtime educator who taught in Hampton’s public schools before leading Old Dominion University‘s Teacher in Residence program and then serving as ODU’s director of diversity initiatives, Underwood has led the creation of the strategic One Virginia Plan to address systemic racism and inequity throughout state government and create more inclusive practices. She also leads the COVID-19 health equity task force for the state and has participated in high-level discussions at Virginia Military Institute, which is undergoing a reckoning with what some Black cadets have called a “relentlessly racist” culture.
Although her position was born during political turmoil, Underwood says that far from being “just the window dressing,” she is engaged in “institutionalizing equity so that it can be deeply embedded — to confront the inequity that’s also deeply embedded.”
If anything, her job has become even more urgent during the past year, with the combination of COVID-19 and the economic downturn disproportionately affecting people of color. Also, nationwide protests following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have shined a spotlight on structural racism, which Underwood says she is working furiously to interrupt.
Formerly Old Dominion University’s diversity director, Underwood has been developing the One Virginia strategic plan, a road map for building diversity in state government. Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
Virginia Business: What are some lessons you’ve learned during your career?
Janice Underwood: As a Black leader, I know about racism. Sometimes when you join with people who are allies in this work who aren’t Black, you got to make sure people understand that we’re in this together, but I’m also a victim of it as well. I’ve experienced it. You’ve got to have cultural humility, because you haven’t walked in my shoes and you’ve only read about it or heard about it, or maybe saw it from a distance because you have a relative who’s Black, or a friend.
What I’ve learned is there are a lot of people who say they are allies in this work and who believe they are DEI [diversity, equity, inclusion] champions, but also don’t understand how they undermine the work because they believe that they are such champions and aren’t willing to interrogate this lifelong learning.
I think Robin DiAngelo
About The Author
says it best when she says structural racism isn’t an event, it’s a system — and that’s big. Structural racism is not an event, it’s a system that we all have been socialized under and lived under.
The one thing that I’ve learned … is that the learning is never over, and no one ever arrives at this complete understanding. Sometimes even Black leaders don’t always have the language to express what it is we’re feeling.
VB:How can workplaces even the playing field?
Underwood: The first thing that you’ve got to understand is that pointing your finger at someone and calling them a racist never gets you anywhere. It’s not always what you say, but how you say it. It’s about how you make people feel. If I make you feel like a worthless racist because I’m name-calling you a racist, then we’re not going to get anywhere, because all it’s going to do is make you defensive.
Racism and inequity have had a 401-year head start. It’s going to take people working together almost in stealth mode to create what I like to call an underground railroad. If you have an intentional strategy where you get different people at different levels of the organization and find out who your allies and accomplices in this work are, we can begin to have everyone talking about diversity, equity and inclusion in a certain way.
Everyone doesn’t need to know who all your allies are. I’ve got so many hidden allies around the state [and] in the nation.
I think you need to make the business case for diversity, equity and inclusion, and it’s really about not just feel-good changes. It’s about interrupting systems of oppression, and there’s a business case for it. There’s a return on investment for these initiatives, both economically in terms of profit, in terms of even saving organizations money with regard to recruitment and retention, but it’s also a social and cultural return on investment, like psychological safety and sense of belonging. I’m expected, empowered to raise my voice, to add my voice.
When we can get to that place, that’s when we’ll see real diversity and inclusion. That’s when we’ll see the return on investment.
VB: How can businesses remove pressure from Black employees, when people are constantly looking to them for answers to solve equity and diversity issues?
Underwood: You have to stop asking Black people to solve something we never created. We didn’t create structural racism; we didn’t create slavery. Why are we being the ones asked to fix it? We understand it. We know what it feels like.
It’s going to take people that look like Gov. Northam to use their influence, to say, “Listen, I had an incomplete understanding of what racial oppression looked like. I’ve heard about it, I read about it. Now I understand because I’ve taken the time to listen.” My advice would be: Do a lot more listening first to people and understand what the actual issues are, because we still don’t even have a clear understanding or appreciation for what the problem is.
Some people don’t even agree that racism still exists. Some people are in this weird vortex and think we live in a post-racial society. “We’ve had Barack Obama; now we have Kamala Harris; we couldn’t possibly have racism anymore. We certainly don’t need a Dr. Janice Underwood in the state of Virginia.”
VB:When you were approached about taking this job after the governor’s blackface controversy, did you have any reservations?
Underwood: We were all taken aback by the events of February 2019, but simultaneously our commonwealth was reckoning with the 1619 commemorations. Remember, I said structural racism is not an individual incident — it’s a system that allows those individual incidents to occur.
I remember thinking [while] sitting at Fort Monroe in August during the 1619 commemoration, “I’m about to take on this role, and I feel the weight of the ancestors on my shoulders.” This is an opportunity to serve those who never had a voice and to serve those who are currently being oppressed and/or serve those who have yet to exist, to make the world a better place, to actually work toward liberty and justice for all.
They vetted me in several interviews. They asked me lots of questions in panels [and] individual interviews, but at the same time, I was vetting them. I was interested; I was learning. Were they good enough for me? Because I know what I bring to the table, and I know what kind of work ethic I have. I know that I have a plan to interrupt racial oppression, as opposed to just [being] the window dressing.
Do I want to provide that? Do I want to commit to this administration?
That dance, that very well choreographed dance, happened early on in the summer of 2019, and it was an honor for me to get to know Gov. Northam because I report directly to him.
We have the honor of saying that we are the first state in the nation to have this position. House Bill 394 in 2020 codified it as a permanent position for every future [gubernatorial] administration. That’s a win. We’re not going to interrupt all systems of inequity in our time here, but this will live on. We’re institutionalizing equity so that it can be deeply embedded to confront the inequity that’s also deeply embedded.
VB: What is the state doing to assist Black entrepreneurs so that they have better access to fair bank loans and get the resources they need for their businesses to flourish?
