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Virginia gubernatorial election, 2021 (June 8 Democratic primary)

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Governor of Virginia
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Democratic primary
Republican primary
General election
Election details
Filing deadline: March 25, 2021
Convention: May 8, 2021
Primary: June 8, 2021
General: November 2, 2021
Pre-election incumbent(s):
Ralph Northam (D)
How to vote
Poll times: 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Voting in Virginia
Ballotpedia analysis
Federal and state primary competitiveness
State executive elections in 2021
Impact of term limits in 2021
State government trifectas
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Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2021
Virginia
executive elections
Governor

Lieutenant governor
Attorney general

Terry McAuliffe won the Democratic primary for Governor of Virginia on June 8, 2021. With 99% of precincts reporting, McAuliffe received 62% of the vote followed by Jennifer Carroll Foy and Jennifer McClellan with 20% and 12% of the vote, respectively. Lee Carter and Justin Fairfax both received less than 5% of the vote each.[1]

Incumbent Gov. Ralph Northam (D) was unable to seek re-election due to term limits. Virginia's constitution prevents the governor from running for a second consecutive term, although there is no lifetime term limit, meaning governors can serve non-consecutive terms.

Three candidates—Carroll Foy, McAuliffe, and McClellan—led in fundraising and noteworthy endorsements. The Washington Post's Gregory Schneider and Laura Vozzella wrote, "The contest has highlighted fractures within the Democratic Party, with some younger members insisting now is the time to nominate a woman of color for governor, while much of the leadership has lined up behind McAuliffe as a popular former governor who has stayed powerful within the party."[2]

Carroll Foy served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2018 to 2020. She previously worked as a magistrate judge and public defender.[3][4] Carroll Foy received endorsements from Clean Virginia, the Working Families Party, and four members of the General Assembly.[5][6][7][8] According to campaign finance reports, Carroll Foy raised $3.7 million as of March 31, 2021.[9]

McAuliffe was governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018, at which point he was term-limited. McAuliffe chaired the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005 and was the national chair of Hillary Clinton's (D) 2008 presidential campaign.[10][11] McAuliffe received endorsements from incumbent Gov. Ralph Northam (D), the state House and Senate majority leaders, and 32 other members of the General Assembly.[12][13] According to campaign finance reports, McAuliffe raised $9.9 million as of March 31, 2021.[9]

At the time of the primary, McClellan was a member of the Virginia State Senate, where she served as the vice chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. Before joining the state Senate, McClellan served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2006 to 2018.[14][15] McClellan received endorsements from New Virginia Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, and 12 members of the General Assembly.[16][17][18][19] According to campaign finance reports, McClellan raised $1.8 million as of March 31, 2021.[9]

State Del. Lee Carter and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax also ran in the primary.

Key issues in the primary included electability, vision for Virginia's future, and experience. McAuliffe has campaigned on his experience as governor and his victory in the 2013 gubernatorial election. In a campaign ad, McAuliffe said that he “has always stood up to the extreme right Republicans, and he’s won … We can’t let the extreme right take us backwards. Let’s move Virginia forward.”[20] Carroll Foy described McAuliffe as Virginia’s past, saying, “When [McAuliffe] had his chance, he left most Virginians behind. That’s why we need a new leader with a clear vision and a record for getting things done here in Virginia.”[21] McClellan focused on her legislative and personal history, saying, “Virginians are looking for a new perspective: the perspective of a mother, a Black woman and leader driving progress for 15 years in Richmond.”[22]

This was the fourth contested Democratic gubernatorial primary in Virginia since 1977. It was also the largest number of Democratic candidates running in a gubernatorial primary in state's history.[23] At the time of the primary, Democrats had won four of the five most recent gubernatorial elections and all thirteen statewide elections in Virginia since 2012. In 2019, Democrats won majorities in both the state House and Senate, creating a Democratic trifecta in Virginia for the first time since 1994.

This page focuses on Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial primary. For more in-depth information on Virginia's Republican gubernatorial convention and the general election, see the following pages:

Candidates and election results

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of Virginia

Terry McAuliffe defeated Jennifer D. Carroll Foy, Jennifer McClellan, Justin Fairfax, and Lee Carter in the Democratic primary for Governor of Virginia on June 8, 2021.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Terry McAuliffe
Terry McAuliffe
 
62.1
 
307,367
Image of Jennifer D. Carroll Foy
Jennifer D. Carroll Foy
 
19.8
 
98,052
Image of Jennifer McClellan
Jennifer McClellan
 
11.8
 
58,213
Image of Justin Fairfax
Justin Fairfax
 
3.6
 
17,606
Image of Lee Carter
Lee Carter
 
2.8
 
13,694

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 494,932
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Candidate profiles

Jennifer Carroll Foy

Jennifer D. Carroll Foy

Image of Jennifer D. Carroll Foy

WebsiteFacebookTwitter

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: 

Biography:  Carroll Foy received a bachelor's degree from the Virginia Military Institute in 2003, a master's from Virginia State University in 2005, and a law degree from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 2010. Carroll Foy was a magistrate judge in Richmond before opening a practice as a public defender. At the same time, Carroll Foy also worked as an adjunct professor at Northern Virginia Community College teaching criminal law.


Key Messages

The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.

Carroll Foy emphasized her personal background growing up in Petersburg, saying "I intimately understand the challenges that Virginia families face because I've lived it." Carroll Foy said, "Virginians deserve a governor who has walked in their shoes and who will stand shoulder to shoulder with them and not special interests."

Carroll Foy said she sought bipartisan compromises in the House of Delegates and would do so as governor, saying, "When we come to the table with an open ear, look past the 'D' or 'R' by our names, and work together, we can create real solutions that help all Virginians."

Carroll Foy said, "Now is our time to move Virginia forward, not back," adding that she would "elevate workers, women, and wages, fight for jobs and justice, and build a Commonwealth where everyone has an opportunity to thrive."

Show sources

Sources: Facebook, "WTKR News 3," April 6, 2021, Jennifer Carroll Foy's campaign website, "Issues & Priorities," accessed April 7, 2021, YouTube, "Virginia People's Debates - Governor," March 16, 2021; LinkedIn, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," accessed April 6, 2021, VoteSmart, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," accessed April 6, 2021, Local Majority, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," accessed April 6, 2021

This information was current as of the candidate's run for Governor of Virginia in 2021.

Terry McAuliffe

Terry McAuliffe

Image of Terry McAuliffe

WebsiteFacebookTwitter

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: 

Biography:  McAuliffe received a bachelor's degree from The Catholic University of America and a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. Following his graduation, he began a career in banking, investment, and real estate development. McAuliffe served as the finance director on three Democratic presidential campaigns—Jimmy Carter's (1980), Dick Gephardt's (1988), and Bill Clinton's (1996)—and as the national chairman of Hillary Clinton's (D) 2008 presidential campaign. McAuliffe chaired the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005.


Key Messages

The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.

McAuliffe said he chose to run for governor "because we need to think big and be bold to move the Commonwealth forward," which he said he would accomplish using his previous experience as governor.

McAuliffe focused on education policy, saying, "We are going to make the biggest, boldest investment in education in Virginia history." McAuliffe said such investments were necessary "[i]f we want to recover from this pandemic and realize an economy in which all Virginians prosper."

McAuliffe emphasized his endorsements, saying, "I will take Virginia to the next level. That is why I've built such a broad coalition: the most members of the General Assembly, the most members of the Black Caucus." He added, "[O]ur campaign is only as strong as the movement we build and I'm honored to have these folks by my side."

Show sources

Sources: Twitter, "Terry McAuliffe," April 6, 2021, YouTube, "Going big and bold on Education," Dec. 15, 2020, Terry McAuliffe's campaign website, "Ensuring an Equitable, World-Class Education for Every Child," accessed April 6, 2021, Terry McAuliffe's campaign website, "About," accessed April 6, 2021, Terry McAuliffe's campaign website, "Issues," accessed April 6, 2021, Facebook, "WTVR CBS 6 News," April 6, 2021; Leaders Magazine, "Financing the Road to the White House," July 2007, VoteSmart, "Terry McAuliffe," accessed April 6, 2021

This information was current as of the candidate's run for Governor of Virginia in 2021.

Jennifer McClellan

Jennifer McClellan

Image of Jennifer McClellan

WebsiteFacebookTwitterYouTube

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: 

Biography:  McClellan received a bachelor's degree in English and political science from the University of Richmond in 1994 and a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1997. She began practice as an attorney at Hunton & Williams with a focus on telecommunications regulatory issues. In 2002, McClellan became an assistant general counsel at Verizon. In the General Assembly, McClellan became vice chairwoman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.


Key Messages

The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.

McClellan said that Virginians "need an experienced, compassionate leader with a vision for a brighter future." She said she would, "rebuild our economy, our healthcare and economic safety nets, and our education system in a way that leaves no Virginian behind."

McClellan said that she "has spent her career dismantling the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow." She added, "I've walked past the statute of Harry Byrd every day into the state capitol knowing I am his worst nightmare: a Black woman working to eradicate the inequity that he put in place."

McClellan emphasized her legislative record saying, "Lived experience matters - and so does legislative experience. I have passed 300 bills and have more state government experience than all of the candidates combined. I know how to bring people together and lead on day one."

Show sources

Sources: Jenn McClellan's campaign website, "Meet Jenn," accessed April 7, 2021, Facebook, "WTKR News 3," April 6, 2021, Jenn McClellan's campaign website, "Equity, Inclusivity and Racial Justice," accessed April 7, 2021, Jenn McClellan's campaign website, "Home," accessed April 7, 2021, Facebook, "Jennifer McClellan," April 7, 2021; Jenn McClellan's campaign website, "Meet Jenn," accessed April 7, 2021, LinkedIn, "Jennifer McClellan," accessed April 7, 2021

This information was current as of the candidate's run for Governor of Virginia in 2021.

Noteworthy primary endorsements

This section includes noteworthy endorsements issued in the primary, added as we learn about them. Click here to read how we define noteworthy primary endorsements. If you are aware of endorsements that should be included, please email us.

Click the links below to see endorsement lists published on candidate campaign websites, if available.

Democratic primary endorsements
Endorsement Carroll Foy McAuliffe McClellan
Newspapers and editorials
Augusta Free Press[24] ✔
The Washington Post[25] ✔
Elected officials
U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)[13] ✔
U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.)[13] ✔
U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.)[8] ✔
U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.)[26] ✔
Gov. Kate Brown (D-Ore.)[18] ✔
Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.)[12] ✔
Members of the Virginia General Assembly 4[8] 36[13] 12[18]
Individuals
Frmr. U.S. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton (D)[27] ✔
Frmr. NAACP President Ben Jealous (D)[28] ✔
Gloria Steinem[29] ✔
Organizations
Amalgamated Transit Union[30] ✔
American Federation of Government Employees Local 252[8] ✔
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees[31] ✔
Care In Action[17] ✔
CASA In Action[32] ✔
Clean Virginia[6] ✔
Democracy for America[7] ✔
EMILY's List[33] ✔
Feminist Majority Equality PAC[8] ✔
Fund Her[34] ✔
Higher Heights for America[35] ✔
International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation[36] ✔
International Union of Painters and Allied Trades[37] ✔
Laborers' International Union of North America[13] ✔
March On[38] ✔
Mid-Atlantic Pipe Trades Association[8] ✔
NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia[19] ✔
National Air Traffic Controllers Association[13] ✔
National Women's Political Caucus-Virginia[39] ✔
New Virginia Majority[16] ✔
People for the American Way[28] ✔
Run Sister Run PAC[8] ✔
Sunrise Movement[40] ✔
United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Eastern Atlantic States[8] ✔
Virginia's List[41] ✔
#VoteProChoice[42] ✔
Voter Protection Project[43] ✔
Women for the Win[44] ✔
Women of Color Coalition[45] ✔
Working Families Party[5] ✔


Timeline

2021

Campaign themes

See also: Campaign themes

Lee Carter

Campaign website

Carter's campaign website stated the following:

“

Healthcare
Lee has been fighting for a universal healthcare system from day one, to guarantee that the only thing you have to worry about when you need a doctor is getting better. Not billing, not medical debt, not whether the doctor is in network - just your health. That's how healthcare works for the over 100,000 Virginians who are currently on active duty, and Lee believes it's how healthcare should work for you.

Lee's vote to expand Medicaid was one of the proudest moments of his life, and people are signing up faster than expected for the program. He introduced and passed into law a $50/month cap on insulin co-pays and introduced budget language that would have guaranteed insulin for all Virginians, regardless of whether or not they have insurance.

As Governor, Lee will press Virginia's Congressional delegation to pass Medicare for All at the federal level. But if the federal government keeps dragging their feet, Lee will take action at the state level.

He'll create an office to reimburse people's out-of-pocket COVID expenses, whether that's $20 for a test or $20,000 for an ICU stay. You just bring in your receipts, and Virginia will cover it so you don't have to worry about fighting the insurance companies.

He’ll also stem the tide of rural hospital closures by directly funding not-for-profit rural healthcare providers. He’ll move Virginia’s public health insurance programs from the fee-for-service medical billing model that encourages for-profit providers to fight over profitable patients and drives full service hospitals out of business to a pay-for-performance medical billing model that incentivizes the best treatment possible for the patient.

In 2017, he authored a policy paper outlining how Virginia could implement a state-level universal plan that would cover everyone, improve patient outcomes, and reduce costs by upwards of 30%. He then led a coalition of 16 candidates for the House of Delegates - mostly from rural areas - who pledged to fight for that system.

There are still over half a million Virginians with no health insurance, and over a million more who have insurance yet can't afford to use it. Lee will build on these successes, and won't stop fighting until we achieve universal coverage in Virginia.

This universal plan will guarantee healthcare for everyone. Not access, not affordability, but healthcare.

Criminal Justice Reform
Over his two terms in the General Assembly, Lee has introduced bills to legalize cannabis, abolish the death penalty, ban the strip searching of children, and abolish cash bail. He also introduced legislation prohibiting government purchase of goods and services produced by prison labor.

