A Virginian public commission voted on Feb. 17 not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance before its business meetings, according to The Winchester Star.
The Winchester Planning Commission voted 4-2 to keep the pledge out of the panel’s bylaws, The Winchester Star reported. Commissioner Leesa Mayfield, who opposed the measure to add it, said she had nothing against the Pledge of Allegiance but thought the move was unnecessary.
“The Pledge of Allegiance has an importance, of course,” Mayfield said, according to the outlet. “But the need to recite it at the beginning of every city meeting in a performative way seems unnecessary.” (RELATED: Supreme Court Shoots Down Trump’s Tariffs)
Mayfield said she opposed the proposal in an attempt to open up discussion about a policy change pushed by Winchester Planning Commission Chairman Beau Correll.
“Beau has been rewriting the bylaws unilaterally,” Mayfield alleged on Feb. 19. “He was working with commissioners one on one to discuss the changes that he was proposing, including some changes that we might have individually suggested as well. When he brought up to me beforehand about the Pledge of Allegiance, I was like, ‘Is that really necessary?’ And he said, ‘Well, Commissioner [Sandra] Bloom also had some hesitation with this addition as well,'” she continued.
🚨WATCH: A public commission in Virginia votes to remove the Pledge of Allegiance from its regular business agenda.
— Off The Press (@OffThePress1) February 18, 2026
The Winchester Planning Commission opted to remove the pledge from its business meeting agenda on Tuesday, with one commissioner calling it "pageantry" and another… pic.twitter.com/RythKpf7qo
Mayfield’s colleague Bloom labeled reciting the pledge as “pageantry” during the Feb. 17 meeting, according to The Winchester Star. “I’m glad we don’t do any pageantry or rituals before we just dive into business,” she said.
Commissioner Mady Jimenez-Torres seconded Mayfield’s motion not to add reciting the pledge to their gatherings, prompting Correll to open the floor for debate. Mayfield announced she backed Bloom’s statement while Correll called to take adding the pledge off the agenda before suggesting a roll call vote.
Correll said he was “shocked” by the commission’s decision to remove the pledge in a post shared Feb. 19 to his Facebook page. “To be honest, I was shocked at Tuesday’s meeting. I found myself surrounded by a measure to excise the Pledge of Allegiance from our proposed bylaws package.”
“While we do not presently say the Pledge of Allegiance in our meetings, we certainly should, and I thought this would be a very uncontroversial measure. For example, the Frederick County Planning Commission right beside us – where I attended as the liaison yesterday – not only recites the Pledge, but also opens with an invocation,” he continued.
“To hear such a basic concept of our American way of life called ‘pageantry,’ labeled ‘unnecessary,’ or treated as a ‘ritual’ that somehow gets in the way of a normal meeting – I found it incredibly offensive. In fact, you could tell by my tone that I was taken aback by this resistance,” Correll added.
Col. James Wood founded Winchester, Virginia, in 1744, according to its official historical page. George Washington was elected to public office as a representative from the area to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1758, and the town also played a role in the French and Indian War, the Revolution and the Civil War.
The Daily Caller contacted the Winchester Planning Commission, who did not immediately comment on its decision to remove the pledge from its meetings.
