Tuesday, Nov. 7, voters in Virginia will head to the polls to cast their ballot for the House of Delegates, the State Senate and other local elections. The College of William and Mary’s main campus lies in the State Senate’s 24th district. State Sen. Monty Mason ’89, D-Williamsburg, currently represents the district, but faces a challenge from Republican nominee and former longtime York-Poquoson Sheriff Danny Diggs.
College President Katherine Rowe encouraged students to participate in this election.
“Democracy is a cornerstone of our Vision 2026 strategic plan. Students, alumni, faculty and staff serve as public officials, activists and community builders around the world. They volunteer at polling stations and get out the vote,” Rowe wrote in an email to the campus community Nov. 2.
Rowe discussed the significance of the College in terms of voter engagement.
“That is one reason W&M is recognized as one of the top voter-engaged campuses in the country. Thank you for casting your ballot,” Rowe wrote.
“That is one reason W&M is recognized as one of the top voter-engaged campuses in the country. Thank you for casting your ballot,” Rowe wrote.
This year, the State Senate race is highly contested and funded, with the candidates raising a nearly combined $9 million, including almost $5 million spent on political advertisements.
The 24th State Senate district, which contains Williamsburg and is within Virginia U.S. House District One, was narrowly carried by Democrat Herb Jones at 50.2% in the 2022 congressional race. In the 2021 governor race, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, won the area by 3.4%.
Mason, who was elected to fulfill the remainder of the late State Sen. John Miller’s term in 2018, is seeking re-election for a full second term. A graduate of the College, Mason received the Young Alumni Service award in 2022. His wife, Pamela Mason J.D. ’00 MBA ’00 currently serves at the College’s chief compliance officer.
Mason expressed the reasons he believes College students should vote for him in the upcoming election.
“It’s protecting a woman’s right to choose, in light of the Dobbs decision, the Supreme Court has thrown that to the state legislatures. Virginia’s law is very strong and solid as written, and it should not be changed in any way. Seventy-two percent of Virginians agree that the law should remain the same or be less restrictive,” Mason said, citing a poll by Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center.
Mason further emphasized the importance of the election in terms of abortion rights.
“Any student who cares about women’s reproductive rights should show up and vote in this election,” Mason said.
Diggs, who served as sheriff for 23 years, is hoping to unseat Mason.
“I’ve been involved in politics for over 30 years, and I’m trying to bring my experience as sheriff to the General Assembly, because my time as sheriff had taught me that we did really need to look for solutions to problems,” Diggs said. “We need to work together with people to make sure that we make their lives better.”
At the Get Out the Vote rally at the College this past October, Mason criticized Diggs for using a “culture war” rhetoric and refusing to find a compromise on gun safety issues.
Diggs responded by expressing his support for enforcing existing gun laws. He also offered alternatives to new legislation, such as educating kids on gun safety and calling for more aggressive prosecution in gun violence cases.
“It’s unfortunate that he would give you such a one-sided position, an unfair position on what my position really is,” Diggs said. “I certainly support the gun laws that we have now and we need to enforce the gun laws we have now.”
Diggs then cited Project Exile, a 1990s initiative led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Richmond, as an example of his stance on gun control.
“They would go out and they would find people who had guns illegally, use guns illegally, and they arrested those people and prosecuted those people to the extent of the law. And within just a few years, the murder rate in Richmond was cut in half just by enforcing our existing laws. So, I’m a big proponent. I was the sheriff for 23 years and a law enforcement officer for 45 years,” Diggs said.
Mason and Diggs also differ on the issue of the gas tax.
“A couple of years ago, Monty Mason voted to double the gas tax — you know, we could have raised the gas tax incrementally should there have been a need for additional funding of our roads and such,” Diggs said. “In fact, the proof is there that we did not need to double the gas tax and that we just came out with a $5 billion excess tax collection that the Governor gave back a lot of that money in the form of tax rebates and by increasing the standard deduction for folks.”