The 2020 special session demonstrated that just tinkering around the edges of policing can't fix the violence at the core of our policing system. Ultimately, to fix this problem, we will have to reduce the size and scope of policing in this Commonwealth. That means taking tasks like traffic enforcement, mental health checkups, and substance use interventions out of the purview of police, creating new non-police agencies to handle them, and reducing police budgets to pay for it.

Lee supports defelonization across the board. The United States incarcerates more of its people than any other country in history, and it's mostly due to length of prison sentences. He also supports the Portuguese model of drug policy, which decriminalizes all drugs and treats substance use and addiction as the medical problems that they are. Portugal adopted that policy 20 years ago and has seen significantly lower rates of drug-related incarceration, overdose deaths, and HIV infections as a result. Lee supports amending the Virginia Constitution to end felon disenfranchisement entirely, even during the term of incarceration.

Lee believes in legalizing cannabis the right way with an immediate end to the harm of prohibition and the sequestration of every penny of cannabis tax revenue into a fund for reparations for Black and Indigenous Virginians.

Lee also steadfastly opposes the creation of new mandatory minimum sentences, supports eliminating all current mandatory minimums, opposes increasing police presence in schools, supports legalizing sex work, and has never accepted contributions from police organizations.

Lee will personally guarantee that Virginia’s prison population is at least 30% lower at the end of his term than it is at the beginning, even if he has to sign thousands of clemency petitions individually as Governor.

Housing
Lee believes we must continue the eviction moratorium until the General Assembly can act to create a permanent solution to this problem that is far more tenant-friendly than current law. As Governor, he will declare the impending post-COVID eviction crisis as an emergency in order to extend that moratorium for as long as is needed for the General Assembly to act.

We have a crisis of housing affordability - housing costs are the single largest squeeze on residents of Northern Virginia, and Richmond and Hampton Roads lead the nation in eviction rates. Lee recognizes that the problem with our housing system is not a lack of supply – Virginia currently has more vacant housing units than homeless people – it is a problem of speculators using mass eviction to prop up the price of housing. Lee supports a wide array of housing policies aimed at cracking down on property speculators and de-commodifying housing. These include statewide rent control, good-cause eviction laws, vacancy taxes for corporate landlords, right of first refusal for multi-family units’ tenants to cooperativize their community rather than being evicted en masse, and a public option for housing.

LGBTQ Equality
Lee is proud to have helped Virginia lead the nation in LGBTQ equality by passing laws prohibiting discrimination in employment, public accommodation, and contracting, banning conversion therapy, banning the “gay panic” defense, allowing gender-neutral drivers’ licenses, and banning child placement discrimination. Lee will continue to fight to enshrine LGBTQ equality in Virginia’s Code and Constitution.

Education
Lee believes educators should be trusted to do the job of educating our young minds without someone constantly watching over their shoulders. As such, he supports all efforts to reduce our standardized testing requirements to the federal minimum so that teachers don’t have to worry about teaching to the test. Lee has fought against all increases in law enforcement’s involvement in school discipline, in favor of allowing teachers and school staff to address disciplinary standards in a way that best serves the child and the student body as a whole.

Lee has introduced legislation for the last three years to allow educators the ability to strike without retaliation, because he believes that if conditions are bad enough to warrant a strike, we should be thanking teachers for blowing the whistle and demanding better for their students.

Lee supports the creation of a state program to audit physical education infrastructure, including the condition of school buildings, IT capabilities, air quality, water quality, and classroom capacity at each public school in Virginia. Similar to the Department of Transportation’s database for deficiencies in transportation infrastructure, this would give a standard metric for each school’s need for repair, renovation, or replacement, and would allow the General Assembly to allocate funds directly to the specific schools with the most need each year as part of our annual capital improvement process. This, in addition to a Constitutional mandate to provide an equal and equitable education for all students, will guarantee that we no longer allow some students to be forgotten in crumbling buildings.

Lee also believes we need to disconnect school funding from local property taxes, raise teacher pay and retirement benefits, and increase the number of counselors and nurses in our schools.

Disability Rights
Lee believes people with disabilities should have unencumbered access to voting and all public meetings and buildings. He is also a strong opponent of using seclusion and restraint to discipline students with disabilities and eliminating all conceivable barriers to people with disabilities getting the healthcare they need. Lee will also ensure that no Virginia employer gets away with paying subminimum or uncompetitive wages to Virginians with disabilities.

Transportation & Infrastructure
Lee believes all of Virginia needs a world-class transit system, capable of providing for the Commonwealth's ever-growing population and reducing commute times. He supports increased funding for public transportation, and has consistently opposed new tolls. He supports maintaining our roads in a state of good repair, upgrading existing intersections to alleviate bottlenecks and safety issues, and will push for expanded bus and rail services in every corner of Virginia. Lee also supports expanding rural and municipal broadband, ensuring clean water for Virginians, and modernizing our dams, bridges, and school facilities.

Solving the problem of the digital divide requires a completely different approach than the one the General Assembly has relied on for decades. Our current approach builds a trust fund to subsidize private broadband providers in the hopes that more subsidies will get them to expand service into unprofitable areas. This is the same approach that failed to deliver electric service to all homes in the early part of the 20th Century, until the creation of the rural electric cooperatives as part of the New Deal.

Delivering broadband service to all residential addresses will require drawing on the New Deal for inspiration, directly building the necessary infrastructure as a public works project, and then handing ownership of that infrastructure over to the existing electric cooperatives or creating municipal broadband utilities. Investor-owned telecom companies will never serve everyone, and we must stop waiting for them to do so.

Demanding Women's Rights
Lee knows that reproductive rights are human rights. He is an unapologetic supporter of a woman’s right to choose and will never support legislation that limits women’s access to healthcare. He will also continue the fight for pay equity, workplace rights, and increased protection from domestic violence and sexual assault.

Campaign Finance Reform & Transparency
Lee refuses to accept campaign contributions from all for-profit entities and industry interest groups, including all corporate donors. He supports banning corporate contributions and establishing a system of publicly financed elections. Lee also supports capping individual contributions, establishing robust enforcement of campaign finance and ethics laws, closing the numerous loopholes in Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, banning former elected officials from lobbying, and modernizing Virginia’s campaign finance and ethics reporting systems.

Lee’s personal, gift, and campaign finance disclosures can be found here.

Protecting & Empowering Workers
Lee was partially inspired to run for office in 2017 after a horrific experience with the Commonwealth’s worker compensation program. He’s introduced and passed several workers comp reform bills, and he’ll continue to fight for paid family leave and sick days, a minimum wage of at least $18/hr. indexed to inflation, and collective bargaining rights. In 2019, Lee’s campaign was the first in Virginia history to unionize, and this year we’re the only gubernatorial campaign with a unionized staff.

Three years in a row, Lee introduced legislation to repeal the anti-union freeloader law (aka, “right to work”), and he’ll continue to fight for repeal until it gets done. Three years in a row, he also introduced legislation to allow educators the ability to strike without retaliation. Lee also introduced and passed into law legislation to create worker cooperatives as a type of business in Virginia.

Environment
Lee refuses contributions from the fossil-fuel industry and opposes the Mountain Valley Pipeline and fracking. For several years, he has co-sponsored legislation to stop new fossil-fuel infrastructure construction, and he supports divesting from fossil-fuel interests.

Lee supports massive investments in green energy and believes consumers should be able to purchase or produce their own renewable energy. As one of the few Delegates who objected to the so-called “Virginia Clean Economy Act” on the grounds that it was too slow, and that it disregarded the principles of environmental justice, this has been a key area of Lee’s fight for justice in Virginia.

Lee is a staunch supporter and legislative co-sponsor of Virginia’s Green New Deal Act, and as we move forward with the transition to a renewable energy economy, he recognizes that we must do so with two things in mind. We must get to zero carbon by absolutely no later than 2035, and we cannot let the big electric monopolies control the process and price-gouge working Virginians on the transition.

As Governor, Lee will ensure that municipal and cooperative utilities are the primary drivers of this transition, so that the process is owned and controlled by Virginia’s consumers. He will also bring Dominion and APCO back before the SCC immediately for a long-overdue rate review, so that the regulators who are tasked with protecting Virginia’s consumers can order that refunds be paid for the hundreds of millions of dollars of “over-earnings” by those monopolies. And he’ll center the protection of endangered species and proper cleanup of coal ash and Superfund sites while protecting the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

Voting Rights & Electoral Reform
Voting is foundational to democracy, and Lee supports efforts to make it easier to vote. He's proud of the efforts taken in 2020 to allow more early voting and absentee voting, and wants to build on that success with automatic voter registration and opening more voting precincts to reduce wait times. Lee also supports modernizing the Department of Elections, their systems and processes, and eliminating petition signature requirements for ballot access. He also knows that an election isn't truly free and fair as long as we're choosing the lesser of two evils, so he'll fight to end the electoral college for presidential elections, and to bring ranked choice voting to all other elections in Virginia.

Consumer Protection
Lee believes elected officials should protect consumers from predatory behavior. In Virginia, loan sharks have been able to prey on vulnerable people in their times of need, and that’s why Lee was a co-patron on HB 47, the Payday Lending Prohibition Act, and supports banning predatory lending. Lee also introduced HB 1755 to establish net neutrality in Virginia, and he supports reform of water and electric utilities to ensure consumers aren’t being effectively price gouged.[61]

”
—Lee Carter's campaign website (2021)[62]


Justin Fairfax

Campaign website

Fairfax's campaign website stated the following:

“

Education
I will continue to fight to make sure that every child has access to a world class education and academic experience. Together we will fight to make college education affordable.

Justice Reform
I will fight to uphold Justice for All. I will work to ensure that all Virginian communities feel safe and protected.

Healthcare
I was proud to cast the tie breaking vote to expand Medicaid in 2018. I will work harder to make sure more Virginians can access affordable health care.

Housing
I will work to ensure that every Virginian has access to secure and sustainable housing. I will also work to provide more affordable housing for at-need communities.[61]

”
—Justin Fairfax's campaign website (2021)[63]


Jennifer Carroll Foy

Campaign website

Carroll Foy's campaign website stated the following:

“

The challenges we face as Virginians are far too great to confront alone. It’s time to leave the divisiveness and partisan warfare that has poisoned our politics well in the past. This moment calls for us to come together as a Commonwealth and have everyone’s voice at the table to find the solutions that will bring us forward.

I first learned this at VMI, where I shed blood, sweat, and tears side by side with cadets who largely didn’t look like me or think like me to meet our shared goals. When all was said and done, each one of us came out the other end better for it. It’s what pushed me to seek bipartisan solutions in the House of Delegates, because the need for action is far more important than politics-as-usual. As a Delegate, I am proud to have worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to secure real wins for Virginians, from passing legislation giving veteran small-business owners access to the resources they need to expanding access to rural broadband.

When we come to the table with an open ear, look past the “D” or the “R” by our names, and work together, we can create real solutions that help all Virginians. This same idea is what drives my campaign today. We’re reaching out to everyone and anyone who will speak with us, and we’re not just talking. We’re listening. We’re listening to the solutions that will bring us into the future and away from the broken status quo. We’re listening to the voices of Virginians, no matter who they vote for, to build a strong coalition that can get things done in Richmond. The work to build our future doesn’t start when the next Governor is sworn in; it starts now, on the campaign trail, as we build our movement.

No matter who you are everyone wants and deserves a clean environment, strong public schools, access to quality affordable healthcare, an ethical and transparent government, safe communities, and opportunities for a better life. My job as Governor will be to uphold the responsibility of fighting for every Virginian — regardless of political party — the best I can.

Where I Stand

Labor & Working Families

Here’s the Problem
The feeling of living paycheck to paycheck is one I know well. Growing up in Petersburg, we scraped to get by. We worked hard day after day, budgeting every penny we earned. Members of my family still make the minimum wage, and I know how difficult it is for them to survive on what’s in their bank account.
My story isn’t unique. Virginia’s working families aren’t getting a fair shake. Our commonwealth is ranked as the worst state in the country for workers. The issues we’ve always faced have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Working families deserve a living wage, benefits, and a voice.
My Plans as Governor
As Governor, I will elevate workers’ voices and make Virginia a pro-worker model for the nation. I’ll make the Commonwealth the best place in the nation to do business and raise a family. We know that the opportunity to join a union — no matter where you work — is the best way to raise wages, improve working conditions, create family-sustaining jobs, and create an economy that works for everyone. To that end, I’ll make sure Virginians are able to organize easily, so we can protect their rights.
My Record & Experience
I’m never shy about standing with working families. I’ve stood on the picket line with bus drivers on strike and fought alongside our airport workers for the rights they deserve. I petitioned party leadership when the coronavirus pandemic first started, advocating for paid sick leave, hazard pay for grocery workers, and a mask-mandate on public transportation to keep bus drivers and riders safe.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Passed groundbreaking legislation instituting a prevailing wage on all state-funded construction projects.
  • Co-sponsored legislation repealing the “Comstock Rule” that banned the use of Project Labor Agreements and helped thousands of construction workers get quality health coverage.
  • Sponsored legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
  • Passed a bill that cracks down on companies that don’t pay their workers.
  • Sponsored legislation to ensure that firefighters who contracted cancer on the job were covered by workers’ compensation.

