NPR

Virginia Democrats Now Look To Women of Color For Leadership

The recent controversies embroiling some of Virginia's top Democratic officials have the party reconsidering their leadership.
Alexsis Rodgers, president of Virginia Young Democrats, is one of the disappointed constituents who worked hard to elect some of the officials at the center of the Virginia controversies. Now, Rodgers says, the state democratic party must develop diverse leaders before there's another crisis.

When you talk to Virginia Democrats these days, you hear a lot of words like "disappointing" and "frustrating."

That's because the men at the top of state government — and at the center of these scandals — have been well-liked by a lot of people who worked hard to help elect them.

"It really is kind of a hard thing to reckon with — some of your heroes either causing embarrassment or shame or disappointment or anger," said Alexsis Rodgers, president of Virginia Young Democrats.

Rodgers said two weeks ago from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's medical school yearbook — depicting one person in blackface and another in a KKK robe. Northam has said he was not in that photo, but that he did appear in blackface as part of a costume around the same time. He's apologized and asked for time to begin a dialogue on race.

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