Priorities
My Goal
I believe our rural community is ready for a new kind of leader—someone who will listen to their concerns, look out for their interests, and be a strong voice for their needs in the House.
Leaders in Richmond must start paying attention and addressing every community’s needs rather than passing one-size-fits-all policies that often leave rural Virginia behind.
What I Believe
My policy priorities are rooted in three core values:
Everyone deserves the opportunity to make our own choices about what works best for us, our lives, and our families.
Government should be a force for good in people’s lives–creating opportunities, removing barriers, and helping all families thrive and every person succeed.
Rural communities are special, and we often face unique challenges. Our policies must reflect our distinct healthcare, economic, educational, and environmental needs.
My Priorities
Improve Healthcare Access and Lower Costs
- Access to local, affordable healthcare options
- Community-based mental health treatment options
- Rural healthcare accessibility
- Options and flexibility for elder care
- Affordable healthcare and prescription drugs
- Substance abuse counseling, covered by insurance
- Ensure veterans get the support and services they earned close to home
Healthcare is a right. No one should have to choose between their family’s health and financial wellbeing. Healthcare should be based first and foremost on patient needs, and support for compassionate healthcare professionals to deliver care free from interference and dictates based on political rhetoric.
That means everyone should have access to affordable, quality physical and mental healthcare. In fact, no matter what side of the political spectrum you are on, we can all agree that these are trying times, and everyone should have access to mental health support.
Veterans have unique healthcare needs. As Delegate, I will work with agencies and community groups to make sure veterans get the benefits they earned, including access to quality healthcare, mental health services, and substance abuse counseling.
Increase Rural Economic Opportunity
- Support small businesses and farmers
- Give entrepreneurs the support to help their businesses thrive
- Job protection and creation for small-town Virginia
- Limit overdevelopment and preserve rural natural resources
- Paid medical leave and paid family leave
- Affordable, quality childcare for working families
People in our community deserve a wide variety of opportunities to work, support their families, and build a future where they can succeed and thrive. We must ensure that anyone willing to work can find a path forward, that entrepreneurs have the tools to grow their business, and that our elected officials prioritize the needs of small-town businesses, farmers, and families.
Our local economy is powered by small businesses, farms, and families working hard to make ends meet; they are the heart of our economy. We need to set them up for success by encouraging and empowering our local community business owners, connecting them with state and federal resources, and growing our economic base and our workforce by fostering new ways to do business in rural areas.
We want economic growth in our region without damaging the natural beauty and rural nature of our home. Our communities can benefit from new renewable energy options, bringing new green jobs and clean tech industries to the region, while balancing economic development with protection for our farming communities and natural resources. We need policies that reflect rural values, not just big-city assumptions.
Additionally, we need to enact paid family leave and paid medical leave, so families don’t go broke when a medical crisis or chronic condition requires taking time off work.
Strengthen and Support Rural Education
- Champion high-quality K-12 public education
- Increased teacher salaries
- Early childhood education funding
- Skills training and apprenticeship programs
- Support for local community colleges
We need our fair share of funding: for our public schools, job training programs, and apprenticeships that prepare students for real-world careers.
Coming from a family of educators, and as someone who relied on hard work and education to get ahead, I understand how vital education is to families in our region, including access to vocational education and apprenticeships for those who choose paths outside of college.
I also know that rural schools are often ignored by politicians from Richmond or Northern Virginia. Our public schools are the center of our community and the places where our children learn the skills needed to compete for good jobs. We cannot afford any more policies that short our schools or force us to fall behind schools in other parts of the state.
That’s why I will advocate for affordable and quality education at the K-12 levels, with paths to meet the needs of all learners. We need to invest in the future of our community by increasing teacher salaries, funding early childhood education programs, supporting community colleges, and ensuring our public schools’ tax dollars are not diverted to pay private school tuitions in Northern Virginia while leaving our students behind.
Protecting Reproductive Freedom
- Politicians need to stay out of our private decisions
- Abortion care must remain legal and safe without barriers
- Choices for birth control must be available and affordable
- Rural communities must have strong maternal healthcare options close to home
Fertility and reproduction are very personal issues. Decisions around when, how, whether, and with whom we have children are some of the most important and most personal decisions we make in our lives. People must have the right to make those decisions without government or politicians interfering in our private lives.
Reproductive health decisions should be left to women and their healthcare providers. Birth control MUST remain legal and available. Politicians should not be allowed to deny someone’s coverage for medical care because they disagree with their decisions about what is best for them, their family, and their circumstances.
Keep Our Community Safe
- Foster communication between law enforcement and the community
- Find shared solutions to handle non-criminal mental health crises
- Enact commonsense, bipartisan policies to prevent gun violence
- Protect our LGBTQ community from harm and harassment
- Increased highway and traffic safety
We all deserve to feel safe and healthy in our community. Parents should be able to send their kids to school without the worry of them being shot, and our law enforcement officers need to know we have their backs when they put their lives on the line.
To make our community safer, our goal should also be to change the culture of conflict. We can continue to build relationships and deepen communication between law enforcement and our broader community. We should help law enforcement build partnerships with other public professionals, like social service agencies and mental health practitioners, to fulfill unmet needs before a crisis is reached, de-escalate crises safely and quickly, and find solutions after a crisis has subsided.
Finally, we must balance constitutional protections with the safety of our children, by working to protect our community from gun violence.
Address Rural Needs
- Support agricultural communities and business
- Increase options for rural access to health care
- Encourage sustainable farming
- Expand broadband access and strong cellular service
- Protect funding for rural public schools
The issues that are most important to our community are often different than the issues that are important to people living in downtown Richmond or in Northern Virginia. Our beautiful, rural community has its own unique set of realities and priorities.
Too often, Richmond and Washington don’t understand the realities of life in rural communities like ours. The policies they pass don’t reflect our priorities—and we pay the price.
Rural communities make up eighty-eight percent of the land in our Commonwealth. Yet we too often are overlooked or ignored by our government. We need a leader who will stand up for our community and address our specific needs. Decisions made at the federal and state levels deeply affect our local community, from Medicaid access to trade and farm exports. We need a leader who will stand up for us and advocate for our community.