Underwood: In 2020, state Sen. Mamie Locke patroned a bill to limit the predatory loans, which we know have ravaged low-wealth communities. We know those low-wealth communities are rural communities, as well as communities that are largely African American or Latino. Then COVID-19 occurred, [and we] created the small business Rebuild VA program. We fully funded it, and it absolutely took off.
We organized [Rebuild VA] so that it would not function in the same way our Paycheck Protection Program did at the federal level. Minority-owned businesses, a lot of them very small, couldn’t even get access to those federal loans and those grants. We set aside priority for Small, Women-owned and Minority-owned-certified businesses in Virginia. The Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, under the leadership of Tracey Wiley, really championed this idea of making sure that everybody had access.
Now the work goes on. The work has to go on, because if I can just be candid with you, economic inequity is at the root of what we’ve seen historically and contemporarily. We used to have a Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. There was so much intentional creation of this powerful Black community, [and] it was attacked. It was burned to the ground. Independence was seen as a threat to the white-dominated American capitalism system.
What we need to understand is those historical antecedents made Black business owners today vulnerable, and we are living off of that history. Black businesses aren’t given the same access to capital.
What we do know is that Black businesses couldn’t access the PPP loans. These larger businesses had the wherewithal and the lawyers and the access to the banks, [and] because we don’t have the capital, we literally couldn’t access the banks to help us with this.
All of these things are at the top of my mind and many of my colleagues’ [minds] in the Cabinet. We’re trying to interrupt not these individual instances but the systems that allow these instances to just flourish and be perpetuated.
VB: Although there’s so much attention on these issues right now, how do you encourage long-term support and investment once the headlines start to fade?
Underwood: This idea [that] people in my position are only needed when there’s a crisis — those well-intended“DEI champions” don’t realize they’re undermining the work we started. They are often not even convinced that they have undermined any work until they hit their own crisis. Then they call people like me.
But I don’t want to be viewed as the diversity police. It gives people like me a bad name, and it actually does more just to destroy the legitimacy of the field. There is an electorate of people who want to return to ignoring white supremacy in plain sight. There was this idea that when George Floyd was murdered, a 21st-century manifestation of a lynching in front of all of our eyes, it was like, “Could we please stop talking about it?” People said, “OK, enough already.”
And there were others saying, “We don’t want to stop talking about this. It’s uncomfortable for us to have to keep talking about this.” In fact, the people who want to keep talking about this, we’re the ones that are accused of being the racists.
“Dr. Underwood, you talk about race too much. Dr. Underwood, the only reason we have this problem is because you’re talking about it; you’re making us talk about it.” As if I lived in 1619 and owned 29 slaves, or I was Thomas Jefferson that made these comments in our Declaration and yet still had children with Sally Hemings.
You do as much work as you can to interrupt systems of inequity and make sure everyone’s talking about it in the same way. How we talk about what we do is just as important as what we do.
VB: What are your plans for 2021, Gov. Northam’s final full year in office?
Underwood: Well, right now my head is down, and I’m doing the work. We have 10 agencies in state government who are ready to launch a diversity strategic plan that they’ve never done before.
I literally don’t know what’s next. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to pay my mortgage, but I don’t know what’s next. Getting my husband to understand that, he’s nervous, saying,“Come on. We got to figure out a plan.” I don’t have a plan. I’m really being led by the spirit that guides me, my intuition that guides me, and right now my intuition says,“Keep your head down, do the work, and do it with excellence. Operate with excellence, and that excellence will be rewarded.”
VB: You come from a higher education background and have been involved with the conversations around race at VMI during the past few months. What do you think about that process?
Underwood:I want to start by saying that I’m really proud of the VMI Board of Visitors, the work that they’ve done, and the progress that they’ve made. I’m really excited about the appointment of Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins [as interim superintendent]. I’m really excited about the messages that they are sending, that they are speaking in one united loud voice, that Black lives do matter, that this idea of the historical antecedents that brought us to this place are not the values that they espouse.
These are conversations that everyone should be having — not just VMI. I’ve been a proponent that we need to make all of our institutions of higher education — public, private, four-year and two-year — inclusive and really edified with the framework of inclusive excellence. That’s the model I believe in, and it’s the model by which I’m creating a diversity strategic plan for all state government.
It’s called the One Virginia Plan because I believe that while we are many Virginians, we are one commonwealth. As trite as it sounds, there is more that unites us than divides us.
Warren Thompson got his start as an entrepreneur at age 16, buying out his family’s hog business. It was a sideline enterprise his father had started at their home in the Blue Ridge Mountains to supplement his income as a teacher.
Today, Thompson is the president and chairman of Reston-based Thompson Hospitality Corp., the nation’s largest minority-owned food and facilities management company.
He’s one of 13 Black business and nonprofit executives in Virginia who spoke to Virginia Business to offer insight into their own paths to success as well as advice for future Black business leaders — and people of all races who want to make their workplaces more inclusive, equitable and welcoming to employees of all backgrounds. Many spoke about the impact of the social justice protests that began in late May and early June 2020, after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Some also talked about being intimidated early in their careers, often as the only Black person in a room full of powerful white men.
Not Thompson.
He was one of about a dozen Black students at the private, all-male Hampden-Sydney College in the late ’70s. “We planned to take over the school,” he says matter-of-factly.
Thompson and other Black students won school leadership roles, including newspaper editor, head of the science club and student government treasurer. They launched the minority student union, which raised money for literacy programs in Prince Edward County, where the public school system was shut down from 1959 to 1964, rather than integrating.
As an employee of Marriott Corp. after graduating from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business in 1983, Thompson was an ambitious up-and-comer who managed the Roy Rogers Restaurants chain, which was then owned by the hotelier.
“I brought in a lot of money for them,” he says, and by the early ’90s, Thompson was ready to branch out on his own. After a few starts and stops, he was able to purchase 31 Big Boy restaurants, combining backing funding from Marriott with $100,000 of his own money.
“I always encourage young people, spend some time in that industry working for someone else,” Thompson says. “It becomes very, very difficult to break in and succeed [as an entrepreneur]. Earn your stripes, make mistakes on their dime. There’s very little room for error in those first five years [of business ownership] because you don’t have a lot of capital.”
