‘Virginia’s Ronald Reagan’ Is Still Fired Up for America

“The federal government has provoked Virginians and Americans. The federal government has forgotten its limits, and we must exercise our right and duty to change it at the ballot box this fall.”

The quote is not from a candidate for this year’s midterms. Instead, former Governor of Virginia George F. Allen made the remarks at the Virginia Republican Convention held at the Richmond Coliseum in June 1994.

“They have forgotten the principles and spirit of [Patrick] Henry and [Thomas] Jefferson and the honor of George Washington, and they have forgotten that their power is derived from the consent of the people,” he continued. “So let’s take back our life, liberty, and property from the federal bureaucrats and the Congress!” he continued.

What Allen advocated almost 30 years ago is finding renewed traction in pandemic-hit America, where many are concerned about government overreach exercised in the name of public health and safety.

“It’s just the height of arrogance for anybody in government to declare that some business is non-essential,” Allen told The Epoch Times. “Every business is essential to those who operated and those who worked there.

“And the states that had the most balanced leadership, rather than this paranoid hypochondria, are the ones that are generally the best state for business. And they deserve it. We don’t want to be shutting down business; we understand the concept of personal responsibility.”

After 14 years out of public office, the 70-year-old has held true to his principles, ideas which have drawn influence from great leaders in history and in Allen’s life, including Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan, and his late father NFL Hall of Fame Head Coach George H. Allen.

‘Common Sense Jeffersonian’

Allen describes himself as a “common sense Jeffersonian.”

Indeed, the connection to Thomas Jefferson seems to come up throughout his life. For example, after Allen’s family moved to Virginia for his father’s head coach job at the Washington Redskins (now Commanders), he studied history and law at “Mr. Jefferson’s University”—the University of Virginia. Later, when he became a Delegate at the Virginia House in 1983, he took Jefferson’s seat from 1776 to 1779.

In the interview with The Epoch Times and in his book “What Washington Can Learn from the World of Sports,” Allen quoted Jefferson’s “the sum of good government” from his First Inaugural Address in 1801:

“Still one thing more, fellow citizens—a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regular their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”

Allen left the governor’s office in January 1998 with a legacy that included overhauls of the state’s criminal justice system, welfare reform, and the institution of standards of learning in public schools. In addition, he eliminated parole for felony criminals and established “truth-in-sentencing” measures to ensure that inmates serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.

Between 1993 and 1997, the state added 392,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent from 5.1 percent, and its average monthly welfare expenses declined to $11 million from $19 million.

In addition, Allen “regulated the regulators,” he said, reducing red tape to make Virginia more friendly for business. During his tenure, $13 billion of investment flowed into the commonwealth, mostly in high-tech industries in northern Virginia and Richmond.

Allen identifies a governor’s top responsibilities as education and law enforcement. And he was able to fund programs in those areas through the additional revenue gained from the state’s growing economy. In his view, a job, ultimately, is the best social program.

The former governor takes particular pride in being a politician who followed through on his pledges.

“I think folks knew we kept our promises. That was very important,” he said.

He previously mentioned this importance at the 1994 Virginia Republican Convention, “We reestablish the time-honored principle in Virginia, that when a public servant looks at you in the eye and says, ‘This is what I believe, and this is what I’m going to do,’ you could take that to the bank.”

After Richmond, Allen served as a U.S. Senator from Virginia from 2001 to 2006. In his book published in 2010, he described Washington politicians as “armchair quarterbacks.” He also mentioned his concerns with “the culture of Washington” being “elitist” and receptive to mediocrity.

“Many armchair quarterbacks in Washington today think they know more about how to raise children than moms and dads, more about how to educate students than teachers and principals, and more about how to solve community problems than the people who actually live in those communities,” wrote Allen, who said he would now add “parents” in alongside “teachers and principals.”

Early Champion for Parents in Virginia

Nearly 30 years before the parental rights issue flipped Virginia red in the 2021 gubernatorial election, Allen understood the importance of education and championed for parents.

During his time as governor, Allen invested $18.5 billion into K-12 education. In addition to standards of learning, he introduced school performance report cards. Every public school in Virginia would send parents an annual report on test scores, attendance rate, and crime records, including drug and violence statistics. Virginia was the only state that required this level of accountability from schools to parents.

Allen also insisted on parental notification of abortions to be carried out on unmarried minors. In March 1997, he signed into law a legislation requiring just that, representing Virginia’s first restriction on abortion since the procedure was legalized in 1973. The law required doctors to notify parents before performing an abortion on unwed minors.

To this day, the signing ceremony occupies a special place in Allen’s memory.

During Allen’s first year as governor, he got a version that didn’t require notification to parents but to relatives. He faced a dilemma: if he didn’t sign the bill, people would say that he didn’t care about the issue. If, however, he signed the bill, the door to an actual bill that would give parents the right to know might be forever shut.

He called in close assistants on the matter for their advice, Kay James, then Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources who’s currently the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Anne Kinkaid, a pro-life movement leader who died of cancer in 2005. They told him that it was his decision. But, no matter what decision he made, they would help him explain the reason.

After they left, he prayed. “I closed my eyes, and I sought guidance from God and prayed, ‘What’s the right thing to do?'” he told The Epoch Times.

“I opened my eyes and looked down the hill, and there was an American flag flying—there was a breeze. I saw that flag, and it made me think of George Washington’s integrity and honesty.

“That was a sign that I had to veto that bill because it was not a true parental notification bill.”

Allen vetoed the bill during his first year. Then for two years, the legislation couldn’t get out of the Senate committee.

“I would think so many times during those subsequent years. Gosh, if I’ve just signed that at least it would have been something,” said Allen. “Honestly, it just tormented me at night that maybe I should have done it.”

