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inkyardpress · 6 years ago

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Celebrate Your Pride with 10 Great Queer Reads

Happy Pride! This month, we’re celebrating the LGBTQIAP+ community with the one thing we just can’t stop talking about: books, books and more books! There are lots of amazing novels out there repping queer voices, telling unique and impactful stories, and filing up bookshelves around the world. These are just a few of our favorite outstanding stories. What are you reading this month?

All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell

Take a journey through time and genres and discover a past where queer figures live, love and shape the world around them. Seventeen of the best young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a collection of beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens.

From a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, to two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain, forbidden love in a sixteenth-century Spanish convent or an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, All Out tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.

Featuring stories from: Dahlia Adler, Sara Farizan, Tess Sharpe, Shaun David Hutchinson, Kody Keplinger, Mackenzi Lee, Malinda Lo, Nilah Magruder, Anna-Marie McLemore, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Natalie C. Parker, Alex Sanchez, Kate Scelsa, Robin Talley, Scott Tracey and Elliot Wake.

All Out is out now. Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley

Fifteen-year-old Aki Simon has a theory. And it’s mostly about sex.

No, it isn’t that kind of theory. Aki already knows she’s bisexual—even if, until now, it’s mostly been in the hypothetical sense. Aki has dated only guys so far, and her best friend, Lori, is the only person who knows she likes girls, too.

Actually, Aki’s theory is that she’s got only one shot at living an interesting life—and that means she’s got to stop sitting around and thinking so much. It’s time for her to actually do something. Or at least try.

So when Aki and Lori set off on a church youth-group trip to a small Mexican town for the summer and Aki meets Christa—slightly older, far more experienced—it seems her theory is prime for the testing.

But it’s not going to be easy. For one thing, how exactly do two girls have sex, anyway? And more important, how can you tell if you’re in love? It’s going to be a summer of testing theories—and the result may just be love.

Our Own Private Universe is out now. Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

The Sidekicks by Will Kostakis

Ryan, Harley and Miles are very different people—the swimmer, the rebel and the nerd. All they’ve ever had in common is Isaac, their shared best friend.

When Isaac dies unexpectedly, the three boys must come to terms with their grief and the impact Isaac had on each of their lives. In his absence, Ryan, Harley and Miles discover things about one another they never saw before, and realize there may be more tying them together than just Isaac.

In this intricately woven story told in three parts, award-winning Australian author Will Kostakis makes his American debut with a heartwarming, masterfully written novel about grief, self-discovery and the connections that tie us all together. The Sidekicks is out now.

Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

Runebinder by Alex R. Kahler

When magic returned to the world, it could have saved humanity, but greed and thirst for power caused mankind's downfall instead. Now once-human monsters called Howls prowl abandoned streets, their hunger guided by corrupt necromancers and the all-powerful Kin. Only Hunters have the power to fight back in the unending war, using the same magic that ended civilization in the first place.

But they are losing.

Tenn is a Hunter, resigned to fight even though hope is nearly lost. When he is singled out by a seductive Kin named Tomás and the enigmatic Hunter Jarrett, Tenn realizes he’s become a pawn in a bigger game. One that could turn the tides of war. But if his mutinous magic and wayward heart get in the way, his power might not be used in favor of mankind.

If Tenn fails to play his part, it could cost him his friends, his life…and the entire world.

The action-packed follow up, Runebreaker, hits shelves November 27th, 2018.

Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

What We Left Behind by Robin Talley

Toni and Gretchen are the couple everyone envied in high school. They've been together forever. They never fight. They're deeply, hopelessly in love. When they separate for their first year at college—Toni to Harvard and Gretchen to NYU—they're sure they'll be fine. Where other long-distance relationships have fallen apart, theirs is bound to stay rock-solid.

The reality of being apart, though, is very different than they expected. Toni, who identifies as genderqueer, meets a group of transgender upperclassmen and immediately finds a sense of belonging that has always been missing, but Gretchen struggles to remember who she is outside their relationship.

While Toni worries that Gretchen won't understand Toni’s new world, Gretchen begins to wonder where she fits in this puzzle. As distance and Toni's shifting gender identity begin to wear on their relationship, the couple must decide—have they grown apart for good, or is love enough to keep them together?