Jobs & the Economy

Here’s the Problem
The past year has been one of the most challenging in our commonwealth’s history. The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated our communities and our economy, throwing hundreds of thousands of us out of work, shutting the doors of thousands of businesses, separating our kids from their friends, and most tragically, causing dire health consequences for more than 500,000 Virginians who have fallen sick.
Alarmingly, our national response to this crisis has fallen well short of the measures needed to protect our families, keep small businesses afloat, and preserve jobs. And these challenges have not hit us all equally; while many of us have suffered, communities of color have too often borne the brunt of the pain. We must do better here in Virginia. I know how important this mission is because I’ve lived the everyday struggle of economic insecurity. I grew up in Petersburg, a town that was left behind, in a community fighting every day just to get by. And I continued to see that struggle later on as a public defender and a foster mom.
My Plans as Governor
I will help Virginia’s economy get back on its feet during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. My plan centers on providing relief to the hundreds of thousands of Virginians who lost work during the pandemic, as well as small businesses traditionally left behind in favor of massive corporations and special interests. Unlike policy platforms released by politicians of the past, my plan rejects the false choice that an economic plan of this kind must be either pro-business or pro-worker: mine is both.
As Governor, I will:
  • Fix Virginia’s broken unemployment insurance system
    • Improve administrative issues within the VEC to expedite arrival of needed benefits.
    • Implement automatic increases in funding for the VEC within a certain threshold.
    • Bring Virginia’s weekly maximum unemployment rate up to meet the regional average.
  • Protect and promote small businesses, the heart of Virginia’s economy
    • Strengthen small business access to capital by allocating $4 million per year to an expanded Angel Investor Tax credit program.
    • Ensure small businesses have the PPE to reopen safely and confidently through targeted tax credits on PPE purchases.
    • Provide small businesses with the resources they need to grow.
    • Support small, women-owned, and minority-owned (SWaM) businesses.
    • Promote programs aimed at diversifying Virginia’s economy.
    • Create a Microloans for Veterans Program (MVP).
  • Build a world-class workforce
    • Invest in training the next generation of high-tech workers from diverse backgrounds.
    • Grow the field of professionals working with alternative energy resources.
    • Bolster public awareness of union apprenticeship programs in the skilled trades.
  • Build an infrastructure for businesses that supply family-sustaining jobs to prosper
    • Expedite economic development projects.
    • Expand access to the internet.
    • Promote opportunities in rural and Southwest Virginia.
    • Market Virginia to attract new business in the United States and abroad.
    • Crack down on worker misclassification.
My Record & Experience
My lifelong experience has driven my determination to get results for Virginians, and I have been proud to fight for Virginia jobs as a Delegate. I’ve always fought to make the Commonwealth one of the best places in the nation to do business and raise a family. I supported and passed legislation that doesn’t just get our existing workforce what it needs to succeed, but also prepares the next generations of Virginians to drive our economy forward.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Fought to maximize job creation and give small businesses access to capital and resources they need to succeed.
  • Passed bipartisan legislation to give veterans greater access to the capital they need to start and grow a business.
  • Co-sponsored a bill that rewards companies for creating jobs in underserved communities.
  • Passed legislation to give small minority-owned businesses more opportunities to secure contracts with utilities.
  • Passed legislation to provide greater access to coding courses in high school, preparing our students for the 21st century economy.
  • Passed a bill allowing local school divisions to enter into College and Career Access Pathways Partnerships with community colleges.
  • Worked closely with Republicans to pass two career and technical education bills, and was named “Legislator of the Year” by the Virginia Association for Career and Technical Education. In fact, in 2018, I received an award from the Virginia Chamber of Commerce for my efforts to help workforce development.
Read More Here:
Jennifer Carroll Foy's Economic Policy Plan

Criminal Justice Reform

Here’s the Problem
The fight for social and criminal justice reform is very personal to me. As the first public defender ever elected to the General Assembly and as a former magistrate judge, I’ve witnessed the systemic flaws that define our criminal justice system. These flaws disproportionately impact Virginia’s most vulnerable communities. For years, I have advocated for those who could not advocate for themselves and for those who are left behind by our justice system.
I once represented a woman who only confessed to a crime because of a mental illness that made her want to be agreeable. Another time, I helped a young man, about to be branded a felon, who stole a jacket in a moment of desperation because he was freezing. The impact isn’t limited to the courthouse — these inequities set too many up for a lifetime of being left behind. We see the impact in our schools, in the jobs available to Virginians, in access to housing and healthcare, and so much more.
My Plans as Governor
As Governor, I’m ready to do even more to address the historic injustices in our criminal justice system. We must end mass incarceration, eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline, and diversify the judicial bench.
My Record & Experience
I began fighting for a fairer and more equitable criminal justice system as a magistrate judicial officer and later as a public defender. I have worked hard to address the two criminal justice systems in Virginia: one that degrades marginalized and poor communities and another that works well for everyone else. I ran for Delegate to fix our b roken criminal justice system and create a Virginia that treats all people equally.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Passed legislation to ban chokeholds, prohibiting a law-enforcement officer from using a neck restraint in the performance of official duties and provides for disciplinary sanctions on an officer who uses a neck restraint.
  • Sponsored legislation to raise the grand larceny threshold from one of the lowest in the country and address cash bail reform in the Commonwealth.
  • Passed legislation to repeal the Habitual Drunkard law, which unfairly punishes the homeless and those struggling with substance abuse.
  • Led the charge to create a much-needed public defender’s office in my district, which includes Prince William County.
  • Introduced legislation to legalize marijuana, which is key to putting an end to the mass incarceration of Black and Brown communities.
  • Created an initiative to recruit and train minority judge candidates so residents of our Commonwealth face qualified and thoughtful legal minds of various backgrounds.
  • Introduced legislation requiring school officials to handle minor disciplinary issues at school instead of referring students to the police.
  • Co-sponsored a bill to limit the maximum number of days of school suspension from 365 to 45. I also passed the Dress Code Equity Act, the first bill in the nation to codify protections in school dress codes against religious and ethnic discrimination.

Education

Here’s the Problem
In my first year at the Virginia Military Institute, I had tutors in almost every class because I was unprepared for college. Growing up in Petersburg, we didn’t have textbooks to take home, certified teachers in our classrooms, and counselors who kept up after us. And going to college I was an exception to the rule in Petersburg. The vast majority of my high school classmates didn’t graduate from high school or go to college. Many of the inequities we faced continue to persist today.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the systemic inequities in education. In the transition to online learning, we witnessed significant disparities in technology and access to the internet among our most vulnerable learners.
My Plans as Governor
Education stands as one of the great equalizers in our society, and I am deeply committed to ensuring a quality education for all students. We must continue expanding and diversifying our teacher workforce, raise teacher salaries, address the teacher shortage, and invest in early childhood education.
As Governor, I will ensure that all Virginia students don’t just have a chance at success, but a likelihood of success. First, we must work to strengthen our public schools by preparing and supporting our teachers. I believe that if we get teachers the benefits and wages they deserve, and the tools they need to help our kids succeed, we will revitalize our classrooms. Second, we must prepare our students for the global economy and meet the growing demand by employers for skills to power a modern workforce. Third, having a diverse set of educators is vital to creating a compassionate student body and a stronger Commonwealth.
My Record & Experience
I know exactly what it’s like to go to a school that doesn’t have the resources to help every kid succeed. I ran for Delegate because every child deserves a quality education, and Virginia was not investing nearly enough in its teachers or students.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Proudly supported efforts to give teachers a five percent pay increase and passed legislation removing politically-motivated, anti-teacher tenure rules and was named a Legislative :*Champion by the Virginia Education Association in 2019 and 2020 as a result.
  • Passed legislation making it easier for students to take computer coding courses in high school.
  • Spearheaded efforts to help teachers secure credentials to teach computer coding.
  • Passed a bill allowing local school divisions to enter into College and Career Access Pathways Partnerships with community colleges. In recognition of this work, I was named 2020 :*Policymaker of the Year by the Virginia Association for Career and Technical Education.
  • Passed my Dress Code Equity Act, ensuring that all school dress codes promote a safe school environment that respects students’ religious and ethnic backgrounds.
  • Advocated for reducing the number of days a child can be suspended and ensuring that discipline infractions are dealt with in-school rather than in the courtroom.
  • Dedicated years to breaking the school to prison pipeline so that students of color spend less time in the courtroom and more time in the classroom.
  • Passed my Diversifying the Teacher Workforce Act, helping to eliminate unnecessary barriers to gaining a teacher certification that disproportionately hurt minority educators.
  • Supported bills to increase teacher mentorship programs and Grow Your Own recruitment efforts that recruit more teachers of color.
  • Sponsored legislation to prioritize school safety measures.
  • Put forward an amendment to the state budget to restore all K-12 direct aid funding initiatives that were abandoned during the coronavirus pandemic.

Environment

Here’s the Problem
As a mother and former foster parent, I believe that protecting our environment is one of the most important things we can do for the future of our children. Climate change is not a distant threat, but rather an immediate danger that is impacting the lives of all Virginians.
When I learned in 2017 that water in my district was being contaminated with lead and arsenic from a Dominion Energy plant, I vowed to lead the clean-up effort for my two boys, Xander and Alex, and my neighbors’ children. My legislation forced Dominion Energy to clean up the coal leaks in my district and others across the Commonwealth.
In Virginia, a changing climate has meant more frequent storms and flooding that wreak havoc on our Commonwealth, especially in the Hampton Roads region. Vulnerable communities, especially communities of color, are often hit hardest by environmental stressors that can have devastating effects on our health.
My Plans as Governor
As Governor, I will continue the fight to make sure all of our children inherit a clean, safe Commonwealth. I’ll invest in green energy production, bringing high paying jobs to the Commonwealth, protect funding for state parks, safeguard additional land for public use, and pass the Virginia Green New Deal.
My Record & Experience
I ran for Delegate because the government’s inaction on climate change was a threat to every single child in Virginia and because my community has been particularly impacted by the climate crisis. In my four years in office, I proposed legislation to protect our environment, our communities, and the health and safety of all Virginians.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Passed legislation to clean contaminated water ponds around the Commonwealth.
  • Helped secure funding to protect Widewater State Park.
  • Co-sponsored legislation to reward businesses and homeowners for investing in renewable energy.
  • Co-sponsored legislation to reward property owners who switch to renewable energy
  • Fought for the creation of new, green jobs on wind farms.
  • Because of my record of getting results, I am proud to have earned a 100% grade from the Virginia Sierra Club in 2020.

Health Care

Here’s the Problem
Every Virginian deserves access to quality, affordable healthcare. But for decades, prescription drugs and healthcare premiums have been out of reach. When I was young, my aunt and I had to cut my grandmother’s life-saving prescriptions in half because the cost was simply too high. When I was a public defender, I saw too many lives overtaken by drug addiction and mental health issues that went untreated. As a mom, I understand the importance of high-quality healthcare – it made the difference between life and death for me when I faced medical complications after delivering my twin boys.
Now, Virginia has some of the most expensive healthcare costs in the nation, and drug companies keep profiting while everyday Virginians struggle to make ends meet.
And the COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the inequalities that are staring us in the face. Black and Brown communities are suffering higher rates of infection and mortality due to disparate access to information, testing, and treatment.
My Plans as Governor
I will address the systemic health care challenges Virginians face today, and well before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. My plan calls for investments in mobile health clinics to facilitate vaccine distribution, establishes a Prescription Drug Affordability Board to ensure transparent pricing so Virginians aren’t overpaying for critical medication, and further expands Medicaid coverage.
In addition, my plan will:
  • Reduce health insurance costs by building a Virginia Reinsurance Program that will lower premiums for hardworking families.
  • Ensure transparency in medical pricing so that Virginians know exactly what they’ll pay for the care they need and can make informed decisions.
  • Boost broadband coverage to bring telehealth visits to more Virginians.
  • Additional investments in rural healthcare so Virginians can access quality care in their own community.
  • Ensure Virginians of all backgrounds have equal access to health services by:
    • Increasing funding for the Virginia Maternal Mortality Review Team.
    • Allocating funding for doula care through Medicaid to drive down racial disparities in childbirth outcomes.
    • Make Virginia medical schools more diverse by ensuring students of color have an equal shot at such a career path.
    • Increasing access to culturally competent care.
My Record & Experience
No issue is more important to our Commonwealth than ensuring every single Virginian has affordable and equitable access to quality healthcare. I’ve seen firsthand the devastating impacts that come with a lack of access to affordable, accessible healthcare. I was proud to work in the legislature alongside Governor Northam to expand Medicaid to bring healthcare coverage to more than 500,000 more Virginians. And it’s why one of my top challenges as governor will be to make healthcare more affordable, more accessible, and more inclusive for Virginians.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Supported the expansion of Medicaid to 500,000 newly insured Virginians.
  • Advocated for a paid family and medical leave program in our Commonwealth.
  • Led efforts to eliminate the 40-quarter rule, an unnecessary barrier that denies some immigrant populations from accessing basic healthcare services.
  • Passed legislation to assess the feasibility of Medicaid reimbursement for doula care
  • Sponsored legislation to ensure that donated breast milk is covered by all private insurance.
  • Voted to ensure safer opioid dispensing practices and to provide immunity to those community members who courageously report overdoses and help citizens get the aid they need.
  • Sponsored legislation asking the Department of Social Services to better track opioid usage among parents to better understand and target solutions for the foster care system.
  • Led the call for comprehensive paid sick leave so our low-wage and frontline workers can get the care they need without fearing a loss of income.
  • Encouraged Governor Northam to expand Spanish-language access to COVID-19 information and contact tracing.
Read more here:
Jennifer Carroll Foy’s Healthcare Policy Plan

Supporting Immigrant Communities

Here’s the Problem
Immigrants are what make our Commonwealth great. In Prince William County, where my district is located, nearly 25% of the population are immigrants. Virginia’s immigrant families strengthen our communities, undergird our local economies, and bring incredible diversity and dynamism to our Commonwealth.
The ways we leave immigrant families behind are unconscionable. This is evident in the significant disparities in COVID-19 outcomes, with Latinx communities among the hardest hit. These disparities stem largely from longstanding systemic inequities such as lack of access to healthcare, inadequate housing, and jobs that don’t have paid medical leave or an option to stay home to stay safe during this pandemic.
My Plans as Governor
I’m excited to continue these efforts as Governor and will fight to enact policies to build a more equitable and better Virginia for all.
My Record & Experience
As a public defender, I saw how immigrants are treated unequally in the criminal justice system, and I ran for Delegate to be an advocate for immigrants.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Called on Governor Northam to ensure broader outreach to Latinx families during COVID-19.
  • Called for greater rent support for all Virginians, regardless of their immigration status.
  • Fought for increased funding for rent relief programs and representation for eviction proceeding cases.
  • Worked to pass the Virginia Dream Act, bringing higher education to all our Virginians regardless of their immigration status.
  • Supported legislation to make it possible for undocumented residents to acquire driver’s licenses.
  • Proposed a budget amendment to repeal outdated work restrictions that prevent many from accessing the healthcare that they need.

