For Northam, at this point, resignation is the only thing that works for me. He was elected by people who didn't know this was in his past.



This is a conversation every candidate should have with their campaign team. They need to go over every skeleton in their closet and have a plan to mitigate it if it comes out, OR get ahead of it by disclosing it and highlighting how they have worked to undo the harm the original incident caused.

And honestly, it would take a lot to mitigate it. Maybe something like, "This photo is coming out, I'm deeply sorry for the pain it will cause when my supporters, particularly the black community, become aware of it. Six months after it was taken, a friend of mine saw the yearbook and talked to me about how hurtful it was. I started looking into the white supremacy that our healthcare system is built on, and joined a research team that quantified how much race affects the kind of care people get. This work inspired me to run for state senate, where I introduced Bills X, Y and Z, influenced by that research." But I am sure a black person could get at the details better than I could, and their voices should be centered in what these needs might be.