What I am fighting for

I am a tireless advocate for women’s health and equality, due largely to my own experiences. My last pregnancy was high-risk, and I had to make quick decisions. I cannot imagine the government obstructing my ability and my doctor’s ability to make life or death decisions about me, my child, and my family. We need access to affordable healthcare and that means abortion too. The majority of Virginians agree that abortion should remain safe and legal. Let’s make that a reality by codifying Roe in our Virginia Constitution so that VA is a national model. This ensures the health and security for all our families. 

We have all experienced the erratic and intense weather patterns; storms that come out of nowhere, damaging winds, searing heat and floods that cause loss of life and property. We know this will only get worse; I know from growing up on a farm and working as a water chemist, we need to take climate change seriously. We need to preserve land for clean air and water. We need to invest in green infrastructure and renewable energy, while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. That includes our continued opposition to oil and gas pipelines that harm our land and direct resources away from green infrastructure.

I was inspired to become a teacher after my experience in the Peace Corps. Education is the backbone of our society; it is not an expense but rather an investment. I know from being the Chair of Charlottesville School Board that our underinvestment in education has severe consequences. From affordable child care to college, our kids must be in the best position to succeed and compete in a fast-paced and rapidly evolving economy. Their success is our community’s success. We need investment in teacher pay, as well as counselors and our facilities. We need a focus on workforce development from K-12 to our community colleges. Our teachers and children need the tools of the next century.

Firearms are a way of life for rural communities, but firearms have been winding up in the hands of the wrong people for decades.  And now more people are dying due to an overzealous deregulation of firearms. Leaving firearms unlocked and without proper safety devices exposes children to accidents and leaves those struggling with mental health at greater risk. We must work towards better gun storage. We also need to make sure all our localities use extreme risk and red flag laws to disarm those that pose a risk to themselves or others. 

Many guns wind up on our streets, either through out-of-state trafficking or domestic straw-purchasing. We can and must do better, such as requiring registration of firearms and permits.

Patients should not have to fight the insurance companies for basic healthcare, but for many of us, that is what we have to do. For decades I–just like many of you–have struggled to navigate our broken healthcare system. COVID-19 exposed the cracks in our healthcare system. We should not only help people reach the specialists and obtain the acute care they need, but provide the resources necessary for a healthy lifestyle which includes better nutrition and mental health services. This includes the creation of a paid family and medical leave program that makes sure no Virginians get left behind.