Clean Government & Ethics

Here’s the Problem
Every elected official faces a clear question and a choice: Who do you fight for?
In Richmond, the answer is far too often “special interests.” Government officials who fight for special interests suppress the voices of everyday Virginans. When we give the special interests a seat at the table, we kick the people out of the room.
Too many politicians in Richmond put special interests first — we see this time and time again with politicians going out of their way for Dominion Energy at the expense of working families. But it’s not just Dominion. We have seen cable companies kill measures to expand rural broadband and corporations spend millions of dollars to influence the political process.
My Plans as Governor
I will fight corruption in politics and elevate the voice of the people. For far too long, special interests like Dominion have dominated to buy elections and tune out the voices of everyday Virginia voters. My plan focuses on campaign finance reform and lobbying restrictions in order to strengthen democracy.
In addition, my plan will:
  • Ban political contributions from corporations. Under a Carroll Foy administration, Virginia will follow federal leadership and prohibit corporate donations.
  • Limit contributions by individuals, PACs, and party committees to candidate committees in Virginia to the federal limit, currently $2,800 per election.
  • Ban lobbyists, their immediate family members, and their employers from making political contributions to candidates.
  • Restrict legislators or state elected officials from lobbying for five years after leaving office.
  • Require candidates and officeholders to disclose the names and clients of any lobbyist who works on their political campaigns, paid or unpaid, or on transition teams for new officeholders.
My Record & Experience
I have worked diligently to hear directly from my constituents and community leaders through town halls, roundtable discussions, and social media. In responding to their needs, I’ve passed legislation to clean up coal ash, establish a public defenders’ office in my district, and help small business owners advance their entrepreneurial endeavors.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Never accepted money from Dominion Energy — and I won’t take their money now.
  • Co-sponsored legislation prohibiting public utilities from making non-essential expenditures like lobbying and campaign contributions.
  • Co-sponsored legislation prohibiting any candidate from soliciting or accepting a contribution from any public service corporation.
  • Supported an effort to create a public financing system for state elections.
Read more here:
Jennifer Carroll Foy’s Ethics Plan

Gender Equality

Here’s the Problem
I was in high school when Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion that allowed women to attend Virginia Military Institute, which previously barred women from attending. It was that opinion that allowed me to attend VMI, where I eventually became one of the first women to graduate from the Institute.
That same principle has motivated so much of my work and guides me to blaze trails where one doesn’t exist. I ran for office while pregnant with twins. I led the fight to have Virginia be the 38th and final state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Now, I’m running to become the first Black woman governor in Virginia and the United States.
There are far too many barriers in the way for women, and especially women of color, to achieve their dreams. Women are still treated as second-class citizens. We face attacks on our ability to plan a family, get paid equally, and be treated with respect in the workplace.
My Plans as Governor
As Governor, I will continue to do everything I can to expand opportunities for women. I’ll fight for reproductive freedom, which means protecting and expanding access to abortion and contraception, ensuring Virginians have healthy pregnancies, and safe communities in which to raise their children. I’ll fight for equal pay and paid family leave, so women don’t have to choose between a paycheck and caring for a loved one.
My Record & Experience
Alongside my work leading the charge to make Virginia the 38th and final state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, I’ve made concrete changes to advance equality for all Virginians. Reflecting on my work, I’m glad to say that I’ve been on the frontier of gender equality in Virginia. I can’t wait to get even more done as Virginia’s first female governor.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Led the charge for the Reproductive Health Protection Act to preserve reproductive freedom and removed politically motivated restrictions on abortion.
  • Pushed forward legislation to establish equality in our school dress codes, ensuring restrictions that promote a safe school environment that respects students’ religious and ethnic differences.
  • Advocated for paid family and medical leave.
  • Passed the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act, requiring all employers to offer commonsense accommodations to pregnant workers.
  • Passed legislation to reduce the black maternal mortality rate.
Read more: Virginia Could Change the Game for Abortion Access (Rewire)

Veterans

Here’s the Problem
As a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, I have the utmost respect for our veterans and their commitment to putting service before self. With nearly one in ten Virginians being a veteran, our Commonwealth is a proud home to many returning to civilian life. We must do all that we can to support our veterans as they do for us.
We must work to ensure that veterans can get the care that they need — beginning with stronger access to quality and affordable healthcare. Veterans from rural areas are especially disadvantaged when accessing physicians and healthcare providers. Additionally, research shows that 91 percent of veterans live with severe mental health conditions, and we must take this crisis seriously.
Our veterans are some of the best-equipped business owners in Virginia, having the leadership, discipline, and integrity that it takes to thrive in the entrepreneurial space. However, research shows that our veterans are facing overwhelming financial burden — often taking from personal savings — to start and maintain their businesses. We must do more to ensure that we are supporting veteran entrepreneurs.
My Plans as Governor
As Governor, I will keep up this momentum and continue to fight for our veterans. They protect and serve our families and we must do the same.
My Record & Experience
Many of my college classmates are veterans, and I know that our Commonwealth has not done enough to support our veterans. I ran for Delegate to expand veterans’ access to healthcare and as a supporter of veteran-owned small businesses, and I am proud of my record of support for veterans.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Passed legislation allowing service-disabled veteran-owned businesses to purchase property that the government no longer needs. This effort, inspired by feedback from veteran-owned businesses in Prince William County, made it possible for nearly 311 certified service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses in Virginia to access the capital needed to launch their businesses confidently.
  • Proposed amendments to the state budget to restore two key workforce development programs that help veterans enter the workforce — Virginia’s Job Investment Program and Virginia’s Talent Accelerator Program.
  • Co-sponsored legislation expanding access to alternative treatment options for those experiencing PTSD and related conditions.
  • Led efforts to raise funding for programs and initiatives geared towards women veterans.
  • Supported a bill to name the last full week of March as Women Veterans Week, highlighting the unique challenges women veterans face, especially around pregnancy and childbirth.

Racial Justice

Here’s the Problem
As a public defender and magistrate judge, I witnessed our two different criminal justice systems. One degrades marginalized communities and the other works for everyone else. This is a fact African-Americans know too well, and the summer of 2020 made the realities of systemic racism even more clear as we mourned the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Abery, and countless others. The time is now for clear and thoughtful change.
My Plans as Governor
In June 2020, I launched my Racial Justice Framework to work toward building a more just and equal Commonwealth. Rooted in conversations with community leaders, constituents, and working families, this framework serves as a starting point for policy and lawmakers to address the concerns of Virginians calling for change on racial disparities and inequalities. My protest is passing legislation, and as Governor, I will work every day to enact meaningful, substantive change.
My Record & Experience
I have fought to make our Commonwealth a place for all Virginians and will continue, without ceasing, to end racial injustice.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Sponsored legislation to address cash bail reform, the ban on parole, and the issue of “driving poor” — all of which contribute to mass incarceration and cyclical patterns of joblessness and poverty within minority communities.
  • Sponsored legislation to legalize marijuana and address the racial disparities related to incarceration and convictions.
  • Introduced and passed a bill prohibiting the use of neck restraints, such as chokeholds, by law enforcement.
  • Co-patroned legislation requiring law-enforcement officers to undergo training on de-escalation techniques, the lawful use of force, and implicit bias.
  • Launched an initiative to clarify the judicial appointment process for minority applicants, to create a network of mentors and champions for the applicants, and to inform our legislators about the importance of diversity and inclusiveness.
  • Passed the Dress Code Equity Act, the first bill in the nation to codify protections in school dress codes against religious and ethnic discrimination to combat school pushout for Black girls.
  • Introduced legislation permitting school principals to handle discipline issues rather than report children to law enforcement and co-sponsored a bill limiting the maximum number of days of school suspension from 365 to 45.
  • Passed a bill to assess the feasibility of Medicaid reimbursement for doula care to expand access by women of color to culturally competent care.
  • Passed a bill to expand opportunities for small- and minority-owned businesses to secure utility contracts.

Protecting LGBTQIA+ Rights

Here’s the Problem
Just recently, many Republican legislators in the General Assembly, including two Republican candidates for governor, voted to block the repeal of Virginia’s defunct ban on same-sex marriage. Virginia needs a leader who will protect and expand the rights of LGBTQIA+ individuals, and I will be that leader. I have always been committed to ensuring all Virginians have an equal opportunity to thrive — no matter whom they love — and will continue to fight for equality in our Commonwealth as governor.
My Plans as Governor
As Governor, I will continue to ensure that our Commonwealth and the communities therein are protected and valued. It is time for us to finally fulfill the promise on which this country was founded: equality for all.
  • Amend the Virginia state constitution to be consistent with the Supreme Court 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision to reinforce that marriage equality is the law of the land.
  • Eliminate the LGBTQIA+ “panic defense,” thereby suspending leniency for violence committed because of one’s gender identity or sexual orientation. D.C. recently banned the defense, following the direction of eleven states, and we will push for Virginia to be next.
  • Institute a statewide 100-day challenge to end LGBTQIA+ homelessness. This effort, modeled on successes in California to combat veteran and youth homelessness, brings together local governments, nonprofits, and LGBTQIA+ centers to ensure that no person is without housing and to build on current community response initiatives.
  • Champion a bill that clarifies the Virginia Human Rights Act by defining sexual and workplace harassment to include harassment based on an individual’s sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • Review state-funded workforce development initiatives to ensure inclusive outreach, training, and hiring practices aimed at recruiting and retaining LGBTQIA+ employees.
  • Coordinate with the Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity to recognize LGBTQIA+-owned businesses and to ensure increased access to state-funded contracts.
  • Continue to declare every June as LGBTQIA+ pride month to further educate the public about the LGBTQIA+ movement and to commemorate its milestones and progress.
  • Appoint an LGBTQIA+ liaison to gather recommendations to address barriers and challenges facing the LGBTQIA+ community and offer policy solutions. This position would be in addition to the Director of LGBTQIA+ Outreach.
  • Support legislation to establish a Virginia LGBTQIA+ Advisory Board to promote and address prominent economic, social, and educational issues for LGBTQIA+ constituents.
My Record & Experience
Ever since I’ve been in office, I have worked to eliminate discriminatory laws that attack members of the LGBTQIA+ community, while also codifying necessary protections for these communities.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Co-patroned the Virginia Values Act, making Virginia the first Southern state to provide sweeping protections for the “LGBTQIA+ community against discrimination in housing, employment, public spaces, and on credit applications.”
  • Helped pass bills to end conversion therapy for persons aged 18 and under, and bar health care providers from limiting or denying coverage on the basis of gender identity or for being a transgender individual.
  • Co-patroned legislation to remove “statutory prohibitions on marriages and civil unions” between same-sex couples.
  • Successfully advocated to classify crimes against individuals on the basis of gender identity, disability, and sexual orientation as hate crimes.
Read more here:
Jennifer Carroll Foy’s LGBTQIA+ Rights Plan

Affordable Housing

Here’s the Problem
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), there is a shortage of more than 150,000 rental homes affordable and available for extremely low-income renters in Virginia. And 70 percent of extremely low-income renter households in our Commonwealth are “severely cost burdened,” meaning they spend more than half their income on housing, and they are most likely to sacrifice necessities to pay the rent.
These issues have only gotten worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing Virginians into an impossible situation. Stretched thin and impacted by job losses that are no fault of their own, many don’t have the resources they expected to be able to pay their rent, along with other critical expenses to support their families. We know that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt for years to come, so we must take action to help Virginians at the center of the pain.
My Plans as Governor
These housing problems aren’t just issues Virginians have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve persisted thanks to a broken status quo, leaving Virginians in the dark about how to keep their families safe and at home. I will work tirelessly to increase access to affordable housing and end houselessness by implementing zoning reforms and increasing funding for public housing. My administration will do more to protect and expand renter protections. We will work every day to help Virginians get back on their feet without having to lose a roof over their heads. It’s far past time to take action.
As Governor, I will:
  • Codify an eviction moratorium.
  • Expand payment plan requirements.
  • Increase access to affordable housing.
    • Implement zoning reform.
    • Work towards ending LGBTQIA+ houselessness.
    • Address veteran houselessness & invest in veteran wrap-around services.
  • Build stronger protections for renters.
    • Ensure that Virginia residents know their rights.
    • Build on renter protections.
    • Build on utility bill protections.
My Record & Experience
This is an issue my family and I have been deeply committed to solving. While volunteering at Legal Aid, I assisted those wrongfully evicted prepare for their eviction court hearings. And as a public defender representing indigent Virginians, I worked to help my clients without homes get connected with housing programs and resources. My husband has served people without housing in our community for 12 years, working with those experiencing trauma, domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental illness. And he’s helped them through the COVID-19 pandemic. As a Delegate, I pioneered legislation to keep and protect Virginians in their homes. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, I co-patroned legislation to enact a statewide eviction moratorium — which I plan to extend as Governor.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Introduced and passed legislation providing up until two days before the eviction judgment to pay the full amount owed to a landlord. This bill was based on recommendations from the Virginia Housing Commission.
  • Co-patroned a bill to expand affordable housing by permitting certain landlords in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metropolitan Statistical Area to utilize the housing choice voucher tax credit.
  • Supported efforts to combat housing discrimination on the basis of source of funds. This bill prohibits landlords from “refusing renters and homeowners who use housing choice vouchers,” effectively widening housing options for low-income residents.
  • Co-patroned the Virginia Values Act, making Virginia the first Southern state to provide sweeping protections for the LGBTQ+ community against discrimination in housing and public spaces.
Read more here:
Jennifer Carroll Foy’s Affordable Housing Plan