What We Left Behind is out now. Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft edited by Jessica Spotswood and Tess Sharpe

History is filled with stories of women accused of witchcraft, of fearsome girls with arcane knowledge. Toil & Trouble features fifteen stories of girls embracing their power, reclaiming their destinies and using their magic to create, to curse, to cure—and to kill.

A young witch uses social media to connect with her astrology clients—and with a NASA-loving girl as cute as she is skeptical. A priestess of death investigates a ritualized murder. A bruja who cures lovesickness might need the remedy herself when she falls in love with an altar boy. A theater production is turned upside down by a visiting churel. In Reconstruction-era Texas, a water witch uses her magic to survive the soldiers who have invaded her desert oasis. And in the near future, a group of girls accused of witchcraft must find their collective power in order to destroy their captors.

This collection reveals a universal truth: there’s nothing more powerful than a teenage girl who believes in herself.

Toil & Trouble hits shelves August 28th, 2018. Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

The Diminished by Kaitlyn Sage Patterson

In the Alskad Empire, nearly all are born with a twin, two halves to form one whole…yet some face the world alone.

The singleborn:

A rare few are singleborn in each generation, and therefore given the right to rule by the gods and goddesses. Bo Trousillion is one of these few, born into the royal line and destined to rule. Though he has been chosen to succeed his great-aunt, Queen Runa, as the leader of the Alskad Empire, Bo has never felt equal to the grand future before him.

The diminished:

When one twin dies, the other usually follows, unable to face the world without their other half. Those who survive are considered diminished, doomed to succumb to the violent grief that inevitably destroys everyone whose twin has died. Such is the fate of Vi Abernathy, whose twin sister died in infancy. Raised by the anchorites of the temple after her family cast her off, Vi has spent her whole life scheming for a way to escape and live out what’s left of her life in peace.

As their sixteenth birthdays approach, Bo and Vi face very different futures—one a life of luxury as the heir to the throne, the other years of backbreaking work as a temple servant. But a long-held secret and the fate of the empire are destined to bring them together in a way they never could have imagined.

The Diminished is out now. Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever.

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town’s most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept “separate but equal.”

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley is out now. Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Enne must leave her finishing school—and her reputation—behind to follow her mother’s trail to the city where no one survives uncorrupted.

Frightened and alone, Enne has only one lead: the name Levi Glaisyer. Unfortunately, Levi is not the gentleman she expected—he’s a street lord and con man. Levi is also only one payment away from cleaning up a rapidly unraveling investment scam, so he doesn't have time to investigate a woman leading a dangerous double life. Enne's offer of compensation, however, could be the solution to all his problems.

Their search for clues leads them through glamorous casinos, illicit cabarets and into the clutches of a ruthless Mafia donna. As Enne unearths an impossible secret about her past, Levi's enemies catch up to them, ensnaring him in a vicious execution game where the players always lose. To save him, Enne will need to surrender herself to the city… And she’ll need to play.

Ace of Shades is out now. Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

Pulp by Robin Talley

As if we couldn’t pack any more of Robin Talley’s fantastic works into this list, we have one more than needs to be on your radar. Keep an eye out for Pulp in November 2018!

In 1955, eighteen-year-old Janet Jones keeps the love she shares with her best friend Marie a secret, but when she discovers a series of books about women falling in love with other women, it awakens something in her. As she juggles her hidden romance with a newfound ambition to write her own story, she risks exposing herself—and Marie—to a danger all too real.

Sixty-two years later, Abby Zimet can’t stop thinking about her senior project and its subject—classic 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. The stresses of her life fall away when she's reading her favorite book. She feels especially connected to one author, a woman who wrote under the pseudonym “Marian Love,” and becomes determined to track down her true identity.

Pulp hits shelves November 13th, 2018. Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

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#ya books #ya reads #bookworm #LGBT books #Book Recommendations

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douglasmusante-blog · 4 years ago

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theconservativebrief · 6 years ago

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Democrats, like it or not, are running on identity politics in the 2018 midterms. Come to think of it, so are Republicans.

After a divisive 2016 Democratic primary, the party fiercely debated whether to emphasize issues important to people of color or whether to focus on progressive economic policies. The party is still figuring out how far left to take its economic agenda, but Democrats have become united on the question of diversity.

