President Donald Trump will attend the 400th anniversary celebration of the first meeting of the state’s legislative body in Jamestown on Tuesday.
Organizers of the 2019 Commemoration confirmed the president’s attendance.
Gov. Ralph Northam will be at the event, according to a news release from American Evolution.
The event is commemorating the 400th anniversary of representative government in America with the founding of the House of Burgesses, which was the first representative legislative assembly in America. It is part of a weeklong observance of the state’s colonial past — including the first arrival of African slaves in the former British colonies.
It’s hosted by Virginia’s 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution.
The event — 10 a.m. to noon — will be simulcast live at Historic Jamestowne and on the Virginia General Assembly website.
Organizers said the president will be joined by state and national leaders, and “representatives from democratic nations around the world, to commemorate the convening of the first representative legislative assembly in 1619 Virginia, which was the birthplace of American democracy.”
“Next week we will commemorate the birth of representative democracy in the Western Hemisphere at Jamestown, Virginia 400 years ago,” said M. Kirkland Cox, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and co-chairman of the 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution. “The Commonwealth is honored to
have the President of the United States join for this historic occasion, as the General Assembly convenes on the same ground where the seeds of our system of democratic government were sowed four centuries ago.”
Meanwhile, Democrats have threatened to boycott the event because they say Trump doesn’t represent their values – a reaction the Republican Senate majority leader calls disappointing and embarrassing.
Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, a Republican, said it’s sad when elected leaders “make partisan concerns paramount in their decisions.” He described the decision by leading Democrats in the state to boycott the event as “disappointing and embarrassing.”