Access to Voting

Here’s the Problem
Democracy rests on the guaranteed right to vote for all Virginians, but too many politicians are fighting to take it away, rolling back the accessibility of voting and undermining the founding principle of our country.
My Plans as Governor
I will work every day to protect our democracy and that begins with strengthening the pillar on which it rests — voting. My administration will pave a clear path for all Virginians to cast their ballots in every election. We will tear down the barriers that are obstructing the rights citizens hold and ensure that everyone can and is able to exercise their right to vote.Repeal roadblocks preventing municipal broadband authorities from reaching new regions.
As Governor, I Will:
  • Institute a statewide vote-by-mail system, where every registered voter automatically receives a stamped ballot in the mail, while keeping in-person polling stations open for those who need or wish to use them.
  • Veto attempts to weaken existing voter protections. My administration will also ensure funding for voter awareness campaigns and prepaid postage.
  • Implement the recommendations put forward by the Department of Elections on “alternatives to the witness signature requirement” from their expected November report.
  • Continue to support a constitutional amendment to automatically restore the civil rights of returning citizens who have completed their time.
  • Continue to advocate for Virginia to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
  • Pass legislation to permit local governing bodies to institute ranked choice voting for local government races.
  • Enact meaningful campaign finance reform to elevate the voices of the people and stop undue influence by special interests groups. My administration will work to lengthen the transition time for legislators interested in lobbying work, ban political contributions from corporations and strengthen transparency through greater lobbyists disclosure requirements.
My Record & Experience
I believe that we must elevate and protect the voices of everyone in our democracy. During my tenure and in direct response to the current pandemic, I worked diligently to ensure that every voter can exercise their right to vote.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Introduced a constitutional amendment to allow the automatic restoration of voting rights for returning citizens who have served their time.
  • Co-sponsored legislation to allow Virginia to award its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the majority of popular votes.
  • Co-sponsored legislation permitting anyone to apply to vote by mail and advocated for bills to expand absentee voting protections for military and overseas voters.
  • Voted to create a new state holiday for Election Day.
  • Supported legislation to implement automatic voter registration for individuals applying for certain licenses and permits at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
  • Voted to extend in-person polling hours and absentee voting deadlines, giving more Virginians the opportunity to vote.
  • Supported legislation to eliminate the photo ID requirement for individuals to vote.
  • Introduced a state budget amendment during the 2020 Special Session to direct funding towards the distribution of voter education materials on absentee voting. The budget amendment also included language omitting the witness requirement for individuals voting by mail in the November Election.

Access to Broadband

Here’s the Problem
Currently, more than 350,000 Virginia homes and businesses and 600,000 Virginians – mostly in Southwest, Southside, and Tidewater regions – still don’t have broadband access, while many Virginians who do have access struggle to afford it. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed even more Virginians to the realities of living without dependable access to the internet.
As a girl growing up in Petersburg, we couldn’t bring home books and materials for our school work, and this simply cut us off from opportunity. That’s exactly what this boils down to — a lack of access to the internet is a lack of access to opportunity. It’s being held back by no fault of your own. Access to the internet today means access to healthcare, better jobs, education, and so much more.
My Plans as Governor
As Governor, my pledge is to ensure 97 percent of Virginians will have access to high speed internet by the end of my administration. Here’s how I’ll do it:
  • Target and streamline funding for broadband deployment in underserved communities though the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative
  • Repeal roadblocks preventing municipal broadband authorities from reaching new regions
  • Prioritize and recruit local broadband providers and ensure large cable corporations don’t have an unfair leg up
  • Launch a pilot program to subsidize high speed internet access for Virginians eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits
  • Improve broadband data maps which help the Commonwealth better target investments to communities and areas that need it
  • Expand and fast track the completion of broadband infrastructure projects
  • Partner with school districts to tackle the homework gap to make sure children can access their education — at home and at school
  • Cover remote medical services for rural and underserved Virginians, expanding telehealth as outlined in my healthcare policy plan
My Record & Experience
I fought to expand broadband access to underserved communities, especially in rural and Southwest Virginia, because high speed internet is no longer a luxury for working families, it’s a necessity.
Now, my plan aims to expand broadband so that Virginians can work from home, students can participate in virtual learning, patients can access telehealth, and small businesses can survive, grow, and thrive.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Passed legislation to allow existing utility easements to be used for broadband deployment, creating a robust pathway for the expansion of high speed internet access to rural and Southwest Virginians.
  • Supported legislation to strengthen public-private partnerships by allowing electric utilities to partner with nongovernmental internet service providers to provide broadband to unserved communities and areas.
  • During the Special Session, published an op-ed in The Roanoke Times calling attention to the lobbying done by cable companies to prevent municipal broadband authorities from competing for state grant funding.
  • Submitted a letter to Gov. Ralph Northam urging him to ensure the equitable distribution of technology and resources to support distance learning.
  • Supported a near $85 million budget allocation to the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative to expand broadband infrastructure.
Read more here:
Jennifer Carroll Foy’s Broadband Plan

Supporting Virginians with Disabilities

Here’s the Problem
It is incredibly difficult for people with disabilities and their families to have basic needs met. I believe that everyone should be able to lead fulfilling lives and access support when needed. I am committed to standing with the disability community to ensure their right to thrive in our Commonwealth.
My Plans as Governor
My plan sets out to expand broadband access, make telehealth more widely available, eliminate subminimum wages so workers can earn livable incomes, drastically reform and reduce the use of restraint and seclusion tactics in schools, and other key priorities.
As Governor, I will:
  • Work to eliminate the inclusion penalty to maximize participation in community-based services, including supported living and in-home care.
  • Require education and training for school personnel on relationship-based, trauma-informed, collaborative approaches to providing a culture where children feel safe not only physically, but also emotionally, socially and culturally.
  • Address the disparate use of discipline including restraints and seclusion on students with disabilities, specifically students of color.
  • Codify legislation to prohibit the removal of accommodations, including mobility devices, technology, and interpreters, for people with disabilities at any stage in custody. The confiscation of such items makes it difficult for people with disabilities to communicate and advocate for themselves, leading some to become unnecessarily incarcerated.
  • Support legislation to promote and protect the civil rights of parents with disabilities throughout the family services systems.
  • Ensure Virginians of all backgrounds have access to economic opportunities by increasing financial support for Virginia’s Community Services Boards, which provide education, training, and services to youth and families with developmental disabilities; and by working to research and implement additional employer incentives to recruit, train, and hire people with disabilities. My administration will also promote the inclusion of students with disabilities in state government internship programs.
My Record & Experience
As a former public defender and current criminal defense attorney, I’ve always fought on behalf of individuals who are vulnerable to unfair treatment because of their mental or intellectual disability. I’ve also worked to protect and support our veterans with disabilities. I introduced and passed a bill to help service-disabled, veteran owned small businesses and veteran organizations purchase surplus property such as computers, furniture, and equipment to open or sustain a business.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Co-patroned a bill to require the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) to provide long term support services for employees with disabilities.
  • Helped pass legislation mandating healthcare insurers and providers to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder.
  • Supported measures to ensure robust and comprehensive IEP guidelines for educators when developing IEPs for students with disabilities.
  • Chief co-patroned legislation to establish the Marcus Alert System, which provides a mental health response with an informed law enforcement element to those experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis.
  • Co-patroned a bill mandating law-enforcement officers to undergo training on de-escalation techniques, the lawful use of force, and the recognition of implicit bias, including biases against people with mental illness and developmental or cognitive disabilities. This bill requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) to create a curriculum for the entire state.
  • Co-patroned a bill to require that the Criminal Justice Services Board include representatives of “social justice organizations, representatives of community interests of minorities, and mental health service providers.”
  • Supported measures to add crimes against individuals on the basis of disability to the categories of hate crimes and to increase the penalty for individuals who give a false report to the police on the basis of another person’s race, religion, or disability.
  • Supported legislation to direct the Department of Corrections to review and improve accommodations for individuals with developmental disabilities.
  • Voted in favor to allow “a court to defer and dismiss a criminal case where the defendant has been diagnosed with autism or an intellectual disability and the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the criminal conduct was caused by or had a direct and substantial relationship to the person’s disorder or disability.
Read more here:
Jennifer-Carroll-Foy_Disability-Reform-Plan

Childcare & Early Childhood Education

Here’s the Problem
My public education left me unprepared for college and the real world. No student should ever feel like that. Every child deserves a chance to learn and to thrive in the classroom. Research shows that early learning can make the difference when it comes to success in school and in life.
Early childhood education yields both immediate and long-term benefits for students, including increased preparedness for kindergarten, early development of social and emotional skills, and a better likelihood of graduating high school. In addition to reduced crime rates and a stronger workforce, the savings incurred by the state would outweigh costs in under a decade. And yet, access and affordability continue to shutter student participation across the Commonwealth.
This lack of access is compounded by the high costs of childcare. In fact, in some parts of the state, childcare costs almost as much as a year at a community college — that’s a problem. The lack of affordability prevents children from accessing safe and nurturing educational environments, working families from receiving the help they need, and state and local economies from realizing their full productivity and efficiency goals.
My Plans as Governor
The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed the systemic inequities in our education system as well as the inadequacy of childcare infrastructure in our state. As a working mother of twin three- year- old boys, I understand the importance of ensuring affordable, high quality childcare and improving access to early childhood education — it’s about ensuring our children the best.
As Governor, I will:
  • Implement full-day preschool for at-risk three- and four-year-olds by expanding VPI eligibility criteria to include three year olds and investing more VPI funding per pupil.
  • Ensure dedicated funding streams to support early childhood education.
  • Make necessary reforms to the Local Composite Index (LCI).
  • Promote mixed delivery strategies to allow community-based and private programs to access state funding.
  • Increase teacher pay for early childhood educators.
  • Develop and execute a statewide assessment to ensure high-quality instruction.
  • Through my Virginia Childcare Access Now (VA CAN) Initiative, establish a task force to develop a plan to improve access to and the affordability of childcare, establish public-private partnerships with companies to construct new child care facilities, research how child care subsidies, improve compensation to the child care workforce, and study state and federally funded child care and early learning programs.
  • Expand the Working Families Earned Income Tax Credit.
  • Promote strategies to strengthen and support the childcare industry through background check portability and the use of subsidy contracts.
  • Increase the value and reach of child care subsidies.
  • Enact a Quality Rating Improvement System.
My Record & Experience
I first ran for office while pregnant with my twin boys, and as I raise my sons here in our state, I understand that too many Virginia families are struggling with the high cost of childcare. And while this issue affects many in our state, it disparately impacts working mothers and families of color. Our child care infrastructure is not a sustainable reality, and that is why I have made a clear commitment to ensuring affordable, high-quality child care throughout the Commonwealth.
Read more here:
Jennifer-Carroll-Foys-Early-Education-and-Childcare-Plan

Gun Violence Prevention

Here’s the Problem
Our Commonwealth has witnessed countless lives lost — and many of whom were disportionately Black and Brown. Over the years, there has been a significant increase in mass shootings and homicide rates, and what’s more, research shows that the leading cause of gun deaths is suicide. This is an ongoing problem that deserves immediate and thoughtful attention.
My Plans as Governor
I respect the right to safe and legal gun ownership, and I also believe in making communities safer from gun violence. It’s also important that we go one step further to address the underlying inequities that fuel gun violence, including poverty, inequality, and mental illness.
As Governor, I will:
  • End universal reciprocity for concealed carry permits.
  • Establish and promote violence intervention initiatives aimed at tackling gun violence in neighborhoods and communities where it is most prevalent. These programs are community-centered and strengthen partnerships between “community members, law enforcement, and social and mental health service providers.”
  • Coordinate with local governments to implement and improve gun buyback programs to ensure the removal of firearms commonly used in gun violence.
  • Build on firearm training standards for concealed carriers to ensure everyone has information on basic gun handling, safe storage, and the hazards of gun ownership.
  • Pass legislation to prohibit the sale of assault style weapons, including trigger activators, within the state and the possession of assault style weapons purchased outside of the state.
  • Eliminate loopholes in the state code, such as the voluntary requirement for background checks at shooting ranges, that make it possible for dangerous individuals to access a weapon.
  • Create a Director of Gun Violence Prevention within my administration.
  • Allocate funding to create public awareness campaigns about Virginia’s red flag law.
My Record & Experience
During my time in the House of Delegates, I fought hard to make our communities safer in the Commonwealth. I continually supported evidence-based gun safety measures, advocating in honor of my friend in Petersburg who nearly lost his life to gun violence — and in honor of all Virginians affected by gun violence.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Co-patroned legislation requiring background checks on all firearm sales. This bill repeals the voluntary requirement of background checks for prospective purchasers or transferees at firearm shows, also known as the “gunshow loophole.”
  • Supported legislation for the fair, judicious, and temporary separation of firearms from those who pose a danger to themselves or others.
  • Supported legislation to bolster community awareness of missing firearms by “requiring gun owners to report their lost or stolen firearms to law enforcement within 48 hours.”
  • Voted in favor of limiting handgun purchases to one per 30 days.
  • Supported legislation granting localities permission to ban firearms at certain buildings, parks, and community and recreational centers.