More Democratic women have been nominated in 2018 than ever before. The party is also embracing young and progressive emerging stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York and Andrew Gillum in Florida, who back progressive policies such as Medicare-for-all. Democrats have nominated candidates likely to become the first Muslim women and the first Native American woman in Congress. They also count among their ranks some more long-shot candidates who are historic firsts in their own right: The first transgender woman nominee for governor is a Democrat in Vermont.

Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) is poised to be the first Native American woman to serve in Congress. Juan Labreche/AP

As the Washington Post recently reported, “Democrats have set or essentially matched records for the number of female, black and LGBT nominees.” Meanwhile, “Republicans’ diversity statistics have either remained static or declined in each category, leading to a heavily white, male slate of nominees.” Republicans seem to be retrenching in the white-identity politics that favored Donald Trump. Their candidates continue to be older, whiter and more often male.

Perhaps inevitably, these differences are reflected in the policies each party pushes: While Democrats are leaning into energy and enthusiasm to motivate voters, Republicans are betting on fear and aversion to change. They are running campaign ads that look more like horror movies, with dangerous (often brown) criminals as the villains. Insofar as “identity politics” means a focus on a party’s demographic characteristics rather than its ideology, 2018 should be thought of as an identity politics election.

Each side has its reasons. The so-called resistance is made up of women and people of color, who are particularly displeased with the Trump administration. Democrats clearly want to tap into that backlash. Older voters, meanwhile, remain the most reliable Republican voters — especially in the Trump era. The GOP needs them to stave off a blue wave.

A Democratic supporter stands with an inflatable chicken mocking President Trump outside a rally supporting Virginia Republican gubernatorial hopeful Ed Gillespie on the eve of state elections in Fairfax, Virginia on November 6, 2017. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

2018 Democrats are young, progressive, and diverse

It’s not an accident that Ocasio-Cortez has emerged as the face of the new Democratic Party in 2018: She’s a 28-year-old Hispanic woman and identifies as a democratic socialist. She memorably introduced herself to voters with a viral video focused on her unique biography.

[embedded content]

Democrats are nominating younger, more diverse candidates, and their voters are pushing the party to the left; that might explain why Ocasio-Cortez has so quickly become one of the party’s standard-bearers in the national press and why, though she is facing an unusual amount of scrutiny, party leaders have been careful to extend a welcome to her.

Nancy Pelosi, in a call to Ocasio-Cortez after she defeated establishment leader Joe Crowley, said, “Thank you for your courage to run. This is not for the faint of heart.”

The energy that typified Ocasio-Cortez’s upset of a longtime Democratic political boss caught on in races across the country. Beto O’Rourke, facing Ted Cruz in the Texas Senate race, has been buoyed by record amounts of small-dollar fundraising. Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, beat out candidates with better name recognition and more money through the enthusiasm of black voters and his association with Bernie Sanders’s progressive agenda.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Those races are also distinct from Ocasio-Cortez’s in an important way. While she was more or less guaranteed a seat in Congress for her Bronx district after the primary, O’Rourke and Gillum are being asked to defeat seasoned and well-funded Republicans. Democrats are betting on youth, energy, and diversity in critical swing elections. They also nominated women in the Arizona (Kyrsten Sinema) and Nevada (Jacky Rosen) Senate campaigns. Progressive Kara Eastman beat a (white, older) quasi-incumbent man, ex-Rep. Brad Ashford, to represent Democrats in a crucial House district in Omaha, Nebraska.

As those examples show, diverse and female candidates are having particular success running on progressive agendas. White men running on the same platform haven’t always had as much luck, like when primary challenger Matt Brown lost easily to Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, a centrist fiscal reformer — and the first woman to be elected governor in the state. In other cases, like Ayanna Pressley’s upset of Rep. Michael Capuano, ideology did not seem to have much to do with it: Capuano had been a strong liberal, but Pressley is still set to become the first black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress after she beat him.

One chart sums it up: While the number of Republican women running for Congress is effectively flat, there has been a dramatic surge in Democratic women candidates. As Vox’s Tara Golshan reported, the number of House Republican women could actually shrink after the midterms due to women like Rep. Marsha Blackburn leaving to run for Senate.

41 states have now held primaries in 2018, and the remarkable surge of female Dem candidates continues to be the top story of the election. So far, 41 percent of all Democratic nominees for the U.S. House are women, including 48 percent of non-incumbents—shattering all records: pic.twitter.com/66gMdcQcYb

— Dave Hopkins (@DaveAHopkins) August 15, 2018

It is no coincidence that the groups most opposed to Trump and whose votes could swing the 2018 elections are women. The gender gap persists across all age groups, but young women in particular would be critical to any blue wave this year.