Diggs also criticized the nature of the tax.
“It is very difficult for people to make ends meet, and when they have the price of gasoline go up, then they have to choose between, ‘Are we going to eat food, or are we going to pay the electric bill, or would we put gas in our car?’” Diggs said.
“It is very difficult for people to make ends meet, and when they have the price of gasoline go up, then they have to choose between, ‘Are we going to eat food, or are we going to pay the electric bill, or would we put gas in our car?’” Diggs said.
Mason responded to Diggs’ criticisms.
“My opponent says that the widening of [US Route 64] and those two new tunnels, that’s a great project. Then he says, ‘But you know what? I’m going to cut the gas tax,’” Mason said.
Mason further emphasized what he sees as contradictory statements from Diggs, and discussed where money from the gas tax is allocated.
“92% of the money going into these two tunnels, going to Norfolk, which is going to increase the ability of our tourist guests and us to get to and fro more conveniently, but more as importantly, increase the efficiency and the ability for us to attract commerce to the Port of Virginia as we grow the port,” Mason said.
Mason also criticized Diggs’ characterization of his tax platform.
“Once again, how easy is it to run for office telling people everything they want to hear?” Mason said. “It takes resources and money to do what Mr. Diggs is trying to campaign, that he is going to cut every tax he’s ever seen.”
Mason said Diggs’ campaign is stuck in the past.
“He likes to talk about the 1980s. His campaign is out of the 1980s. ‘I’m tough on crime because I’ve been a police officer. He’s soft on crime. I’m going to cut all your taxes. He’s a tax-and-spend liberal.’ It’s a campaign out of when I was in your place at William and Mary,” Mason said.
A former sheriff, Diggs was occasionally involved in the Williamsburg community. He counts former Williamsburg Council member and Williamsburg Truth and Reconciliation committee Member Benny Zhang ’16 J.D. ’20 as one of his endorsers.
“I met Benny when he was on City Council, and I would see him at different public events,” Diggs said. “We formed a nice casual relationship as such. And he knew me through my activities as sheriff of York county.”
Another group that endorsed Diggs is the Virginia Citizens Defense League, which organized a rally in support of gun rights in front of the Virginia State Capitol Jan. 20, 2020. The event was attended by some armed militia groups and far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Diggs told The Flat Hat that he accepts the endorsement. A new campaign advertisement by Mason’s campaign depicts Diggs’ participation in the event as extreme.
“I was there. I was asked to be a guest speaker and went to show my support for the Second Amendment and Constitution. That was my purpose, I was a minor speaker. Monty wants to say that’s extreme, for me to support the constitution is extreme,” Diggs said in an interview with 13NewsNow.
Diggs responded to claims that he has ties to extremist groups and said that Mason is behind those efforts.
“I can tell you right now, that is just a flat out lie. And if they’ve got proof of that, they need to bring forward, because there is no proof. I have never done any of that stuff. Monty Mason needs to also answer for this. He’s got caught in a lie about the slave auction. He’s been caught in a lie, and you can look this up on WAVY TV 10 Truth Trackers,” Diggs said.
During his time at the College, Mason served as president of the fraternity Pi Lambda Phi. He came under fire in 2019 when a 1988 yearbook page in the Colonial Echo surfaced and revealed that the organization held “slave auctions,” or pledge auctions, where participants would bid money on the fraternity pledges to perform an hour of hard labor after being “bought” by the highest bidder.
At the time, Mason, who was called on to resign by the Young Democrats leadership, denied that those events were called “slave auctions.” Then-Young Democrats President Cody Mills ’20 and then-Young Democrats Outreach Chair and Class of 2020 President Kelsey Vita ’20 said he would not be invited back to Young Democrats events, however, the organization has invited him back to campus this year and endorsed his candidacy.
