MAY 26, 2022 LOUDOUNNOW.COM

Cao Wins 10th District Republican Primary

BY HAYLEY MILON BOUR

hbour@loudounnow.com

Retired Navy captain and Purcellville resident Hung Cao on Saturday won the Republican Party nod to run against Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA-10) for the 10th Congressional District seat in November.

Cao won by an 18-point margin on a ranked-choice distributed caucus ballot from among 11 candidates. The victory came in the ninth round of balloting, when he achieved 52.8% of the 15,174 votes cast. Prince William County Supervisor Jeanine Lawson finished second followed by Brandon Michon.

Cao said he wasn’t surprised by his win, but was taken aback by his victory margin.

Cao, a combat veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, who was a child when his family fled Vietnam as refugees, blames the progressive caucus for illegal immigration, inflation and supply chain issues. He called education the “final straw.”

“We shouldn’t have been pushing CRT and mask mandates. Kids are being kicked out of school because they’re not wearing masks, back a few years ago if a kid misses more than 10 days of school it’s called truancy. But now you’ll kick a kid out of school because they came close to somebody who had COVID,” he said. “It’s really taken a wrong turn where the federal government has overreach. So what I want to do in Congress is make sure there’s not overreach.”

While mask mandates in Loudoun schools were dropped months ago following a judge’s order, Cao said seeing other states returning to COVID mitigation protocols worries him. He cites funding for new ventilation as a wiser measure for mitigation.

While investigations and prosecutions following the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol cast a heavy cloud over most of Washington, he said what concerns him most is that perpetrators who left explosive devices outside of the DNC and RNC headquarters the day before are still at large.

Cao also nodded toward the long-

Renss Greene/Loudoun Now Republican nominee for the 10th Congressional District Hung Cao takes part in a pre-primary debate in April 2022 at Patrick Henry College in his hometown of Purcellville. CAO WINS continues on page 38

Loudoun Faith Leaders Hold Vigil for Buffalo Victims

BY RENSS GREENE

rgreene@loudounnow.com

Leaders in Loudoun’s interfaith community gathered alongside a crowd of mourners Friday night in Leesburg to hold a vigil for the victims of the mass shooting in Buffalo, NY, and to protest the continued racist violence in America.

Faiths ranging among Christian denominations, Jewish, and Muslim to Baha’I and Unitarian Universalist gathered in both prayer and calls for action in front of Leesburg United Methodist Church, followed by a candlelight march to the county courthouse.

Pastor and NAACP President Michelle Thomas warned the same sentiments that led to the mass shooting in Buffalo are present in Loudoun. The shooter in the case cited “replacement theory,” the conspiracy theory that nonwhite people are being brought to the U.S. to replace white people, as motivation for the mass murder.

“As I think about the theories, I

Renss Greene/Loudoun Now Loudoun NAACP Vice President Christian Yohannes speaks at a vigil in front of Leesburg United Methodist Church Friday, May 20.

think about the theory that we fight in Loudoun County every day—it is the ‘Critical Race Theory.’ It’s the same thing, and if you don’t get that, you’re not awake in this county,” she said. “If you don’t get that Critical Race Theory could be the thread that causes a shooting in our area, in our grocery stores, and at our school board—or at least in the parking lot—oh, they don’t want to hear about it, but that’s OK.”

Conservative attacks on the Loudoun County Public Schools have used the banner of “critical race theory” to push against teaching about systemic racism and anti-racist curriculum in the school system.

Loudoun NAACP Vice President Christian Yohannes said people in his teenage generation have grown up desensitized to the violence against Black people—learning to dress a certain way and act a certain way to try to survive when stopped by police or just going about their lives. He reeled off a list of names in some of the most high-profile of killings of Black people in recent years, such as Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Freddie