Transportation

Here’s the Problem
Transportation in Virginia feels like a daily disaster. Virginians face some of the worst traffic in the entire country. Public transportation experiences constant setbacks, and our infrastructure is alarmingly out-of-date. These challenges aren’t just a frustration working families must confront on the way to a job or school — they can cost Virginians thousands of dollars in lost productivity. And we know that low-income Virginians are the most likely to use public transportation. The nature of work is changing alongside the rise of technology and “work from home” industries. After a year spent remote, more Virginians may continue working from home even after the COVID-19 pandemic. We must look towards the future and build a sustainable foundation for our transportation system. As Virginia urbanizes and grows, we need policies that can keep up.
My Plans as Governor
We need leadership that is forward-looking and transportation infrastructure that is primed for the inevitable changes to come. As Governor, I will fight to ensure that our Commonwealth remains the best place to live and work. This begins with ensuring our transportation systems are both eco-friendly and durable for Virginians who use them every day.
As Governor, I Will:
  • Ensure the fiscal solvency of crucial transportation agencies that were impacted by COVID-19 shutdowns. My administration will also work to improve conditions for transit workers by ensuring paid sick leave, safe working conditions, and sustainable wages for public transit employees and airline personnel during and after the current pandemic.
  • End the 3% cap on Metro operating costs to ensure transit workers always receive fair wages and push the federal government to create a dedicated funding stream for Metro.
  • Make investments to ensure repairs to our existing roadways and bridges. My administration will ensure the completion of current widening projects to our highways and meet with local government officials to address long term transportation needs, including traffic and commuter congestion and out-of-date infrastructure. I will continue to fund the construction of Metro Silver Line Phase Two, the 495 Express Lanes to the American Legion Bridge, the expansion of the Richmond Highway, the I-64 Peninsula Widening Project in Hampton Roads, and the deepening and widening of the Norfolk Harbor.
  • Work to expand the Metro Blue Line to Prince William County.
  • Make additional investments to the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority and continue the implementation of Governor Northam’s Transforming Rail in Virginia initiative.
  • Work to restore funding to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to pre-2018 levels.
  • Coordinate with private sector partners in the pursuit of robust rail infrastructure projects. To start, my administration will work closely with the Greater Washington Partnership to ensure concerted efforts on “regional rail service, capital investments, and joint procurement strategies,” as outlined in their 2021 technical report.
  • Work to implement the recommendations put forward by the Department of Rail and Public Transportation on “transit equity and modernization” following their expected 2022 report. This effort was recently passed by the General Assembly.
  • Work with Governor Hogan and Mayor Bowser to establish a regional group focused on the development of rail travel to better compete for federal funding. We will work together to attempt to implement the Greater Washington Partnership’s plan.
My Record & Experience
Virginia’s transportation isn’t just about cars on the road. The Commonwealth is a hub for rail, buses, and airlines, and as a Delegate, I prioritized shoring up all modes of transportation across the state.
As a Delegate, I:
  • Sponsored a resolution to examine “the feasibility of extending the Blue Line and other multimodal options” to Prince William County.
  • Helped pass a bill to address congested interstate corridors, a bill to study roads and bridges impacted by environmental stressors, and a bill to review solutions to build a cleaner transportation system in the state.
  • Voted to ensure a dedicated source of funding for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).
  • Supported the transportation omnibus bill in 2020 to eliminate unnecessary fines and fees for Virginia drivers, establish transportation safety programs, and create a new fund for necessary capital and infrastructure projects to improve Virginia’s transportation systems. This bill also designates funding for ongoing rail and highway projects in Northern Virginia and rural Virginia, respectively.
  • Voted to establish the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. The VPRA will “also administer all capital expansion projects, infrastructure, and land acquisitions related to Governor Northam’s $3.7 billion Transforming Rail in Virginia initiative.”
  • Led the charge for paid sick leave and increased worker safety standards for bus transit operators and airline service personnel during COVID-19.[61]
 ”
—Jennifer Carroll Foy's campaign website (2021)[64]


Terry McAuliffe

Campaign website

McAuliffe's campaign website stated the following:

“

This year has been incredibly difficult for Virginians across the Commonwealth as we fight to get this pandemic under control and begin our economic recovery. But it has also shown us the best of who Virginians are and it has given us a big opportunity to address the challenges facing our future. Terry is running for governor because we need o think big and be bold to move the Commonwealth forward and create a better future for all Virginians.

Terry believes that now is the time to push Virginia forward to build a stronger and fairer post-COVID economy. As Virginia's next Governor, Terry will continue the fight for civil rights and voting rights, attract businesses to create the best jobs and raise wages, ensure all Virginians have access to quality affordable healthcare, build a clean energy economy to address climate change, and address the affordable housing crisis our communities are facing. Most importantly, Terry will make and unprecedented investment in education. The time is now to ensure a world-class education for every Virginia child. Our future and our children cannot wait.

Ensuring an Equitable, World-Class Education for Every Child

$2 Billion Annual Investment to Raise Teacher Pay Above the National Average, Get Every Student Online, Expand Pre-K, and Eliminate Racial Disparities in Education
Read Terry's Full Plan
Read the One-Pager
Terry will also fight to make Virginia the best state in the nation for STEM-H and computer science education. Read his big, bold plan for STEM-H education here
The Plan
As Virginia’s next Governor, Terry will ensure that every student has access to an equitable, world-class education. His plan will invest a record $2 billion annually in education, which will raise teacher pay above the national average for the first time in Virginia history, give every 3 and 4-year-old in need access to pre-k, and get every student online. Terry will also address Virginia’s educator shortage and diversify our educator workforce through his Lucy Simms Educator Program. The Lucy Simms Program will cover education costs for students who commit to teaching for five years in one of Virginia’s public schools after graduation.
"Every Virginia student - no matter their background or zip code - deserves equitable access to a world-class education. Our children and our future cannot wait."
-Terry McAuliffe
Terry's Record
As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry invested a record $1 billion in Virginia’s K-12 system, redesigned the high school experience with an eye toward workforce readiness, and eliminated five SOLs. To prepare students for jobs of the future, Terry expanded pre-k to thousands of students and signed the first law in the U.S. mandating computer science education for all K-12 students. Terry and his wife Dorothy also fought tirelessly to combat childhood hunger, and as a result, nearly 13 million school meals were served each year.
The Work Ahead
  • Pay educators what they deserve and raise teacher pay above the national average for the first time in Virginia’s history.
  • Ensure the more than 41,000 3 and 4-year-olds in need get access to pre-k
  • Get every student online by making a $75 million per year investment in broadband to expand access and lower monthly costs.
  • Address modern-day segregation in schools and create an Education Equity and Innovation Commission, Fund, and a school integration officer.
  • Make Virginia the best state in the nation for STEM-H and computer science education by integrating these skills and principles across grade levels and subject areas.
  • Promote career readiness with investments in Career and Technical Education and building internships and apprenticeships into curricula.

Making Virginia’s Post-Covid Economy a Model for the Nation

Investing in Virginia Workers and a More Equitable Post-COVID Economy
Read Terry's Full Plan
The Plan
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the pervasive inequities in our systems and disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities when it comes to education, minority-owned businesses, housing and health care. Terry’s plan will rebuild our economy again so that all Virginians can prosper.
As Governor, Terry will work to keep Virginians safely back at work and in schools, rebuild our thriving network of small businesses, and support our workforce with access to paid sick days, COVID-19 vaccines, affordable child care and hazard pay.
He will also make critical investments in building and training the workforce of the future and ensuring that people of all ages have the skills they need to be successful in the jobs of tomorrow.
Terry will achieve this through targeted investments in workforce training and development, partnering with businesses and our educational institutions to re-skill and retrain Virginians, and reimagining our K12 education system so that every child has access to a world-class education and is workforce ready upon graduation.
As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry inherited a large budget deficit while facing the effects of the Great Recession sequestration. Despite these challenges, he oversaw record economic growth, bringing 200,000 new jobs to Virginia.
He made historic progress training Virginians for high-demand careers and 21st Century jobs, promoting education and training for in-demand areas like advanced manufacturing, logistics, transportation, trades and construction, IT and health care. This allowed thousands of Virginians to take on high-paying jobs without a two- or four-year degree. At the end of his term, Terry left Virginia with more than a $100 million budget surplus.
Read Terry’s plan to build an equitable post-COVID economy and invest in Virginia workers.

Recovering from COVID-19 by Building a Stronger, More Equitable Virginia

Raise the Minimum Wage to $15 by 2024, Provide Paid Sick, Family & Medical Leave, Make Childcare More Affordable, and Create Pathways to Good-Paying Jobs for All Virginians
Read Terry's Full Plan
Read the One-Pager
Terry understands that a crucial part of our recovery is ensuring that every Virginian has access to regular nutritious meals. Read his big, bold plan for food insecurity in Virginia’s post-COVID recovery
The Plan
As Virginia’s next Governor, Terry will tackle inequities and rebuild a stronger, more equitable post-COVID economy. Terry will rebuild Virginia’s thriving network of small businesses, especially Black and Brown-owned businesses, that have been hit the hardest. His plan will raise the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2024, support caregivers, make childcare more affordable and ensure that every worker has access to paid sick, family and medical leave, as women, particularly women of color, are being driven out of the workforce. Terry will also create a seamless 5-year pathway to high-demand, good-paying careers by building on Governor Northam’s G3 program.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the inequities that hardworking Virginians and women of color have faced for generations. We must act boldly to rebuild a stronger, more equitable post-COVID economy that lifts up all Virginians."
-Terry McAuliffe
Terry's Record
As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry created 200,000 good-paying jobs, raised personal income by 14%, and reduced unemployment to 3.3%, despite inheriting a record budget deficit and facing the effects of the Great Recession and sequestration. Terry also secured a record $1 billion investment in education, redesigned the high school experience with an eye toward workforce readiness, invested in apprenticeships, and created the first-in-the-nation New Economy Workforce Credentials Act, which enabled 26,000 people to get high-demand credentials and step into good jobs.
The Work Ahead
  • Rebuild small businesses, particularly Black and Brown-owned businesses that have closed at disproportionate rates.
  • Raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2024, address pay disparities and ensure that every Virginian has access to paid sick, family and medical leave.
  • Create a seamless 5-year pathway from K-12 to career, and expand work-based learning opportunities for students.
  • Strengthen community colleges and associate degree programs by funding advisors and support services, increasing short-term immersion programs and stacking credentials, and establishing Career and Technical Education certificate programs for educators.

Fighting Climate Change & Achieving Environmental Justice

Climate change presents a tremendous threat to our communities, health and economic well-being. Virginia, until recently, has failed to adopt progressive policies to protect our environment and mitigate the effects of climate change because of the former Republican-controlled legislature. For too long, low-income and Black and Brown communities have paid the price and been disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change and environmental contaminants and pollutants.
Terry believes all Virginians deserve to live in a safe environment, and one that is free from environmental contaminants and hazards. They also deserve equitable access to clean energy technologies that will power our futures.
As Virginia’s next Governor, Terry will champion bold and progressive initiatives that will protect our environment, allow Virginia to achieve its 100% Clean Energy Standard, decarbonize the transportation sector and lift up historically disadvantaged communities that have been impacted the most.
During his administration, Terry made key strides in protecting Virginia’s natural resources and investing in our clean energy future, including joining the U.S. Climate Alliance and committing to upholding the Paris Climate Agreement, creating the Virginia Council on Environmental Justice, appointing the first Chief Resilience Officer and taking executive actions that allowed Virginia to be the first southern state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Terry also vastly expanded Virginia’s off-shore wind and solar energy production, and access to electric vehicles and charging stations.
His administration secured two historic settlements addressing environmental issues, including a $94 million settlement from Volkswagen related to an emissions scandal, and a $50 million settlement from Dupont related to mercury spills in the 1930s and 40s. Both settlements were used to address long-standing environmental challenges and invest in clean energy and environmental projects.
Terry’s administration also secured over $120 million in federal grants to fund the Ohio Creek Watershed project in Norfolk, which will mitigate flooding in two predominantly Black communities.
Read Terry’s full plan to fight climate change and build Virginia’s green energy future.
Download the Climate Plan one-pager.

Lifting Up Black Virginians: Terry’s Plan to Create a Stronger, More Equitable Commonwealth

Creating Opportunities for Black Virginians
Read Terry's Full Plan
Read the One-Pager
The Plan
As Virginia’s next Governor, Terry will take on the systemic racism that plagues our Commonwealth. That means addressing racial disparities and creating opportunities for Black Virginians to build wealth through homeownership and by investing in Black-owned businesses. Terry will continue his fight to defend and advance civil rights by making the restoration of voting rights permanent in Virginia’s constitution, reforming the criminal justice system, and working to improve police-community relations. Terry will also ensure that Black Virginians have access to high-quality, affordable health care coverage and a world-class education, and promote equitable land use and access to safe and welcoming green spaces.
"I will use my power as Governor to remedy the wrong of the past and build and equitable future for all Virginians."
-Terry McAuliffe
Terry's Record
As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry boldly reversed a racist Jim Crow law and restored voting rights to 173,000 Virginians – more than any governor in U.S. history, and issued a record 227 pardons to correct discriminatory and unjust sentences. Terry also laid the groundwork for Medicaid expansion, extended health care coverage to tens of thousands of Virginians, and created a first-of-its-kind program to provide free dental care for low-income pregnant women. He bolstered Small Women and Minority-Owned (SWaM) businesses by creating a SWaM micro-loan program.
The Work Ahead
  • Build Black wealth by increasing the minimum wage and eliminating racial pay gaps, promoting homeownership, investing in Black businesses, and promoting ownership in the new cannabis industry.
  • Advance civil rights by enshrining the automatic restoration of voting rights in our constitution and creating more opportunities for Black communities to vote.
  • Rebuild trust between communities and public safety agencies by increasing accountability for and transparency of serious misconduct
  • Protect Black LGBTQ+ Virginians by improving identification, reporting and enforcement of hate crimes.
  • Address racial health disparities by lowering premiums, promoting health literacy, diversifying the health care workforce, and combating maternal mortality.