“We called it a pledge auction to raise money for our fraternity,” Mason wrote in an email to The Flat Hat. “I have no idea who is responsible for using other terminology to describe it in the Colonial Echo. I washed cars to fulfill my fundraising obligation.”
A copy of the flier is available in the Special Collections Research Center.
Diggs pushed back on Mason’s response to the re-surfacing.
“He denied it, and now there’s proof that it actually happened,” Diggs said. “That’s something he needs to decide to explain to those who care about it, that is, why did he deny it and lie about it? He should have come clean two years ago, said and gave whatever excuse he wanted to offer. But now he’s been caught in a lie. And now he’s got a lot of explaining to do.”
Mason responded by criticizing Diggs for negative campaigning.
“He has called me a liar for three months,” Mason said. “You know, when you have got nothing to run on, all you do is slam your opponent. I did positive television commercials for months. He started in one positive and he has been slamming the negative ever since. And so what does he want us to talk about, right?”
“He has called me a liar for three months,” Mason said. “You know, when you have got nothing to run on, all you do is slam your opponent. I did positive television commercials for months. He started in one positive and he has been slamming the negative ever since. And so what does he want us to talk about, right?”
Mason mentioned that Diggs is more focused on Mason’s transgressions than actually campaigning for political and social issues.
“He doesn’t want to talk about every single thing I just walked through for you. He wants you to talk about something that happened 35 years ago,” Mason said. “It’s really sad that he’s got so little to run on that he makes sure that you want to talk about something that happened in a fraternity in the 1980s.”
Mason casts doubt on the date of the flier.
“The only thing I’ll say is the date on that flier was obviously added at some point. I have no idea if that flier was from 1979, 1989 or 1990 — we had pledge auctions,” Mason said. “Go back and look, as did almost every other fraternity at William and Mary. It is unfortunate they were called slave auctions. And from that, he is trying to make that into me lying about even knowing about it. Give me a break.”
While the flier was dated March 31, 1989 by Special Collections, The Flat Hat was unable to independently confirm the date of the flier. However, an issue of The Flat Hat from 1966 includes three mentions of the Pi Lambda Phi event as “slave auctions”.
Like Mason, Diggs also discussed the campaign strategy of his opponent.
“His ad about my abortion position was determined by [WAVY TV 10 Truth Trackers] to be false. And now he’s coming out with another falsehood. He has lost all credibility because he knows he’s way behind in this, and it’s a real shame that he has stooped so low to accuse me of this when there’s absolutely no evidence whatsoever,” Diggs said.
Diggs countered those claims by citing his sheriff background.
“I was elected six times — how could I have been this terrible extremist that he claims for me to be and got elected six times and I got 78% of the vote last time?” Diggs added. “Everybody knows that this is nothing but a fabrication on his part, and that’s just something else he needs to answer for.”
Responding to claims that he has ties to election-deniers, Diggs refuted, saying the 2020 presidential election was not stolen.
“That is just, again, untrue. I mean, Joe Biden is the president. Look at the mess we’re in, where interest rates are sky high and inflation has run away. There’s no denying that whatsoever. And again, that is another falsehood and twisting of the truth,” Diggs said.
In their concluding remarks, Diggs and Mason emphasized the significance of the College.
“I look forward to serving all the citizens that live in the district that I used to live in the Williamsburg area. I was a deputy sheriff. I patrolled the Williamsburg area, and Williamsburg and the College of William and Mary is a very special place as well as, you know, all the other places in the district,” Diggs said.
Mason said he appreciated the College’s role in his life.
“William and Mary opened doors for me that would never have been opened in my life,” Mason said. “It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to represent the institution in Richmond and try to do what little I can to give back to the institution and help forward the objectives because it’s just been such a foundation in my life.”
“William and Mary opened doors for me that would never have been opened in my life,” Mason said. “It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to represent the institution in Richmond and try to do what little I can to give back to the institution and help forward the objectives because it’s just been such a foundation in my life.”