On WTOP's "Ask the Governor" this morning, Governor Terry McAuliffe pointed out the importance of electing a Democratic successor to the governor's mansion in 2017 to ensure that anti-LGBT legislation won't be signed into law and cripple Virginia's economy like it has in North Carolina.

Governor McAuliffe is right: with Ed Gillespie, Rob Wittman, Frank Wagner, or Corey Stewart as governor, legislation like North Carolina's HB2 could become law in Virginia. The results would be staggering for Virginia's economy and damaging for our LGBT community.   

Here's what Governor McAuliffe said:

" We just had a great announcement the other day, as you probably saw, CoStar, very hotly competitive – North Carolina, Midwest, and a bunch of states all over the country. We just won that in Richmond. 732 high paying jobs. And in the end, I think, it came down to us and North Carolina. And you know what happened, Mark? Why didn’t it go to North Carolina? HB2. Well that has been crippling. I just want to remind all the Virginia listeners that I had a bill just like HB2 on my desk, it passed my General Assembly. I had a bill that would have defunded parts of Planned Parenthood, it passed the General Assembly, it came to my desk. We have a big governor’s race next year. Now, if you have a Republican governor, they will sign those bills and it will be crippling to the Virginia economy."

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Lieutenant governor Ralph Northam has said he will firmly reject any effort to undermine LGBT rights. Read more about his position here.