Creating a Flourishing Rural Economy

Investing in Rural Communities, Getting Every Virginian Online, Revitalizing the Quality and Accessibility of Rural Health Care, Creating Equitable Access to Education and Supporting Virginia Farmers
Read Terry's Full Plan
Read the One-Pager
The Plan
Terry will ensure that rural communities are prioritized in Virginia’s post-COVID economic recovery. He will get every Virginian online, promote access to virtual training and career opportunities and make telehealth available throughout rural areas. Terry will attract jobs by launching Virginia’s first intentional rural economic development hub and establishing rural communities as the energy innovation capitals of the East Coast. He will also invest in rural education and workforce development and will support the farmers who are vital to the success of our economy. Terry’s plan will create jobs, support families and drive sustainable economic growth in rural economies.
"Virginia's rural communities are a vital part of our Commonwealth and economy. We have to prioritize them as we recover from this pandemic. That starts with guaranteeing universal access to broadband, because that is key to a successful post-COVID, 21st century economy."
-Terry McAuliffe
Terry's Record
As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry prioritized rural economic development and helped grow exports of agricultural and forestry products to over $3 billion for the first time in Virginia’s history. Terry also created 200,000 new jobs, thousands of which were in rural communities, and most rural counties saw unemployment cut by nearly 50 percent during his term. Terry worked to address the opioid epidemic in rural Virginia, creating the Governor’s Task Force on Prescription Drug and Heroin Abuse, declaring the opioid overdose epidemic a public health emergency, and signing numerous bills to reduce over-prescribing and increase access to naloxone. Terry paved the way for Medicaid expansion, which has since extended coverage to more than 530,000 Virginians.
The Work Ahead
  • Deliver universal broadband coverage by the end of Terry’s term.
  • Pilot Virginia’s first-ever intentional economic development hub, deploying high-impact investments in a span of neighboring rural jurisdictions to drive sustainable economic growth.
  • Invest in Virginia’s crumbling school infrastructure.
  • Break down health care disparities by investing in federally-qualified health centers and telehealth, providing more basic health services in schools and bringing virtual health clinics to local communities.
  • Support farmers by investing in smart farming technologies, increasing access to educational opportunities and establishing rural Virginia as a major supplier of specialty crops.
  • Establish rural communities in Virginia as the energy innovation capitals of the East Coast.

Boldly Fighting the Threat of Climate Change & Securing Virginia’s Clean Energy Future

Moving Virginia to 100% Clean Energy by 2035 to Create Good Jobs, Strengthen Climate Resilience & Fight Inequities
Read Terry's Full Plan
Read the One-Pager
The Plan
As Virginia’s next governor, Terry will tackle the growing threat of climate change and ensure Virginia is resilient in the face of climate threats. That means accelerating Virginia’s path to 100% clean energy by 2035 and aligning Virginia with President Biden’s climate goals and efforts, investing in energy efficiency, decarbonizing Virginia’s transportation sector and creating good jobs of the future. Terry’s plan will ensure a just transition to clean energy that will protect consumers, lower utility bills, and break down environmental inequities that have disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities
"Securing Virginia's clean energy future is critical to securing our future. I promise you Virginia will lead the nation in tackling climate change and transitioning to clean energy."
-Terry McAuliffe
Terry's Record
As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry fought for climate action against an extreme climate denying-Republican legislature. Terry’s accomplishments include joining the U.S. Paris Climate Agreement, appointing the state’s first Chief Resilience Officer and creating the Climate Change and Resiliency Update Commission, securing a $120 million HUD grant to mitigate flooding in two predominantly Black neighborhoods in Norfolk and a $50 million settlement from DuPont over mercury spills used to restore and protect the environment. Terry grew solar jobs by 65% in 2016 and expanded solar energy production by nearly 8,000% throughout his term.
The Work Ahead
  • Accelerate Virginia’s path to 100% clean energy by 2035 and ensure a just transition that protects communities that have been impacted the most.
  • Restructure Virginia’s regulatory system to protect consumers and incentivize the transition to 100% clean energy.
  • Reduce energy consumption by investing dramatically in energy efficiency.
  • Expand clean energy jobs and build the workforce needed to supply the clean economy with highly-qualified, skilled workers.
  • Equitably improve access to clean public transportation, electric vehicles and EV charging infrastructure.

Ensuring Every Virginian Has A Safe and Affordable Place To Call Home

A Bold Plan to Tackle the Eviction Crisis, Increase Affordable Housing, Promote Black & Brown Homeownership & Fight Homelessness
Read Terry's Full Plan
Read the One-Pager
The Plan
As Virginia’s next Governor, Terry will work to ensure every Virginian has a place to call home. That means addressing the eviction crisis and increasing protections for renters. Terry will also increase the supply of affordable housing by investing in the Virginia Housing Trust Fund, spearheading zoning reform, and partnering with the Biden Administration to increase access to affordable housing vouchers. Terry will also work to fight systemic racism and promote Black and Brown homeownership by combating lending discrimination, strengthening down payment assistance programs, access to low-interest loans, and rent-to-own programs.
"Virginia has a real crisis on our hands when it comes to housing. I will use every tool at my disposal to increase the availability of affordable housing and work to make sure all Virginians have a place to call home."
-Terry McAuliffe
Terry's Record
As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry fought for critical investments into Virginia’s Housing Trust Fund to increase the supply of affordable housing and help people achieve housing stability. Under his leadership, Virginia reduced homelessness among families by 27%, and Virginia became the first state in the nation to functionally end veteran homelessness by ensuring every community has a sustainable, systematic response to prevent homelessness whenever possible and to allow veterans in need of housing to secure a home within 90 days.
The Work Ahead
  • Invest in the Virginia Housing Trust Fund to increase the supply of affordable housing, promote Black and Brown homeownership and prevent homelessness.
  • Combat the historic effects of redlining by fighting back against discriminatory lending practices and ensuring critical state resources are accessible to Black Virginians.
  • Create a Coordinating Council to Reduce Evictions to protect the more than 260,000 families at risk.
  • Allocate permanent funding for programs that provide Virginians with access to legal support, rent relief, and eviction prevention and diversion programs.

Protecting Women’s Rights and Ensuring Gender Equality

For too long, women in Virginia have faced glaring inequities in the workplace, in health care and at home. Virginia can’t truly thrive until we root out and eliminate these inequities.
As Virginia’s next Governor, Terry will continue fighting for progressive policies to advance women’s rights and gender equality, particularly in light of a partisan, Republican-majority United States Supreme Court. First and foremost, that means passing an amendment to the Constitution of Virginia that permanently enshrines and codifies the protections of Roe v Wade in Virginia law.
Terry will also continue to address disparities in women’s health care coverage, ensuring access to quality prenatal care to improve outcomes and address maternal mortality, which disproportionately impacts Black and Brown mothers.
And he will tackle the pervasive systemic inequities that have disproportionately affected women, including pay inequity, lack of access to paid leave and lack of access to affordable child care.
As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry served as a “brick wall” in protecting women’s health care rights from extreme Republicans attacks. He successfully halted the closing of women’s health clinics, keeping all of Virginia’s women health clinics open. He defended women’s access to health care by successfully reversing the restrictive regulations designed to force their closure.
Terry vetoed all anti-women legislation passed by the General Assembly – including multiple bills that would have defund Planned Parenthood in Virginia. He also created a Physical Evidence Recovery Kit (PERK) Work Group, which led to the testing of 2,902 previously untested PERKS and implementation of a comprehensive process for the consistent handling of PERKs collected from victims of sexual assault.

Taking Action to Protect Virginians from Gun Violence

A Bold Plan to Ban the Sale of Assault Weapons, Close Loopholes, and Treat Gun Violence as a Public Health Epidemic
Read Terry's Full Plan
Read the One-Pager
The Plan
As Virginia’s next Governor, Terry will send a clear message that gun violence has no place in the Commonwealth. He will ban the sale of assault weapons and get high-capacity magazines and ghost guns off of our streets. He will also close lethal loopholes that repeatedly allow firearms to get into the hands of dangerous individuals. By creating an Office of Gun Violence Prevention and creating a research Center of Excellence at a Virginia college or university, Terry will treat gun violence as the public health crisis it is and deploy evidence-based solutions to save lives.
"We have made great strides in recent years to combat gun violence and strengthen Virginia's laws, now is the time to boldly confront and end this epidemic once and for all. I have never been afraid to stand up to the NRA, and that won't change now."
-Terry McAuliffe
Terry's Record
As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry signed an Executive Order banning guns in most state buildings, proposed a dozen common-sense gun safety bills, and vetoed 15 radical Republican bills that would have further weakened Virginia’s gun laws. As the first southern Governor to be elected after running with an “F” rating from the NRA, he passed the first meaningful gun safety laws in decades, including a domestic violence law that was one of the toughest in the nation, and a requirement that State Police be present at every gun show to run voluntary background checks on private sales.
The Work Ahead
  • Ban the sale of assault weapons, and get high-capacity magazines, and “ghost guns” off our streets.
  • Strengthen Virginia’s new background check law to include all firearm transfers.
  • Disarm hate by preventing people who have committed hate crimes from owning firearms.
  • Prohibit open carry of firearms in certain public spaces and give localities the flexibility to ban open carry more broadly when there are credible public safety threats.
  • Create an Office of Gun Violence Prevention to identify and coordinate solutions to gun violence across state agencies.

Building A Healthier Virginia

Ensuring That Every Virginian Has Access to Quality, Affordable Health Care
Read Terry's Full Plan
Read the One-Pager
As Virginia’s next governor, Terry will make sure that no person has to choose between medication or a meal. Read Terry’s bold plan for holding Big Pharma accountable to ensure affordable drug prices
The Plan
As Virginia’s next governor, Terry will fight to make sure all Virginians have access to quality, affordable health care coverage and that no Virginian is forced to choose between medication or a meal. Terry will address racial, gender, and geographic disparities in access to coverage and outcomes by strengthening Medicaid, working with the federal government to implement a reinsurance program to lower health insurance premiums, protecting reproductive freedoms, and combating rising prescription drug prices by holding pharmaceutical companies accountable. As governor, Terry will also work to end unacceptable maternal mortality rates for Black women by expanding home visiting programs, improving access to quality care, ensuring access to lactation support, and mandating mental health screenings for pregnant and postpartum women.
"Access to quality, affordable health care is a fundamental right, and our work to ensure all Virginians have access to it is far from over. I will act boldly and partner with President Biden's administration to eradicate inequities, lower health care premiums and fight to ensure that every Virginian has access to quality, affordable health care."
-Terry McAuliffe
Terry's Record
As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry stood as a “brick wall” in defense of Virginians’ reproductive freedoms, vetoing all anti-reproductive rights bills and signing legislation allowing Virginians to obtain a full year of contraceptives at once. Terry also laid the groundwork for the successful passage of Medicaid expansion by building his final budget proposal around the $421.7 million in estimated savings from expanding Medicaid and securing the critical hospital provider assessment. Terry’s “A Healthy Virginia” plan extended coverage to tens of thousands of Virginians for services such as dental care, mental health services, and substance use disorders
The Work Ahead
  • Implement a state reinsurance program to lower premiums and increase assistance for Virginians who can’t afford their premiums.
  • Combat maternal mortality rates for Black women by expanding home visiting services, access to quality care, ensuring access to lactation support and mandating mental health screenings.
  • Enshrine Roe v. Wade in Virginia’s constitution and increase access to contraceptive care.
  • Lower prescription drug costs by passing a Prescription Drug Sunlight Law, setting price limits on certain drugs, and holding big Pharma accountable.
  • Increase funding for mental health and substance use disorder treatment.

Boldly Reforming our Criminal Justice System to Create a More Equitable Commonwealth

Building a Fairer, More Equitable Criminal Justice System That Works for All Virginians
Read Terry's Full Plan
Read the One-Pager
The Plan
As Virginia’s next governor, Terry will continue to work to reform a system that has disproportionately targeted and impacted Black and Brown Virginians for centuries. He will work to enshrine the automatic restoration of voting rights in Virginia’s constitution, equitably implement marijuana legalization, expand access to parole, reform outdated expungement laws, and create an Office for Returning Citizens. He will also work to rebuild trust between communities and law enforcement by increasing transparency and accountability, and investing in community policing initiatives, and body-worn camera programs. As governor, Terry will also solidify the transformation of Virginia’s juvenile justice system and investing in mental health and substance use disorder services.
"Now is the time to finally deliver Virginians an equitable, just system that is firmly rooted in redemption and second chances. Together, we will create a stronger, more equitable criminal justice system that works for its citizens, not against them."
-Terry McAuliffe
Terry's Record
As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry bucked the status quo and championed progressive criminal justice reforms, despite facing relentless opposition from a Republican legislature. When Terry was governor, he restored more voting rights than any governor in American history – to 173,000 Virginians, and issued 227 pardons, more than any governor before him. Terry transformed Virginia’s juvenile justice system and reduced our incarcerated youth population by nearly two-thirds, and invested millions of dollars in reentry programs, alternatives to incarceration, and mental health and substance use disorder services. During Terry’s administration, Virginia achieved the lowest recidivism rate in the nation for the first time.
The Work Ahead
  • Work with the Democratic legislature to pass a second resolution and Virginia voters to secure approval for a constitutional amendment enshrining the automatic restoration of rights in Virginia’s constitution.
  • Equitably implement marijuana legalization, reinvesting revenues back into communities that have been impacted the most and ensuring equitable ownership opportunities in the new industry.
  • Promote second chances by expanding access to parole, reforming outdated expungement laws and creating an Office for Returning Citizens.
  • Rebuild trust between communities and law enforcement by improving transparency and accountability, investing in community policing initiatives and body-worn camera programs, and supporting accreditation for local agencies.

