Virginia's Democratic lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Justin Fairfax was left off of an Election Day sample ballot that was being passed around at least one northern Virginia polling station on Tuesday.
Darrell "D.J." Jordan, a staffer for Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.), tweeted out a picture of an orange sample ballot that was being paid for by Mid-Atlantic Laborers Political Education Fund (Malpef). The sample ballot said that it was "not affiliated with any campaign" and that it was supporting Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam and incumbent Attorney General Mark Herring (D.), but it did not include Fairfax.
It’s #ElectionDay & now Justin Fairfax is being left off sample ballots? WOW #GameOnVA #VAGov pic.twitter.com/kR8gMR6dRl
— D.J. Jordan (@_DJ_Jordan) November 7, 2017
This is not the first time that Fairfax, a staunch environmentalist, has been left off of a piece of campaign literature. Northam's campaign gave less than 15,0000 campaign fliers to the Laborers' International Union of North America, omitting Fairfax. The union did not endorse him because of his opposition to two natural gas pipelines through Virginia, the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Bruce Schlesman, a regional field director for the Republican Party of Virginia, tweeted out a picture of two different versions of the campaign flier.
Awkward... #VaGovpic.twitter.com/AvrUXh3tal
— Bruce Schlesman (@BruceSchlesman) October 17, 2017
Former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, the first African American to be elected governor of Virginia, said that Fairfax "has not been dealt a good hand" last week during his endorsement of Fairfax. Wilder expressed some concerns earlier in the forum about Fairfax, who is also African American, being left off of Northam's campaign fliers last month in northern Virginia. He did not endorse Northam or Herring.
Malpef has donated $106,464 to Herring since 2011 and $212,500 to Northam since 2017.