Hey there, 

Like many here in Virginia, I’m still recovering from Election Day, and beginning to think about what’s next for our state politics. 

The Democrats who won statewide elections—Abigail Spanberger, Ghazala Hashmi, and Jay Jones—have assembled their transition teams. Outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin hosted Spanberger at the Governor’s Mansion this week. (To be a fly on that wall.)  Candidates are jockeying for elections kicked off by Hashmi’s exit from the Senate. All while the longest-running federal government shutdown in history limps along. 

Below, I share a special edition on the political advertisements we saw this past cycle and some insights on how artificial intelligence is impacting the jobs market. 

Plus, I share some book mail I got today (spoiler alert: they have nothing to do with politics). 

Programming note: There won’t be a newsletter on Tuesday on account of Veterans Day. Shout out to my dad, a retired Army officer.

A television screen plays Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger’s acceptance speech during an election night watch party for Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Leesburg, Va. (AP Photo/Eric Lee)

We’re doing something a little bit different today. I got the chance this week to guest author FWIW, a newsletter focused on political ad spending and digital trends that’s published by Courier Newsroom, Dogwood’s parent company. 

I’ve spent the past year covering Virginia’s elections, so I was asked to lend my expertise to a Virginia-centric edition. Below is some of what I wrote for FWIW and a link to where you can read more. I hope you enjoy it. 

*** 

“I am speaking.” 

Those three words, uttered last year by Virginia Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, went viral this election cycle as part of a negative TV and digital ad run by the Spanberger campaign. 

So viral, in fact, that the phrase became what’s known online as a vocal stim—something people just randomly say out loud—and some were actually doing so at the polls on Election Day. It’s to the point that I know a few people are sick of hearing it. 

Its spread was probably helped by the fact that Earle-Sears used a similar clip from the same event in an ad of her own in response to Spanberger’s attack. Some saw it as effective, but too late to make an impact. 

“She was upset about the ‘I am speaking’ clip and how Democrats were rolling with that, but like, that’s offputting and weird,” Monica Venzke, who works on opposition research for the Super PAC American Bridge, told me.

• The Washington Post reports that companies have announced over a million layoffs this year. 

                                                                                                                                          

• Natalie Anderson of The Virginian-Pilot reports that casino workers in Hampton Roads ratified their first union contract. 

   

• Virginia Business reports that Newport News Shipbuilding is laying off 167 workers who had been furloughed in May. 

Cars drive past data centers that house computer servers and hardware required to support modern internet use, such as artificial intelligence, in Ashburn, Virginia, July 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days. I confess to being opposed to it for both economic and political reasons. But I know I refuse to try to understand AI at my own peril. 

Thankfully, I came across a dispatch from Brian Merchant’s Substack, Blood in the Machine, that explores what’s really going on with AI and jobs. 

A few things stood out from Merchant’s excellent reporting and analysis. 

First, is this idea of “AI-washing.” Merchant explains that AI-washing refers to when companies lay people off to cut labor costs, shift to cheaper contract labor, or for ideological reasons, as we saw with DOGE, but blame AI to save face. 

It’s a good reminder that there is still a lot of smoke and mirrors around how AI is impacting the labor market and the economy more broadly. 

But, as Merchant articulates, it isn’t all hot air. 

He cites a global study on how certain creative jobs have declined alongside the rise of AI in the last two years. The list included journalists and reporters. (All the more reason to tell your friends to subscribe, and if you can afford to, buy an ad for this newsletter.)

This is all obviously high level. But I’m curious to see how the AI phenomenon plays out in Virginia.

Three books I got in the mail today. (Michael O’Connor)

Earlier this year, I finished that masterpiece of an English novel, Middlemarch, by George Eliot. 

I’ve been hooked on Eliot ever since. Her prose is beautiful. Her insights into human nature and society are profound. And she pulls no punches on her characters’ short-lived struggles for happiness and dignity in a society where achieving both is made easier by the size of one’s inheritance. 

I’m currently reading another one of her great works, The Mill on the Floss. 

And today, three more related books arrived that I’m excited to dive into: Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, a biography of Eliot, and a work of theory about the English novel.

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