Christina Animashaun/Vox

The more progressive policy platforms also reflect where the Democratic base is heading: More than half of Democratic voters support single-payer health care, and a record number of candidates are running on Medicare-for-all. A plurality of Democrats have even said they support abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So it’s no wonder Democratic candidates are more unabashedly left than they’ve been in decades.

Sure, there is still disagreement about what Medicare-for-all really means. But as Harvard pollster Robert Blendon once told me, “when you say, ‘I’m for that,’ it says that ‘I’m for equity.’ It says, ‘I’m gonna fight back against the corporate establishment.”

“It’s symbolic of these other things which appeal to young liberal people,” he said.

There is a risk to the Democratic strategy. Younger voters have notoriously failed to show up in midterms past. Older, whiter voters are the most dedicated voters, and they may be triggered by Democrats’ embrace of diversity and a more leftist ideology. But the bet the party is making is clear.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and congressional Democratic candidate Ayanna Pressley at a rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 9, 2018. Scott Eisen/Getty Images

2018 Republicans are older, angrier, and whiter

Republicans are making a different bet, but one that seemed inevitable in the era of Trump. With few legislative accomplishments that resonate with voters, and an unpopular president in the White House driving away independents, Republicans are pushing all their chips into a culture war campaign that preys on fears of brown people and violent imagery and exploits their base’s unreserved patriotism.

We’ve seen countless examples already, but recent strategic ploys in Texas and Wisconsin make the playbook transparent. Cruz and Gov. Scott Walker find themselves in tougher reelection races than they anticipated, with Cruz facing the personification of the energized Democrat in O’Rourke.

Their plan to turn it around? Campaign with Vietnam War veterans who chastise NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem to protest police violence.

Stand for the Anthem

Why do I stand? I stand for the veterans like Tim Lee who lost both his legs fighting in South Vietnam. SHARE if you’re proud to stand, too!

Posted by Ted Cruz on Monday, August 27, 2018

As a new Quinnipiac University poll reminded us, the American public broadly supports athletes’ right to protest (67 percent approval to 30 percent disapproval) with the exception of one group: Republicans oppose the protests 60 percent to 39 percent. Taking a cue from President Trump, Cruz and Walker are playing explicitly to the base with the national anthem issue.

This isn’t a coincidence. Trump’s supporters are overwhelmingly white. They’re more likely to be men, they’re less educated, and they tend to live among other white people.

Javier Zarracina/Vox

Now, across the country in 2018 campaigns, those Republican voters are being targeted by mini horror movies that prey on fears of the other and the unknown. It comes from the top. This Trump 2020 campaign ad defines the party’s 2018 message.

[embedded content]

As the ad stamps “PURE EVIL” on the face of a convicted murderer who entered the United States illegally, the creepy music kicks in.

In last month’s Ohio special election, Republican Troy Balderson’s campaign ran a TV spot that called Democrat Danny O’Connor “dangerous” three times in half a minute. It was yet another case of the GOP choosing culture wars over their substantive agenda in a close campaign, as Golshan reported. For Balderson, it worked, even if unimpressively; he won by a single point, even though his predecessor won by 30.

Republican congressional candidate Troy Balderson speaks next to President Trump during a rally in Lewis Center, Ohio, on August 4, 2018. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

This isn’t just for the culture warriors, either; it is more or less the standard Republican playbook at this point. Rep. Barbara Comstock — a Virginia Republican, a relative moderate representing an affluent suburban district — recently sent the Washington Post a list of MS-13 victims who had been “beaten, stabbed and shot to death.”

The scare tactics might explain why Republican voters are far more preoccupied with security when they head to the polling booth compared to independents and Democrats. Their candidates want them very, very afraid.

Javier Zarracina/Vox

2018 is a trial run for the future

For as much as Republicans decry identity politics, preying on white fears about changing demographics and brown criminals is just another form of it. Republicans don’t have much to offer their voters except corporate tax cuts and Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, so they’re stirring up white fright. Cruz’s campaign is trying to paint O’Rourke as a young punk beholden to Hollywood liberals. Gillum has faced something more sinister, a racist robocall of neo-Nazi origins.