In the years since its founding in 1992, Thompson Hospitality has expanded to include numerous restaurant brands. It also provides food service at companies, school systems, medical centers and universities across the country.
Despite his own success, Thompson acknowledges the continuing difficulty for many potential Black entrepreneurs to access capital and, equally, build generational wealth.
He tells a story: His father and a white acquaintance both graduated from college at the same time during the Jim Crow era. Both interviewed for a job at DuPont, where the white man was offered a corporate position at $5,000 a year, and Thompson’s father was offered a janitorial job for about $2,000 a year. He decided instead to teach, which paid about the same as the custodial position.
DuPont is now a client of Thompson Hospitality, he notes with a smile. But back then, “this was the way it was. … It’s during that time that generational wealth was created.” It’s an example of why there’s a continuing chasm between white and Black Americans in terms of homeownership and business ownership, he adds.
In 1950, Black men earned 51 cents for every dollar earned by white men; the wage gap remained the same in 2014, according to a 2020 study by economists from Yale and Duke universities.
Amid such alarming statistics, Virginia Business asked some of the state’s most successful Black business leaders to impart their wisdom and advice for the next generation of Black businesspeople.
Named president of Dominion Energy Inc.’s Virginia operations last year, Baine grew up on a tobacco farm in Lunenburg County and attended Virginia Tech before joining the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility as an engineer in 1995. Baine is encouraged by the increased awareness of racial inequity that’s taken place since last year, but cautions: “No one should believe that six months or even a year’s worth of work is ultimately going to counter” centuries of racism. “If you create a culture at a workplace where all are appreciated, everyone will benefit as well. That takes work, that takes resources, that takes behavior. If you give more people the ability to compete for a job for themselves and their families, a lot of things start to get better.”
A longtime Pizza Hut and Burger King franchise owner in Hampton Roads, Bland serves on several boards, including the Urban League of Hampton Roads, for which he serves as president and chairman. As a young man, Bland learned the importance of“preparation and knowledge of the industry. I spent a lifetime building relationships, [learning] not just how it benefits me but how it benefits others.” Even when meeting with someone for a loan or a partnership, “think in terms of what the other person needs,” he suggests. “If somebody is helping me reach a goal, I feel a lot differently when someone asks, ‘What can you do for me?’”
Victor Branch
VICTOR BRANCH Senior vice president and Richmond market president, Bank of America
A Dinwiddie County native, Branch started in the banking industry 37 years ago with Richmond-based Sovran Bank, which later became part of Bank of America. He’s a William & Mary graduate who serves on the university Board of Visitors. “My secret, if there is such a term, is trying to connect with my colleagues internally and trying to connect with my clients,” finding common objectives and goals, and “trying to build that bridge to trust,” Branch says. “One thing I told my teammates that worked for me is that I validate people. You acknowledge them as a human being. You learn their name. If it’s a difficult name, say the name correctly. Learn a little bit about them. Who is their favorite sports team? The running joke in Richmond is, ‘Who are their people?’ Ask them about themselves.”
Victor Cardwell
VICTOR O. CARDWELL Attorney and chairperson, Woods Rogers PLC
Cardwell is the new chair of the Virginia Bar Association’s Board of Governors and was previously deputy associate chief counsel for the U.S. Department of Labor Benefits Review Board. He says that to rid itself of structural and cultural racism, a workplace must“discuss it openly and honestly — not to blame, but to develop a multifaceted path forward. This is not easy to do. The historical impediment to Black success and wealth have been so ingrained in our culture that to have a fair conversation, we must look at the health care, housing, educational and judicial systems. We must consider the opportunities that were lost or never presented to generations of citizens.”
Glenn Carrington
GLENN CARRINGTON Dean, Norfolk State University School of Business
A longtime tax attorney who served in executive roles at Ernst & Young, the IRS and Arthur Andersen’s National Tax Office, Carrington came out of retirement in 2017 to serve as NSU’s business school dean. Because of his job, Carrington spends a lot of time with business students, who are required as freshman to write a “what I want to be when I graduate” essay, which he reads. To reach their goals, Carrington advises, “Get your three P’s down: perseverance, patience and professionalism. You’ll be tested. You’ve got to be ready for that test.” Mentors and other advisers have always meant a lot to Carrington, and he says that one of his aims is to bring back a more “hands-on” approach at NSU. “Someone has to put your name in the hat,” Carrington says. “A relationship doesn’t stop and start at the workplace. Clients hire people a lot of the time not only because they’re smart, but can they trust that person? Don’t underestimate relationships.”
Gambrell has led the Christiansburg-based Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) since 2017 and previously oversaw the U.S. Treasury’s national CDFI Fund from 2007 to 2013 as the first and longest-serving Black woman to be its director. Gambrell says that — especially for women — “most of us grow up polite and professional” and sometimes are scared to speak up in large groups of important people. That needs to end, she says. “I’d encourage any Black leader to be bold, to talk about why this is necessary. This is what I tell people, if you’re looking for ways to be more racially sensitive, look first at your own organization. Do you have a racial inclusivity statement? Government can do that as well as private industry can. If you’re in the community, always look for minority suppliers, retail, etc. Always be thinking about how far you can go.”
Jonathan P. Harmon
JONATHAN P. HARMON Chairman, McGuireWoods LLP
A West Point graduate, U.S. Army Gulf War veteran and respected litigator, Harmon became the first Black chairman at McGuireWoods, Virginia’s largest law firm, in 2017. Harmon’s mom died at the age of 46 when he was in college; both of his grandmothers died that same year. His father asked him to speak at his mother’s funeral, Harmon remembers. He didn’t know if he would make it through without breaking down. “That was the hardest time in my life,” Harmon says, but he realized that speaking in front of people was one of his gifts. “It was in that low moment, that’s when that flower popped up.” Even in the midst of grief, such as losses to COVID-19, he says, good things can sometimes develop.
