UPDATE: Former Governor Terry McAuliffe made it official today – he wants to be Virginia’s next governor as well. McAuliffe devoted the great majority of his announcement to education, as WFIR’s Evan Jones reports:
In announcing for a second term today, McAuliffe proposed $2 billion a year in new state spending for public education to increase pay for Virginia public school teachers, provide internet access for all students, and offer statewide public pre-school education for at-risk students.
Virginia Republican leaders where quick to pan McAuliffe’s announcement. They say he proposed just one teacher pay raise in his four years as governor, and in each of those years, the GOP-led General Assembly provided more education funding in the state budget than McAuliffe requested.
PREVIOUS: Terry McAuliffe is trying to get his old job back. The former Virginia governor is set to announce a formal bid for governor Wednesday morning in Richmond, according to a McAuliffe aide who was not authorized to speak publicly about the campaign. McAuliffe, once best known as a top Democratic money man and close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s, will enter an already crowded Democratic primary. The governor’s race in Virginia will be one of the country’s marquee political contests next year, serving as a barometer of the public mood during President-elect Joe Biden’s first year in office.