2018 is happening in the shadow of 2020, of course, when Donald Trump will be back on the ballot and Democrats will have another chance to defeat him after they’ve spent the past four years painting the president as an existential threat.

A promising showing in 2018 for these young, diverse candidates — carried into office thanks to young, diverse voters — would bode well for Democrats in 2020. They can build on that momentum to craft a winning coalition to win the White House. Republicans would, meanwhile, need to evaluate whether running back to the Trump playbook is palatable one more time or whether it would risk electoral disaster.

On the other hand, meager Democratic victories in 2018 would leave the party with uncomfortably few answers about how to win elections in the Trump era — and lend the Republicans confidence that they can keep winning on white fear, at least for the short term.

The midterms represent two very different bets about what kind of identity politics can win an election in America in 2018. Democrats are putting faith in a diverse, progressive future. Republicans see a much darker underbelly in the American electorate, and they are hoping to exploit it for another unexpectedly triumphant Election Day.

A billboard of a tweet by President Trump criticizing Sen. Ted Cruz stands outside a rally for Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) in Dallas on September 14, 2018. Laura Buckman/AFP/Getty Images

Original Source -> Democrats and Republicans are both running on identity politics

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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anchorarcade · 7 years ago

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After 25 years in Congress, Goodlatte ready to move on | Politics

http://ryanguillory.com/after-25-years-in-congress-goodlatte-ready-to-move-on-politics/

After 25 years in Congress, Goodlatte ready to move on | Politics

WAYNESBORO — Sixth District Rep. Bob Goodlatte said Thursday he will retire from Congress when his current term ends next year, and said he hasn’t decided what he will do next.

“My wife and I have considered this very carefully for awhile, and we have made the decision that my service will end at the end of this term,” the 65-year-old Goodlatte said in an early afternoon call with the media. “I can spend more time with my wife, children and granddaughters and do something else.”

The congressman, whose district includes Waynesboro, Augusta County and Staunton, also sent an emailed letter to constituents announcing his decision.

Goodlatte, who lives in Roanoke, joins 14 other House Republicans who won’t seek another term in 2018, an unusually large exodus for one party.

Within hours of his announcement, two Republican candidates surfaced to succeed Goodlatte.

Virginia House District 24 Del. Ben Cline, a former Goodlatte staffer, announced his intention to run for the Republican nomination for the seat Thursday afternoon.

Joining Cline in the race for the nomination is Cynthia Dunbar, Virginia’s Republican National Committeewoman, and a former Liberty University law professor. Dunbar spoke of the “disarray and dysfunction inside Congress.” She said the country could “no longer allow career politicians to focus on the next election as opposed to current problems facing our nation.”

The list of other potential Republican candidates to replace Goodlatte include Del. Steve Landes and Shenandoah Valley Sen. Mark Obenshain.

On the Democratic side, two candidates have said they intend to run, Peter Volosin of Roanoke and Sergio Coppola of Bridgewater. Independent Michael Frend of Waynesboro also has announced his candidacy. With Goodlatte’s retirement, more Democrats and independents may throw their hats into the ring, seeing an open seat as a far better chance to win in a traditionally conservative district.

Goodlatte is in the midst of his 13th term. His retirement will coincide with the end of his term as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Goodlatte is a Massachusetts native, former practicing attorney and Washington and Lee Law School graduate. He worked on the staff of former 6th District Rep. Caldwell Butler before running for the seat in 1992.

Goodlatte said serving as chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the House Agriculture Committee have been among the highlights of his time in Congress. And he said he still hopes to finish work in his final 14 months in Congress on immigration reform, criminal justice reform and tax reform.

Goodlatte was emphatic in saying that the current climate in Washington and many Republicans’ growing concern about President Donald Trump’s drag on the party did not factor into his decision.

“It didn’t play a role,” he said. “I’ve been looking at the fact that the great honor of being chairman of the Judiciary Committee is not something anyone should do forever.”

The congressman has come under fire this year from Democrats in his district for his refusal to hold in-person town hall meetings.

Goodlatte said he preferred to make appearances at civic clubs and businesses and conduct telephone town halls, saying he reaches more constituents that way. Democrats, though, say that’s disingenuous since he can stop a caller’s question or end an electronic town hall with much greater ease than doing so at a live forum.