D. Jermaine Johnson
D. JERMAINE JOHNSON Greater Washington and Virginia regional president, PNC Bank
Johnson has worked in banking for 25 years, starting as a management trainee for Bank of America. Johnson, who was promoted to his new position in August 2020, advises young employees to “get really good at what you’re doing right now, but be open. Be willing to evolve.” As a college student, he decided that accounting was not for him and switched to a finance major after participating in an internship program. In part, he chose banking “because it has so many facets. I was hopeful that over time I’d find a passion. I think we all strive to do the things we’re passionate about … because we spend so much time at work.”
MAURICE A. JONES President and CEO, Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC)
A former state secretary of commerce and trade, and deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2012 to 2014, Jones was appointed CEO and president of LISC in 2016, one of the nation’s largest organizations supporting economic opportunity in financially distressed communities. Jones says that 2020 was “transformative” in terms of understanding structural racism and its impact on Black people’s lives. The challenge, he says, is “looking for ways to transform epiphany moments.” Jones urges Black-led organizations and businesses, as well as individuals, to make the most of the momentum. “Don’t play small ball now. Your ask now needs to be audacious and bold and long-term. The urgency of this moment will subside. Make sure that you ask big things of them.” Specifically, “impress upon people [the need] to commit now and engage in this kind of support for at least the next 10 years.”
J.D. MYERS II Senior vice president and region manager of Virginia operations, Cox Communications Inc.
Myers, who grew up in a military family, served as a U.S. Army officer and then joined Cox Communications’ Virginia and North Carolina operations in 2006, first as Northern Virginia market leader and vice president of Cox Business. Like many leaders, Myers cites the importance of building relationships. “That doesn’t mean they have to become your best friends and your buddies,” but there’s a reason golfing may be a good pastime to pick up, he says. Also, “master the art of chit-chat.” Listen to talk radio, understand current events and what’s happening with the political climate, as well as what is trending in your industry. Myers also advises having a “meeting before the meeting,” talking with others and asking what they plan to bring up. If someone says something that “you know a little about,” Myers suggests the “co-sign technique,” saying that you agree with the colleague’s idea, while rephrasing it in a different way.
Stacey Stewart
STACEY D. STEWART President and CEO, March of Dimes Inc.
Stewart took the helm at Arlington-based March of Dimes in 2017 as the first Black person and second woman to lead the 83-year-old nonprofit devoted to improving maternal and infant health. She previously served as the U.S. president of United Way Worldwide and as president and CEO of the Fannie Mae Foundation. The daughter of a physician and a pharmacist, Stewart learned about leadership from her parents. “My father committed his time outside his practice to ensure that hospitals across the South were desegregated. … My mom served many years on Atlanta’s City Council before making an unsuccessful run for mayor in the 1990s,” Stewart says. “My parents were committed to their professional lives, but they taught me that leadership in your professional life isn’t enough, especially when your community needs you.” Early in her career, she “felt awkward and uncomfortable in meetings with my peers and higher-ups. A critical moment happened for me when my supervisor noticed and pulled me aside. He told me he hired me for a reason: my skills and expertise. He stressed the importance of speaking up in meetings and sharing my ideas.”
Tamika L. Tremaglio
TAMIKA L. TREMAGLIO Greater Washington managing principal, Deloitte
For the past four years, Tremaglio has led operations in the Washington, D.C., region for Deloitte, one of the Big Four accounting firms, where she has worked since 2010. She previously served in leadership roles at Huron Consulting Group and KPMG. Tremaglio recommends the PIE concept from Harvey Coleman’s book, “Empowering Yourself: The Organizational Game Revealed” — P for performance, I for image and E for exposure. “Most people, particularly Black professionals, are accustomed to spending copious amounts of their time on performance — working hard to be focused, responsive and technically proficient — but how do you continue to raise the bar and propel yourself to the next level? As you grow in your career, spending more time on your image (how you show up — not simply appearance, but do you appear confident and prepared?) and exposure (what experiences are you getting — what are you being exposed to?) becomes paramount.”
Her online retail brand, Sassy Jones, was the top-ranking Virginia business on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing U.S. private companies, based on its 2019 growth. The Richmond-based fashion accessories and beauty e-commerce company reaped $14 million in revenue last year, three-and-a-half times its revenue from the previous year. In 2021, Jones plans to roll out new cosmetics, clothing, shoe and home décor lines.
“We’re just waiting to see how good it can get,” she says. But when she was starting out in 2013, Jones had to sell her Mercedes C320 for $3,200 to launch her business. She didn’t bother to seek a bank loan because she didn’t think she’d be approved.
Black women helm 42% of new women-owned businesses nationally and 36% of all new Black-owned businesses, according to 2018 U.S. Census data. And their companies are uniquely vulnerable in this economic climate.
One major issue is lack of financial resources. A JPMorgan Chase & Co. Institute study released in September 2019 found that small businesses in majority-Black communities were unlikely to be able to pay two weeks’ worth of bills with cash on hand.
The roots of Black entrepreneurship are deep, however, tracing back centuries to enslaved people who used their skills to purchase their freedom and start small businesses.
By the dawn of the 20th century, Maggie Lena Walker became the first Black woman in the United States to charter and run a bank: Richmond’s St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. “Let us have a bank that will take the nickels and turn them into dollars,” Walker said in 1901. Richmond was the home for other Black-owned banks that started in the late 1800s and early 1900s, providing financial services for Black clients whose business wasn’t welcome at white banks.
“Black people — and Black women especially — are shut out of traditional employment, but our culture applauds the hustler who responds to exclusion by striking out on her own,” wrote Tressie McMillan Cottom, a University of North Carolina sociology professor who studies Black entrepreneurship, in a fall 2020 article in Dissent magazine. “As brands and digital platforms celebrate grit and urge us to ‘respect the hustle,’ the realities of who succeeds and who stays struggling are lost.”
Dr. Tammy Jones and Art Jackson struggled to get loans and relief funding for their Fairfax County family medical practice and medi-spa. Photo by Stephen Gosling
In other words, amid the success stories are many Black entrepreneurs who face major challenges to economic success, starting with lack of capital.
