A couple of Virginia lawmakers — one a conservative Republican from Southwest Virginia and the other the soon-to-be Democratic speaker of the House of Delegates — proved Thursday that they can work together, and even become friends, by focusing on what they have in common rather than their differences.
Don Scott, a lawyer from Portsmouth who will become Virginia’s first Black speaker in January, was in Southwest Virginia as part of a promise he made to Travis Hackworth of Tazewell County. The two first became friends three years ago, when Hackworth was new to the Senate and to Richmond.
Scott, originally from rural Texas, said he and Hackworth “instantly connected.”
“We just started talking about life and family, no politics,” he said. “Sometimes, we let politics come first. But you build a foundation first and then maybe you can start talking about things that you agree on. And then when you really get close, you can start talking about the things you disagree on.”
Scott and his wife, Dr. Mellanda Colson Scott, a dentist, arrived in Tazewell County on Wednesday night and stayed in Hackworth’s guesthouse. They spent all day Thursday touring the area.
At noon Thursday, the two legislators appeared at the Back of the Dragon Restaurant in Tazewell, where Scott seemed to charm a crowd of about 100, most of them staunch Republicans. There were plenty of smiles all around.
Scott said he was immediately struck by the scenic beauty of the mountains and the friendliness of the people there.
Hackworth, who said he and Scott will be “lifelong friends,” described his buddy as genuine, hardworking and down to earth.
“Some of the challenges in his district and the challenges in our district are the same,” he said. “So, one thing led to another. He said he’d like to come down and visit Southwest Virginia, and you know me. When somebody says that, I’m going to help you keep your word.”
Their constituents have a lot in common; most want good-paying jobs and a safe community, Scott said, adding that there are opportunities to form alliances to promote tourism in Southwest Virginia and address “some of our energy concerns.”
After several speeches, Scott and Hackworth sat down together for a quick bite of chili, cornbread, baked potato and iced tea.
On the way out of Tazewell, the group stopped at the Tazewell County Courthouse to see the mural “Standing Tall and Proud,” which features a number of influential Black citizens from the county. It was created after voters approved keeping a Confederate statue in front of the courthouse.
The next stop was at Dominion Energy’s Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center in St. Paul, where the speaker designee got a lesson about the plant and gob piles.
[Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Bill Murray, Dominion’s senior vice president of corporate affairs and communications, said the massive plant is the company’s last coal plant. It’s the newest in the country, he said, and has tightened environmental standards.
“The plant was designed to burn traditional coal,” he said. “But little of what goes on here is traditional.”
He said the plant is helping clean up some of the hundreds of “mountains” of gob piles — unclaimed waste materials left from mining — by burning it for fuel. Gob piles leach into the waterways, can pollute the air and can spontaneously combust, Murray said.
The group then took a quick tour of the facility.
Earlier Thursday, the group visited the town of Pocahontas and the Pocahontas Exhibition Mine. Later in the day, they spent some time on the Spearhead Trails, a trail system that covers hundreds of miles across Southwest Virginia.
Scott and his wife were headed back home Friday morning.
