Crowd packs Wyndham Clubhouse for HD57 Candidate Forum

A standing-room only crowd packed the Wyndham clubhouse Wednesday night, to hear from the two Democrats running in the Virginia HD57 primary. Neighbors for Change organized the forum.

May Nivar is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and has worked for almost 30 years in Corporate Communications. She raised 3 (now adult) children through Virginia public schools. Nivar has more than a dozen endorsements from past and present Virginia Democratic lawmakers.

Andrew Schear is a small business owner and stay at home dad with two young children.

The candidates took questions from moderator Dr. Dan Palazzolo Professor of Political Science at the University of Richmond and the audience during the 90-minute session.

“We are in an economic affordability crisis right now, the cost of housing, the cost of childcare, healthcare, groceries, transportation, all across the board costs are higher. College debt, student loan debt, credit card debt, consumer debt – these are all at all-time highs.  Virginians are struggling financially, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better any time soon”, says Schear.

Nivar says  “I raised 3 children in public schools, I want to fully fund public schools, I can’t even look at my 401K, but I want to make sure that we have an economy that works for everybody, we need to lower the cost of living,  I want to make sure communities are safe so we need to pass some gun violence protection laws that (Governor) Youngkin and (HD57 Incumbent Republican David) Owen have voted against and vetoed, and we need to protect and defend our fundamental rights”.

Schear repeatedly made an effort to point out that Nivar is backed by “establishment” Democrats. He has vowed not to take any money from corporations or special interests, but said he will rely on individual donors to his campaign, “The establishment Democrats have a certain way they like to play the game. The establishment … they like a candidate in there who is going to vote what they want to vote. I’m going to vote based on my conscience, based on my values”.

For her part Nivar sees the backing she has received as a benefit to voters, “That’s important because going into the General Assembly, I want to be able to hit the ground running and to have these already built in relationships is really important to actually get stuff done”.

Both candidates talked in favor of increasing access to childcare, raising teacher’s wages, fully funding public schools, supporting women’s rights to reproductive freedom and keeping the community safe.  Shear says the way to do that is by working with Republicans in the General Assembly, “we need to think about bringing bills to the table and coming together with Republicans and going to the negotiating table with bills that are bipartisan”.

Nivar says her 30 years working in corporate America has prepared her for this election, because the General Assembly needs more people with a business background to get things done “…bringing in business minded people.  I’ve served on a number of boards and we all aren’t going to think alike, in fact we should be thinking differently, because that is what brings great ideas”.

Going door to door and speaking to voters has been helpful, both candidates said. But the messages they are getting from voters varied widely.  Schear says, “The Democrats that I’m speaking to are very energized, they are ready to get out and vote. They’re excited to start the process of moving the country in the right direction, I think that really does start at the local level”.

Nivar says, “There is still a lot of frustration, anger about what is going on at the federal level. I tell people to focus on Virginia, because Virginia can make a difference in what happens next year in the midterms, we have to show up strong, win big, so we can show the rest of the country that we can make a democratic comeback in 2026”.

Do your homework and make a plan to vote in the Democratic Primary on June 17th. In person Early voting/absentee voting begins Friday May 2nd and runs through June 14th – click here for locations and hours.