“The intergenerational wealth gap is very important,” says Maurice Jones, the Norfolk-based CEO and president of Local Initiatives Support Corp., a government- and privately-funded national organization that provides funding for economic development in financially challenged areas. “White families have 10 times what Black families have.”
An October 2020 Brookings Institution study found that the net worth of an average white family in 2016 was $171,000, and the average net worth of a Black family was $17,150. That disparity extends to business ownership, leaving Black entrepreneurs with fewer resources during downturns like the current pandemic-sparked recession and the 2008-09 Great Recession.
Still standing
Edna Howard started her Fairfax-based empowerment coaching business in 2017 with $3,500 out of her own pocket. She has applied for multiple grants during the pandemic — from companies including Visa, Verizon, Google and many others — “just trying to get the capital, really, to build up the virtual workshops.” Howard sought funding to purchase equipment to conduct webinars, which replaced in-person gatherings due to the pandemic. However, as of December 2020, none of her grant applications had been approved.
Art Jackson and Dr. Tammy Jones, business partners in Jones’ Fairfax County family medical practice and a medi-spa that offers Botox, laser hair removal and body sculpting, had grand plans after they started the primarily self-funded businesses in March 2019. Jones, too, was not able to get a business loan — which surprised her.
As a hospital-affiliated family practice doctor, she had a healthy savings account, a retirement fund and a “credit score that was far beyond what is average,” she says. Banks still said no.
Robin Mack, CEO of government contractor Mack Global LLC, grew her business on the side while working a full-time job. Photo courtesy Mack Global LLC
“It was a leap of faith,” says Jackson, whose background is in operations management. He and Jones estimated, after a good first year, that their businesses would break even by March 2020.
Instead, state COVID-19 restrictions forced the spa to close for a few months. Jones moved her medical practice online, seeing patients through telemedicine appointments, but Jackson says it was hard going because the medical practice, which they purchased from a retiring doctor, still needed more patients for it to be financially sustainable.
Although the spa and medical practice reopened for some in-person appointments in June 2020, Jones says, “I’ve pretty much exhausted my savings and tapped into my retirement account. We have invested in the stock market during the downturn, sinking any money we’ve made into the businesses. I’m not broke, but I’ve taken a loss.”
Jones and Jackson were able to get a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan that helped them pay their employees last spring, but their applications for the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) were turned down. “The response is that I didn’t experience an economic disaster,” Jones says with a dry chuckle.
A late-fall rush of Botox and filler clients was their saving grace, Jones says. “Our goal is to hobble along until there is a vaccine [broadly available] and … customers are comfortable coming in.”
Making connections
Starting a business is tough for most people unless they have a significant financial cushion and a close circle of peers, friends and colleagues willing to give advice. For Black entrepreneurs, those connections sometimes take longer to forge.
Richmond-area staffing and telework consultant Robin Mack started her company, Mack Global LLC, in 2008 but it wasn’t earning enough, so she had to take another full-time job from 2012 to 2015 while continuing to work nights on her own business.
Now, Mack has a five-year contract with the Virginia Department of Rail & Public Transportation’s Telework Virginia program, among other clients, including all branches of the military and the U.S. Justice and Defense departments. With so many people working remotely due to the pandemic, Mack found her company in demand, although current financial conditions delay some of her clients’ payments, she notes.
The turning point for Mack was finding a community financial institution that she considers “my partner in business,” First Citizens Bank, which she found through the Metropolitan Business League, a Richmond-based nonprofit business association that supports small, women- and minority-owned businesses in Central Virginia.
“It took me some time to get there. Metropolitan Business League was very instrumental in connecting the dots. I did struggle from a financial standpoint in finding a bank that would support me.” Today, Mack feels supported and also well-informed through that relationship, and she has connections and a track record that brings more business her way.
Charis Jones, whose success is based on building relationships with loyal customers — Sassy Jones’ advertising budget in 2020 was $0 — advises entrepreneurs to “trust your gut” and also talk directly to customers, not just relying on data or online surveys. Schedule a Zoom conference with your best clients, she says.
Dr. Rosemary Ahanor, a Nigerian-born dentist who has lived in the Washington, D.C., region for a decade, opened her Reston-based dental practice in August 2020. So far, it’s been tough but manageable, she says.
“Black business owners may not have that same network” that many white business owners do, she acknowledges, so she dipped into her funds to hire a marketing consultant, “so the community knows I exist.”
Slowly, Ahanor found some parts of the community she needed — the Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce and the local chapter of SCORE, which offers advice and training for entrepreneurs. Also, her husband has a psychiatric practice in Northern Virginia, so she benefited from his experience. Facebook groups for dentists and other entrepreneurs helped too.
“If you were not born and raised here, you have to ask the right questions,” Ahanor says. So far, she’s found new patients by offering free consultations and a membership program that includes discounts.
Sheila Dixon, who started as executive director of the Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce in February 2020, has relied on her skills as a branding consultant in her new role.
With 108 member businesses, she’s led webinars during the past year focusing on getting loans, building relationships and finding corporate sponsors. But the chamber is still not where Dixon wants it to be in terms of getting its own grants and funding.
“We were partnering with everyone and all those things, but we just needed that visibility and consistency,” Dixon says. “We were in the circles but not getting the same opportunities. We know what’s happening here in the community, and we want to be that place. Some chambers are receiving funding, and our chamber is not.”
For Black-owned small businesses, especially during the beginning stages, “capital is the No. 1 barrier,” said Tracey Wiley, former director of the state Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, which manages Virginia’s Small, Women-owned and Minority-owned (SWaM) business certification program. Another challenge, she said, speaking in December 2020, is that, “from a procurement standpoint, people do business with the people they know.”
SWaM certification helps, Wiley said, because the approximately 15,000 state-certified businesses now are in front of state agencies seeking contractors. SWaM businesses have access to loans and grants, including an investment fund that reimburses angel investors up to 25%, as well as Virginia’s Scaling4Growth accelerator program.