Goodlatte conceded that he was eager to avoid the “sideshow” nature town halls can take on. Those kinds of unruly town halls have grown in the wake of President Trump’s victory last year, which has galvanized many Democrats and led to raucous town halls at which they air their frustrations.

Some of those meetings, particularly in early 2017, had devolved into shouting matches and ugly scenes in which Republican representatives often could not respond without being constantly interrupted or shouted down.

When asked what he might do next, Goodlatte said “all of the options” are on the table. “I’m not saying no to anything, and I’m not saying yes to anything,” he said.

The 6th District, which cuts a swath through Virginia from Roanoke all the way north to Warren County, is tailor-made for a Republican candidate. And Goodlatte indicated as much on Thursday.

“It’s a conservative constituency,” he said. “There are all kinds of viewpoints across my district. I’m very sure that kind of conservative leadership will continue.” He pointed out that defeated Republican gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie captured more than 60 percent of the vote in the 6th District Tuesday.

Cline, just elected to his eighth term in the Virginia House, has long been rumored to want the seat. He worked for Goodlatte, is conservative and is a youthful 45. His Virginia House district includes part of Augusta County, part of Amherst County, all of Rockbridge and Bath counties and and Lexington and Buena Vista.

Landes said by telephone on Thursday that Goodlatte’s announcement “is a big loss for the Virginia delegation and the 6th District. He is a tremendous member of Congress and has represented the 6th District well.”

Landes, who also won re-election Tuesday, learned of Goodlatte’s decision in a telephone call Thursday morning. Landes was encouraged by Goodlatte to seek the seat, but said “at this point, I wouldn’t rule it out, but it’s not something I’ve contemplated.”

Landes is busy dealing with the balance of power in the Virginia House. While Republicans may maintain a slim majority, recounts of four races will determine the majority party. Landes holds key leadership in the Virginia House as chairman of the Education Committee and vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, who narrowly lost a bid to become Virginia’s attorney general in 2013, issued a statement Thursday that did not address a potential candidacy.

Obenshain said “Bob Goodlatte has been a true public servant to the citizens of the 6th District. He has been a stalwart leader standing strong for our conservative principles and values in the Shenandoah Valley.”

Dunbar served as Virginia co-chair of the Ted Cruz presidential campaign.

Other reaction to Goodlatte’s announcement came from House District 20 Del. Dickie Bell, R-Staunton. “I’m sure he made a conscious and conscientious decision. I certainly support his decision,” he said.

Reaction also came from two prominent Virginia Democratic officeholders. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine. Kaine said in a statement that “while Bob and I didn’t see eye to eye on everything, we worked together for our constituents on local issues like Plains Area Day in Rockingham County, making building repairs and designating the National George C. Marshall Museum and Library in Lexington. I’d like to thank Rep. Goodatte for 25 years of public service in Virginia and I wish him and his family the very best in his retirement from Congress.”

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said Goodlatte “has served the people of Virginia in Congress for more than two decades. I have appreciated the opportunity to work with Congressman Goodlatte on a variety of issues important to our constituents in the Roanoke Valley. I thank him for a lifetime of public service, and extend him and Maryellen my very best wishes for the future.”

Andy Schmookler, a Shenandoah County resident who ran as a Democrat against Goodlatte in 2012, said he wonders the real reasons Goodlatte is retiring. He said despite the contentious nature of Washington these days, that he has “never seen any indication Goodlatte wasn’t willing to carry pretty dirty water before Trump.”

Schmookler said he thinks the seat will remain in Republican hands. But the former candidate said “I would like to see a congressman who puts the good of the nation and the good of the American people ahead of party and his own political ambitions.”

Goodlatte offered some advice to his successor during Thursday’s conference call.

He said the next 6th District representative should come to Congress after listening to constituents, and should be prepared to “make tough decisions.” Goodlatte also spoke of the arduous nature of the job.

“Be prepared to do a lot of work and travel a lot of miles across a beautiful, very diverse district,” he said.

One of the keys to securing the Republican nomination for the seat will be the method.

Chris Saxman, a former House District 20 delegate and director of Virginia FREE, said a convention would prove tricky.

“Conventions are very difficult. You have to get people to the convention. Organization is a key,” Saxman said.

While the 6th District has been a Republican stronghold, Saxman said the upcoming redistricting could take Roanoke away from the district and give it to incumbent 9th District Rep. Morgan Griffith.

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