Press Releases

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) announced the results of his constituent survey on Governor Glenn Youngkin’s recent Executive Order aimed at repealing the statewide school mask mandate. The survey was sent via email and completed by more than 25,000 Northern Virginia residents. 

Question: Should masks be required in Virginia schools?

• YES: 18,569 (73.2%)  
• NO: 6,793 (26.8%)

In response to these decisive results, Connolly released the following statement:

“Northern Virginia has made it clear: we will not compromise on the health and safety of our kids, and we will not allow our students and their teachers to be taken hostage in Governor Youngkin’s culture war. We are not fooled by the false choice he has presented us between keeping our kids in school and keeping them safe from COVID-19. If the Governor truly wants to keep students and staff safely in the classroom, he’d embrace the use of masks in schools as our best way to prevent a return to virtual learning. Anything short of that is political posturing of the worst kind, and our kids and their teachers will pay the price for it.”