Since all small businesses can qualify, SWaM is a gender- and race-neutral program, but Wiley said that the traditional system of awarding state contracts to businesses with long track records and agency relationships excludes many minority-owned businesses.
“There’s still some level of subjectivity entering in. We have very qualified businesses,” she said. “There’s still historical and traditional and systemic things going on. We’re essentially missing the mark.”
Starting Thursday, the Virginia Department of Health will begin sending a text to anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 if their mobile phone number is registered in the state’s system.
The texts will automatically be sent to anyone with a positive lab test who has a valid mobile number, providing faster notification of results and allowing Virginia residents to share their results with anyone else who may have been exposed, VDH announced Thursday. Texts will come only from (804) 336-3915 and will be sent between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Messages will share a link to the COVIDWISE verification code portal, which will let recipients send test results anonymously to the state’s COVID exposure notification app. Spanish messages are also available.
Launched last year, COVIDWISE can be downloaded for free on smartphones and, if activated, will notify the user if they have been near a person who has tested positive for the virus. As of Wednesday, the app has been downloaded 978,378 times.
“Using tools like automated text messages provide additional options to help Virginia expand its existing exposure notifications and contact tracing operations without compromising user privacy or security,” State Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver said in a statement. “This technology will quickly notify you if you have a positive test result and provide valuable safety information, so you can self-isolate effectively, seek timely medical attention and reduce potential exposure risk. It will also encourage you to anonymously share your results through COVIDWISE with other users who’ve likely been exposed, so you can help protect your family, friends and community.”
As of Thursday, the state’s seven-day positivity rate is 12.2%, with 493,674 COVID cases and 6,308 deaths recorded since last March. The state has administered 641,873 vaccine doses out of 1,166,600 received, VDH reported Thursday, a rate of 55%, or an average of 27,079 shots per day over the past week.
With the support of Republicans and Democrats, the Virginia State Senate on Wednesday censured Sen. Amanda Chase, R- Chesterfield County, for “failure to uphold her oath of office, misuse of office and conduct unbecoming of a senator” based on a laundry list of controversies extending over the past two years.
In a 24-9 vote, with six Republicans abstaining, Chase became the first state senator to be censured in Virginia since 1987, when Norfolk Democratic Sen. Peter Balabas was sanctioned for not disclosing a conflict of interest.
The vote also placed Chase last in seniority, a move that is even more rare than censure, although it is unlikely to have much of a material effect on the senator, who has been stripped of all committee assignments over the past two years since leaving the Senate Republican Caucus.
Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, said, “Since taking her oath in 2016, Sen. Amanda Chase has over and over again engaged in behavior unbecoming of a senator. She propagated conspiracy theories; lied to her constituents, followers, and colleagues; praised those who espoused racist and anti-Semitic sentiments; and on many other occasions brought disrepute upon herself, and by extension, the Senate of Virginia. Sen. Amanda Chase’s conduct had to be held accountable, and that’s what we did today.”
The vote came after more than an hour of speeches against Chase — with some of the the most forceful delivered by Chase’s fellow Republicans.
Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Thomas Norment, R-James City, the leader of the Senate Republican Caucus, accused Chase of “absolute hypocrisy” and of violating “personal integrity,” based partly on Chase’s actions over the past few days as she has battled the censure motion.
Sen. Thomas Norment, R-James City County
Despite Chase’s comment last week on the floor that she had not filed a resolution to censure Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, for her attendance at a social justice protest last summer, Norment said he had found out that Chase had attempted to file the resolution twice but had not been allowed to do so because it would have exceeded the limit on the number of bills a senator can file during the short session.
“Violation of personal integrity is totally unacceptable, totally unacceptable,” said Norment, who voted to censure Chase.
“How dare you!” said an indignant Chase, addressing Norment. She then referred to years-old ethical controversies Norment was involved in, as well as criminal charges against Lucas — since dropped — that stemmed from a Portsmouth protest.
“The reason I left the caucus was because of your improprieties. Your affairs, your lies. … Your behavior, sir, does not become a sitting senator,” Chase said. “To the senator from Portsmouth, who was arrested on two felony counts this year, give me a break! You should be on the floor defending me. I was never even charged with a crime. I was never even arrested for a crime.”
Laundry list of controversies
On Tuesday, chief sponsor Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun, added an eight-paragraph list of controversies to support the resolution’s charges. It started with Chase’s 2019 conflict with a state Capitol police officer over parking and also mentioned Chase’s anti-masking stance during the pandemic, as well as a series of comments and social media posts by Chase that have been broadly criticized for denigrating Black people, rape victims and state Democrats. The censure resolution also chastised Chase for “propagating unfounded claims” about the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump supporters. The censure resolution’s revised wording was accepted by a voice vote Tuesday, despite Chase’s objections that the First Amendment covers her right to make such statements, “inflammatory” or not.
Chase continued to deliver the same argument Wednesday, saying her conduct is protected by the Constitution and threatening to sue the state Senate if it went forward with the vote against her.
In an interview Tuesday night, Bell said he made the changes to address other senators’ freedom of speech concerns and expected to receive more votes on the reworded resolution, including some Republican support. Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, said the Senate Democrats Caucus had a “knockdown, drag-out fight” over what warranted censure that resulted in the rewording of the measure. While he supported the censure resolution, Morrissey added that he believes some of the criticisms of Chase listed in the censure are “protected” speech, including Chase’s comment that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen.”
The first draft of the resolution, introduced on the first day of the General Assembly, sought Chase’s censure “for fomenting insurrection,” citing her speech and attendance at the Jan. 6 pro-Trump demonstration that preceded the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and her social media posts about it. However, the revised censure resolution dropped the “insurrection” accusation and instead sought to censure and place the gubernatorial hopeful last in seniority “for failure to uphold her oath of office, misuse of office and conduct unbecoming of a senator.”
In comments Wednesday, Chase also called out other senators — including Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania County, and Morrissey — for actions she argued were not becoming of a senator.
Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun
“What a double standard,” Chase said with a raised voice. Addressing Morrissey, who has had multiple legal run-ins over the years, including serving three months in jail as a former state delegate for contributing to the delinquency of a minor (stemming from his relationship with a then-17-year-old girl who is now his wife), Chase said that she was always “kind” to Morrissey.
Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, interrupted Chase mid-sentence, saying that she was breaching decorum and called for a brief break. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, serving as president of the Senate, reminded the legislative body of its rules requiring that they observe decorum during debate “and to treat everyone with respect.”
Chase resumed with a more chastened tone, saying that she was disappointed in her colleagues who “never once” came to her privately to discuss their grievances as they occurred. She said that she prays and added that “my heart is right with the Lord.”
Chase then specifically denounced white supremacists among the people who breached the U.S. Capitol. “I don’t support any of those groups. I don’t support any groups that support hate,” Chase said. She also condemned everyone “who broke the law” during the siege and said they should be arrested.
It was a change in tone for Chase, who, after the Jan. 6 insurrection, used the the word “patriots” in regard to the rioters in a post on her official Facebook page and said that pro-Trump rioter and Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt had been “brutally murdered by Capitol Police.”
‘A call for help’
Before Wednesday’s censure vote, several Republican senators took to the floor and condemned their colleague but ultimately abstained from voting. Some said that although they didn’t support the resolution on freedom of speech or procedural grounds, they also didn’t want to show support for Chase by voting against censure.
“She has long ago exhausted any remaining reservoir of trust and credibility with most of her colleagues, if not all of her colleagues,” said Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg. “And I am not sure, that at this point in time, she can claim a single member of the General Assembly — not just [in] the Senate, but the House of Delegates and the Senate — as an ally.”
Obenshain also decried the senator’s “narcissistic behavior” and “total unfamiliarity with truth,” while indicating that he would abstain from voting. Under different circumstances, Obenshain said, he likely would have voted against the resolution on First Amendment grounds but would not do so because he did not want to endorse Chase’s “antics.”
Sen. William M. Stanley Jr., R-Franklin County, decried Chase’s “sense of entitlement,” as well as “greed and ambition.” Although he did not support the resolution, he added, “I will not vote ‘no’ because it is a reward for bad behavior.”
Others said they hoped Chase would seek help, including Sen. Stephen Newman, R-Bedford County, who suggested that Chase’s behavior both inside and outside of the Senate “represents a call for help.” Newman objected to the process of the resolution, which was changed significantly on Tuesday in substitute text, but that the charges — focusing on Chase’s overall behavior during the past two years — should have all been debated in committee before coming to a final floor vote.
In a statement issued by the Senate Republican Caucus after the vote, party leaders said it was “disheartening” to spend time in the Senate on the censure instead of business affecting the state. “Sen. Chase’s selfishness and constant need for media attention, with which the Senate Republican Caucus is keenly familiar, brought us to the situation in which the Senate found itself today.” Although GOP senators voted differently — three supporting the resolution, nine voting against and six abstaining — “all … are united in their disappointment in Sen. Chase and their disdain for her actions,” the statement said.
‘Politically motivated hit job’
The censure resolution shifted focus Tuesday to Chase’s overall behavior over the past two years, instead of only on her conduct Jan. 6, when she spoke at a rally on the National Mall hours before the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol, which led to five deaths. Chase left the area around the Capitol before the takeover and departed Washington, D.C., shortly after. But in a Facebook post that evening, she wrote, “These were not rioters and looters; these were Patriots who love their country and do not want to see our great republic turn into a socialist country.”
In a news release from her campaign Wednesday, Chase threatened to sue the Senate if it moved forward with the censure, calling the entire process “a politically motivated hit job.”
She says she’s being targeted because she is “the Republican frontrunner in the race for governor” and has outraised former House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox, who entered the gubernatorial race in November. Chase was the first GOP hopeful to declare her candidacy, announcing in February 2020.
As of Dec. 31, 2020, Chase had raised $668,982 and Cox had raised $393,631, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, and her balance at the end of the year was $229,745, while Cox had $341,896 on hand. The field of five Republican candidates are competing for the nomination that will be decided by convention May 1.
On Jan. 22, in an effort to avoid censure, Chase made an apology to the Senate in a speech on the floor, saying, “If I have offended any one of you in this room because I am very passionate about the Constitution, I apologize.”
Bell had offered to strike the resolution if Chase made a full apology and condemned violent actors in the Capitol siege, but he and other Democrats felt Chase’s speech “fell far short” of what they required. In her speech, Chase continued to defend her conduct and also criticized a public radio journalist whom she said misattributed a quote to her.
Later Friday, as the resolution went forward, Chase returned to her defiant stance, tweeting that she would “wear [the censure] like a badge of honor.” On her Twitter account, she hurled criticism at Lucas for taking part in a social justice protest last June in which a Confederate statue was taken down by demonstrators hours after the president pro tempore had left the area; and Norment, who was embroiled in ethics controversies several years ago but was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing after a federal investigation in 2015.
“Sen. Norment, it’s not good to throw rocks in glass houses,” Chase tweeted Tuesday night, adding that he, too, should be censured.
In her campaign’s announcement Wednesday, Chase said the censure was “nothing more than a failed attempt to tarnish my good name, reputation and solid conservative record. We are going to fight this unprecedented political hit job and prevail.”
Amid recent criticism from local officials and Virginia residents over the state’s COVID-19vaccine rollout so far, Gov. Ralph Northam acknowledged citizen frustration and said the state is accelerating its efforts “to get more shots in more arms more quickly” and will also be “significantly expanding transparency.”
“I understand your frustration,” Northam said during a news conference Wednesday. “I know you’re out of patience and I am as well. Everyone across the country is tired of the pandemic. We all want to put COVID behind us and get back to normal. We know that vaccines are the way out and everyone wants to get the shot now, and I get that.”