During his last year in office, a true parental-notification bill passed the Virginia Senate and House and reached his desk.

“There were well over 2,000 people there for this bill signing. I was in office looking down before I went down to sign the bill,” said Allen. “Isn’t this great—the wholesomeness? These people are not here because they want some advantage from the government or some money from the government. They’re here for principle.

“We opened up the governor’s mansion shook hands with every single person who was there. And it was my favorite bill signing of all.”

Reagan Influence

Allen’s connection with Ronald Reagan began when the then-candidate for California governor visited the Rams during a practice in 1966. Allen’s father was the head coach of the team at the time.

“Here’s a politician who knows what’s important,” Allen, a freshman at high school, recalled thinking to himself. To his knowledge, politicians liked getting good seats at games, not boring practices.

So the high schooler started following Reagan, who ultimately won the governorship.

Fast forward to 1976, when Allen was at the University of Virginia, Reagan, who was running for President, wanted him to head up Young Virginians for Reagan group. Allen responded, “Governor, this is a great honor, but I know nothing about organized politics.”

He explained to Reagan that he took history courses, not political science. He was not with the college Republicans. And he worked as a cowboy on ranches in Nevada and Idaho, which to his mind had nothing to do with politics.

“I’m not sure you found the right person,” Allen told Reagan. “I do like to debate people. I like to argue with folks and let them know what a great job you did as Governor of California and your great ideas for America’s future. But I know nothing.”

Reagan replied, “Well, just keep doing that,” Allen recalled. So he did that. That year, Reagan won the Virginia primary but lost the nomination to incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford.

From that first experience in organized politics, Allen learned that you had to be authentic. “Don’t put on airs. Don’t try to be fake. People can see phoniness right off the bat.”

He also learned this from Reagan.

“People didn’t want Ronald Reagan to say ‘tear down this wall’ at Brandenburg Gate, but he audaciously set it in. And they knew he believed it,” said Allen. “He was resolved. But, he was not just resolved but also credible and dependable.”

Allen’s had his own share in fighting communism. In 2006, as a U.S. senator, he issued a support letter to Chinese people who had denounced the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations, becoming the first federal lawmaker to support the grassroots movement known as “Tuidang” or “Quit the Party.”

He described this support as a no-brainer: “For anybody who aspires to freedom, it’s natural for me to have an affinity and appreciation, for anyone who’s trying to get out of the dictatorial authoritarian government.”

At the time of Allen’s letter, the number of people who quit the CCP and its related organizations was nearly 10 million.

That figure has now reached nearly 400 million Chinese inside and outside the country, according to Global Service Center for Quitting Chinese Communist Party.

Coaching Young Leaders

Allen’s father strongly believed in the value of consistency.

“At a time when concepts like working together and being positive seem old-fashioned to some people, I can’t tell you what a reassuring feeling it is that the players—and I—showed that those ideas still have value,” wrote Allen’s father in a column for “Sports Illustrated” magazine in 1990, describing his last coaching job at Long Beach State University’s football team with “no money, no support, no on-campus stadium, no facilities, and no hope.”

“I learned that players need the same things they needed in 1948—discipline, organization, conditioning, motivation, togetherness, love,” he continued.

For Allen, who grew up at the intersection of sports and politics, the timeless values that followed him were: limited government, individual freedom, and competition.

He also shares a passion for coaching, and has been a Reagan scholar with Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization, since 2007, mentoring young leaders.

Outside of the program, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, 46, counts himself as one of Allen’s mentees.

Both Miyares and Allen fondly recalled the bus tour for Miyares’ attorney general campaign in southwest Virginia last summer. Allen mentioned cleaning the bus windshield for Miyares during the time. In response, Miyares chuckled that he did the same for Allen in his Senate campaign in 2000.

“I could pick nobody that I thought would enjoy it [the bus tour] more and was a better road warrior with me than George Allen,” Miyares told The Epoch Times. “He knows every backroad, small mom and pop store, and market you can imagine in southwest Virginia.”

Miyares began his political career working on Allen’s Senate campaign in 2000. But that was not his first memory of Allen. Miyares first heard of Allen in his AP (Advanced Program) government class during his high school senior year in 1993.

He recalled that the teacher rolled a video cart into the classroom to show a tape of the gubernatorial debate from the previous night. He wasn’t paying much attention to the election because his family was “facing real financial struggles” and he didn’t even know if he could afford college.

“The tuition for Virginia colleges was increasing almost every year by double-digit rates,” he said. “It was really making it hard for people, particularly people who were struggling to figure out how they were ever going to go to college.”

The issue of college costs came up during the debate, in which candidate Allen promised to cap the tuition rate increase under the inflation rate. Miyares told The Epoch Times, “I remember watching it [the debate] in the classroom and thinking, ‘I don’t know who that guy is. But if he gets elected, maybe I can actually afford to go to college. Maybe we can put our pennies together.'”

Allen kept this promise, and Miyares did end up going to college.

Little did Miyares expect that he would be working with Allen several years later.

For the attorney general, Allen’s enduring appeal lies in his character.

“He really is, in many ways, Virginia’s Ronald Reagan in the sense that he’s very optimistic. He has an infectious sense of both optimism and humor. He loves people,” Miyares said.

Still Fired up for America

Common sense Jeffersonian conservative ideas still work today, according to Allen. Likewise, Reagan principles such as “peace through strength” still work today.

In his view, people in America’s heartland, “the farmers, the ranchers, the small business owners, the people that just keep this country going … that’s the people of our country.” And they love their communities and care for their children, “instinctively and naturally.”

According to Allen, as long as people can still be free, America will continue to be great.

“The fundamental strength in America are the foundational principles of our Constitution and the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. Those are what’s in the heart and soul of most Americans, I believe,” he said.

“The strength of America is in our people.”