In the past week, state legislators and local elected officials have blasted Northam for the bumpy vaccine rollout, with Chesterfield County supervisors calling the process “totally defective,” and the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission saying the vaccination campaign has been “inconsistent” and “causing confusion and frustration” for citizens.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data examined by Becker’s Hospital Review, as of Tuesday, Virginia was ranked second from last in the country based on the percentage of distributed doses that have been administered in the state, 45.15%. VDH’s most recent data, which is about a day ahead of the CDC’s, shows an improvement at 49.2%. At the beginning of January, Virginia’s distributed dosage rate hovered below 25%.
Speaking Wednesday, Northam said that Virginia has administered 594,828 shots so far, placing Virginia at No. 11 out of the 50 states for the total number of doses administered. The state has also met its initial goal of providing 25,000 vaccinations per day and is averaging around 26,000 per day.
Northam reminded Virginians that the first COVID-19 vaccination in the nation occurred just six weeks ago, on Dec. 14, 2020. Virginia has prioritized the vaccine administration, with the first doses earmarked for the roughly 500,000 health care workers and residents in long-term care facilities across the commonwealth. More than 520,000 doses of the two-injection vaccines have been delivered to that population at this point, Northam said Wednesday.
On Jan. 14, Northam expanded the eligibility pool for vaccinations to include all residents 65 and older, as well as younger people with certain health conditions, causing statewide demand to grow significantly, far outpacing the approximately 105,000 weekly doses the state has been receives from the federal government. Many localities have waiting lists for vaccines, and residents around the state have overwhelmed health districts, pharmacies and hospitals with calls, trying to make appointments.
During his Wednesday news conference, Northam said that expansion was driven by outgoing Trump administration officials who told governors that the federal government would reduce vaccine shipments to states that didn’t expand eligibility to those 65 and under. The only problem, Northam says, is that two days after being told to make that change, the states then learned that the federal government did not possess a vaccine reserve that the Trump administration had said existed. “That,” Northam said, “made a confusing situation even more confusing.”
The Biden administration has pledged to boost the weekly vaccine supply to states by 16% starting next week and is providing states with vaccine supply data for a month in advance instead of week to week, as was the case previously, the governor said.
Northam also said that all hospitals in the commonwealth should have administered first doses of the two-step vaccine to health care workers by now.
“There’s no excuse for first doses to be sitting there unused. Get them out and get them in arms now,” Northam said, adding that his administration was also working with hospitals and local health districts to ensure they are not holding on to excess vaccine supplies for second doses, which aren’t needed until about three weeks later. The state intends to reallocate those doses to localities in need of first doses. This should result in a 20% increase in vaccinations in Virginia this week, he said.
Virginia hospitals have administered a little under 318,000 vaccine doses to hospital staff, health care workers, essential workers and other eligible Virginians since mid-December 2020, said Dr. Michael P. McDermott, president and CEO of Mary Washington Healthcare in Fredericksburg and the immediate past chairman of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.
In an effort to increase transparency about the state’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, Northam said that his administration has advised local health districts that 50% of the limited supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses should be allocated to adults ages 65 and older and 50% should be allocated for a group including frontline essential workers, people ages 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions or disabilities, and people in correctional facilities, homeless shelters and migrant labor camps.
State Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, has often spoken critically about the slow vaccine rollout on the Senate floor. In a Jan. 20 letter to Northam, DeSteph complained that Virginia Beach had not yet entered vaccination phase 1b, which allows vaccinations of people age 65 and older, younger people with health conditions and essential workers including school employees, first responders and grocery workers, among other workers.
“Why is the largest city in Virginia still in 1a?” DeSteph asked in his letter. “We have everything we need to administer the vaccine. The numbers on the VDH’s website suggest that there are currently over a half-million doses distributed throughout the state and ready to be used.” As of Monday, the entire state had entered phase 1b.
Although a state advisory team started work last September on planning the vaccination campaign — getting more than 2,000 pharmacies, health districts, hospitals and other facilities ready to give vaccinations, as well as planning future vaccination events with assistance from the Virginia National Guard — the governor did not name a vaccine coordinator for the state until earlier this month.
Over the past two weeks, Dr. Danny Avula, director of Richmond and Henrico County’s health departments, has led the effort to speed up vaccinations and also track down information on vaccinations that hasn’t been entered into the state vaccination database — a significant issue involving paperwork delays, redistribution of some doses based on need, and a federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies to vaccinate long-term care residents and employees that skips over the state system, leaving some vaccinations unaccounted for on the VDH site. Also, residents of nursing homes and care facilities with outbreaks of the virus have to wait to be vaccinated.
Last week, Avula assigned a 10-person team to track down that data and make sure it’s reflected on the state vaccine dashboard, which is updated daily.
Avula has said the ultimate aim is to vaccinate an average of 50,000 people a day in Virginia and achieve 70% to 80% immunity, but that the pharmaceutical companies will not be able to produce enough vaccine until at least March to achieve that goal. The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it was “on the cusp” of securing 200 million more doses of the Moderna and Pfizer Inc. vaccines currently available in the United States, bringing the available supply to 600 million doses by this summer — but this would not help the current pinch felt in Virginia and other states. District health directors are warning that it will take the state at least until March or April to vaccinate everyone in group 1b, which makes up about half of the state’s 8.5 million population.
Avula said that aside from his direction from Northam to speed up vaccination efforts now and make sure vaccine information is up to date and accurate, his other task is to make sure the infrastructure is in place to deliver shots to 50,000 Virginians per day later this spring and early summer.
Toward that effort, the House of Delegates unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that expands the number of people qualified as eligible COVID-19 vaccine administrators during a state of emergency, including trained health care volunteers, nurse practitioners, practical nurses, medical students and pharmacy technicians. The measure also protects vaccinators from being liable for injury or death resulting from a vaccination, except in the case of gross negligence or willful misconduct.
Also, the city of Richmond announced Wednesday that Mayor Levar Stoney tested positive for COVID-19, but that he has experienced only mild symptoms since Monday. “While I do not feel 100%, I am thankful that my symptoms are currently manageable and will continue to work from my home to ensure the continuity of city government,” he said in a statement.
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