Ensuring a More Inclusive, Open and Welcoming Virginia

Combating Hate Against LGBTQ+ Communities, Protecting Students, Improving Access to Care & Housing Stability
Read Terry's Full Plan
Read the One-Pager
The Plan
As the next governor of Virginia, Terry will build on the progress he and Democrats have made over the past eight years to uplift and prioritize the LGBTQ+ community. Terry will address inequities and disparities that LGBTQ+ people, particularly people of color, experience by improving data collection and leveraging data to better direct resources to meet their unique needs. He will pass an anti-bullying law to protect students, prohibit foster care and adoption agencies from discriminating against LGBTQ+ people, and expand access to culturally competent and inclusive health and mental health care. Terry will also address housing stability by leveraging federal housing dollars and working to establish safe and inclusive shelters.
"As governmor, I will fight my heart out to make Virginia the most open, welcoming and inclusive state in the nation, and break down the disparities that LGBTQ+ communities, and particularly communities of color, face in education, health care, the economy and more. Together, we'll move Virginia forward into a better, brighter future for all."
-Terry McAuliffe
Terry's Record
Terry was the first southern candidate for governor to run on a pro-LGBTQ+ equality platform, and his first action as Virginia’s 72nd Governor was signing an executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ+ state employees. As governor, he vetoed every anti-LGBTQ+ bill and was the first Virginia governor to declare June as Pride month, to annually attend the LGBTQ+ PrideFest, and to launch an LGBT Tourism Task Force, which ultimately rebranded “Virginia is for Lovers’’ to focus on inclusivity. Terry became the first southern governor to officiate a gay wedding and directed all state agencies to comply with the Virginia Supreme Court ruling that legally recognized same-sex marriage.
The Work Ahead
  • Leverage data collection to better support LGBTQ+ communities and effectively direct resources to end disparities.
  • Improve identification and enforcement of hate crimes.
  • Repeal Virginia’s “conscience clause” to open up foster care and adoption to LGBTQ+ people, and pass an anti-bullying law to protect LGBTQ+ youth.
  • Address housing instability with permanent supportive housing and invest in inclusive shelters that meet the needs of the LGBTQ+ community.
  • Require health care and public safety professionals to receive cultural competency training and establish a statewide social determinants of health coordinator.[61]
 ”
—Terry McAuliffe's campaign website (2021)[65]


Jennifer McClellan

Campaign website

McClellan's campaign website stated the following:

“

Jenn's Vision for Virginia's Future

As the daughter of educators and community leaders who were born and raised during the Depression in the segregated South, Senator Jennifer McClellan has spent 15 years in the state legislature representing the Greater Richmond region, working to break down barriers and open doors of opportunity for the people of Virginia.
Jenn has been a driving force for delivering progressive change in Virginia – especially for women, children, and families. She is the only legislator in America who has led the passage of a state Voting Rights Act, a 100% clean energy standard, and a law proactively expanding reproductive rights. Jenn also led Virginia’s generational progress on education funding, criminal justice reform, the Equal Rights Amendment, protections for pregnant and domestic workers, and expanding health care access by creating the Virginia Health Benefit Exchange under the Affordable Care Act.
But even with all the progress Virginia has made, too many of our communities, our experiences, and our voices have been left behind. The coronavirus crisis has brought dramatic changes and challenges to the lives of millions of Virginians, exposed the depth of the inequity in our Commonwealth, and made it worse.
Now, Jenn is running for Governor to tackle those challenges and build a better future for millions of families across Virginia. As governor, Jenn will bring her perspective and experience to rebuild Virginia from the pandemic, by breaking down barriers and opening doors of opportunity in the economy, health care, education, and justice systems — in a way that includes all Virginians.
Jenn learned from her parents that government could be a force of oppression or it could be a force for change and solving people’s problems. That inspired her to bring about change, through nearly three decades of public service, including 15 years in the legislature. She has worked to strengthen the Virginia Democratic Party, including serving as Party Vice Chair, and helping build it into a force that today has been chosen by the people to lead in both the legislature and all statewide offices.
Jenn is running for Governor because so many of us are tired of fighting the same fights that our parents, our grandparents, and our great-grandparents fought. These fights are about racial equity and ensuring all Virginians have access to a high-quality education from birth to career, access to health care, economic opportunity, voting rights, and so much more. As a mom of two young kids, Jenn knows we need to continue these fights to build a better Commonwealth for Virginia families, and for all Virginia children to grow up in.
Our next Governor must look to the future – not the past – to address these challenges and bring the change Virginia needs. As she has done in the legislature, as Governor, Jenn will not only bring diverse voices to the decision-making table, but take the table out into our communities to center the voices and perspectives of those impacted by government policies.
Check out Jenn’s issue pages to learn more about how Jenn will break down barriers and open doors of opportunity for the people of Virginia in our economy and our health care system, our education system, and our safety nets in a way that includes all of us.

Affordable Housing

Jenn's Perspective
Quality, affordable housing is fundamental to the success of every family. Where you live determines the jobs you can reach, the schools your children can attend, the food you can consume, and even the quality of air you breathe. As a legislator, Jenn has seen too many Virginians struggle to find – or keep – affordable housing. Jenn understands that rental and purchasing costs are rising faster than incomes, evictions and foreclosures are devastating families and communities. Houselessness is on the rise for the first time in a decade, and housing insecurity is a pressing issue for many across the Commonwealth. The Coronavirus crisis has exacerbated the housing crisis. Jenn is committed to providing and maintaining affordable and stable housing for all Virginians, free from discrimination, because everyone deserves a safe place to call home.
Jenn's Record
Jenn has fought throughout her time in the legislature to provide and protect affordable housing:
  • In the wake of the Great Recession’s foreclosure crisis, then-Delegate McClellan passed the Trust in Lending Act to add additional protections for homeowners dealing with mortgage brokers
  • This year, Jenn carried the Preserving the American Dream Act creating protections from foreclosure to help Virginians stay in their homes and expand access to quality manufactured housing – one of the most accessible affordable housing options in the Commonwealth
  • Last year, Jenn passed the Tenants Bill of Rights empowering tenants to take action when their landlord allows property to fall into disrepair or become unsafe and lays out clear responsibilities of tenants to report such conditions
  • She also passed bills to:
  • Ensure public housing demolitions give proper notice to tenants
  • Encourage local governments to create affordable housing
  • Increase affordable housing and address gentrification in the city of Richmond
  • Jenn has also supported many bills over the years to protect Virginians from evictions, including:
  • Cosponsoring legislation that prevented landlords from using 'self-help' evictions
  • Cosponsoring legislation that required landlords to offer payment plans
  • Cosponsoring legislation that created an Eviction Diversion Pilot Program
  • Jenn has a long history of standing up to housing discrimination, sponsoring or supporting every bill to strengthen the Virginia Fair Housing Law, including bills to add to the list of protected characteristics – sexual orientation, gender identity, source of funds, and military status – and prohibit localities from discriminating against affordable housing proposals
Jenn's Vision
As Governor, Jenn will:
  • Create a Virginia Statewide Housing Voucher system
  • Increase funding to the Housing Trust Fund to provide for ongoing eviction relief and invest in affordable housing programs with a goal of functionally ending houselessness
  • Expand the current eviction diversion pilot programs – specialized court dockets designed to assist low-income families during an eviction case
  • Create an equity Home Ownership Fund that targets historically disadvantaged families and individuals to qualify for housing grants for first-time home ownership increasing both stable housing, and building intergenerational wealth
  • Continue adjusting state laws to incentivize mixed-used and affordable housing construction
  • Combat eviction and barriers to housing through legislation that provides for eviction prevention, diversion and expanding tenant rights and protections
  • Ensure the statewide rent relief program is on-going and will invest $108 million annually into this fund
  • Increase legal aid funding

Climate Action and Environmental Justice

Jenn’s Perspective
As the mother of two young kids, Jenn has been a leader in Virginia’s effort to address climate change today and for generations to come. Jenn wants to leave an inhabitable planet for her children, and all of our children, to inherit. Jenn’s faith also teaches her that we must be stewards of this planet. Jenn recognizes that climate change is an environmental issue, an economic issue, a health issue and a racial justice issue that we must take action to address.
Jenn understands how Black and Brown communities are disproportionately impacted by historic environmental policy, climate change and pollution. That’s why any plan to address climate change and preserve our natural resources must include environmental justice.
Jenn knows we are at a critical point in the fight against climate change and addressing human impact on the environment. That means we must not only transition to energy, transportation, manufacturing, and agricultural policies that reduce environmental impact, but reduce state and local government environmental impacts as well. She will center environmental justice in all decisions that impact our environment and communities.
Jenn’s Record
In the legislature, Jenn has been a leader in conserving Virginia’s natural resources, protecting the environment, and addressing climate change.
  • Led the Senate passage of the landmark Virginia Clean Economy Act—the most significant climate bill in Virginia history—to make Virginia the first Southern state with a 100% Clean :*Energy Standard, and create 13,000 clean energy jobs annually
  • Passed the Solar Freedom Act, which democratizes solar energy and removes barriers on local governments, residents, and businesses to harness solar power for their own use
  • Wrote and passed a bill to protect Virginia waterways from interstate pipeline projects
  • Chief-cosponsored the bill to create clean vehicle standards in Virginia and passed legislation expanding charging station infrastructure
  • Passed legislation to increase electric vehicle charging stations in Virginia
  • Introduced an Environmental Justice bill to require applicants for certain individual environmental permits to engage in community outreach
  • Cosponsored and passed legislation creating the New River Valley Passenger Rail Station Authority
Jenn's Vision
As Governor, Jenn will:
  • Make Virginia the #1 state for clean energy in America
  • Fully implement the Virginia Clean Economy Act and work with the Biden-Harris Administration to reach 100% clean energy by 2035
  • Make clean energy jobs a centerpiece of Virginia’s economic recovery by promoting sustainable solutions and innovation in all sectors of the economy, including agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and building infrastructure
  • Require environmental justice to be at the center of every project and enshrined in all state agency actions to address the long-standing inequities of Black and Brown communities facing health effects from pollution and fossil fuels
  • Make Virginia a national leader in electric vehicles and create a path for Virginia to have 100% low and zero-emissions vehicles by 2035
  • Introduce legislation that utilizes Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative funding to invest in coastal resiliency and conservation of natural resources
  • Prepare Virginia for the impacts of climate change
  • Protect Virginia’s parks and green spaces

Equity, Inclusivity and Racial Justice

Jenn's Perspective
For 16 legislative sessions, Jenn has walked past the statue of former senator and segregationist Harry Byrd in Richmond’s Capitol Square knowing that she is his worst nightmare: A Black woman, a descendent of enslaved people, and the daughter of parents who endured Jim Crow, working to eradicate the very inequity and oppression that Harry Byrd worked to create and maintain. Jenn has spent her career dismantling the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow that still impacts communities today.
Jenn’s career is one of many 'firsts.' In 2010, Jenn became the first member of the House of Delegates to serve the Commonwealth while pregnant. She was asked: 'Are you retiring?' while an expecting father also serving office with her was not. This moment served as a reminder of the gender-based bias and inequities that continue to exist in our workplaces and lives. As the Vice Chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and Chair of Virginia’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, Jenn has led efforts to tell the complete and accurate story of Virginia’s past while working to achieve Dr. King’s vision of the 'Beloved Community' through her community conversations, legislative, and policy efforts.
As Governor of Virginia, Jenn will shatter more than one glass ceiling as the first woman, first Black woman, and first Generation X candidate elected to the office. Jenn understands that inequity based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability is baked into all systems touched by state government and views public policy through the same lens. Jenn’s presence and policies will make sure that today’s 'firsts' become tomorrow’s norms in Virginia.
Jenn's Record
As a legislator, Jenn:
  • Led and passed the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, the first state-level voting rights act in the South
  • Introduced and passed the Senate resolution to make Virginia the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment
  • Spearheaded legislation repealing Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage and was a chief copatron of the Virginia Values Act, making Virginia the first state in the South to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity
  • Patroned a 2021 criminal justice reform bill allowing people with intellectual disabilities and mental illness to provide evidence of their conditions at trial
  • Patroned The Pregnant Worker Fairness Act which extended protections against discrimination for pregnant and nursing workers and new mothers
  • Passed the bill to reform outdated and ineffective 1980s-era laws that criminalized HIV
  • Led a Senate bill to strengthen protections from workplace sexual harassment
  • Championed protections for immigrants and new Americans – fighting to ensure their access to voting rights and economic opportunity through legislation to increase interpretation and translation services to access state resources, improve health care options for undocumented children and pregnant people, and enable undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses
  • Passed legislation that added specialized personnel to schools to give support to serve special education students
  • Passed legislation to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately criminalizes students of color and students with disabilities
  • Passed a bill that required the state to publish data that showed Black and Brown students, and students with disabilities were being disproportionately suspended
  • Advocated for Indigenous communities, working closely with the Chickahominy Tribe in her Senate district to establish the Virginia Indigenous People’s Trust Fund – which will disburse a portion of the Commonwealth’s gaming revenues to Virginia’s six recognized Tribes
  • Was integral in the Senate passing the legislation to ban the gay/trans-panic defense
  • Protected LGBTQ+ youth by cosponsoring the bill that made Virginia the first state in the South to ban conversion therapy for minors, and introduced and passed the bill to define and address bullying in schools
  • Pushed to increase funding for supported employment to ensure workers with disabilities were paid competitive wages
  • Successfully repealed vestiges of Jim Crow in Virginia law – repealing segregation laws, such as exemptions to worker protections through the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights
  • Reformed the criminal justice system by passing legislation to raise the felony larceny threshold, end mandatory minimums for suspended drivers licenses, and expand parole eligibility for hundreds of incarcerated Virginians trapped in a legal loophole

Gun Violence

Jenn's Perspective
Jenn has seen the devastating impact of gun violence across the Commonwealth: from the mass shootings at Virginia Tech and Virginia Beach to the continued gun violence around Virginia that often results from domestic violence. As the mom of two school-age kids, Jenn supports enacting comprehensive gun reform to protect our families and make our communities safer. All of Virginia’s 1,000 annual gun deaths are preventable and Jenn believes it’s time to fix the problem.
Jenn's Record
As a legislator, Jenn took on the NRA and fought for common-sense solutions to reduce gun violence. Jenn led the fight in the Senate to pass a bill in 2020 that requires the reporting of lost or stolen firearms, patroning bills on lost or stolen firearms since 2012. She cosponsored new laws to reinstate Virginia’s 'one-gun-a-month rule' and to implement universal background checks. Jenn has also cosponsored legislation that allowed localities to prohibit guns in certain public spaces.
Jenn's Vision
As Governor, Jenn will:
  • Require permit purchase on gun sales
  • Eliminate open carry laws that have historically intimidated Virginia’s citizens of color
  • Require background checks for those who buy guns from unlicensed dealers
  • Enact an assault weapons ban
  • Require background checks for gun rentals
  • Invest in Safe Communities grants – providing communities with the resources they need to tackle gun violence and provide the mental health resources needed to fight the suicide epidemic while directly engaging communities to determine their specific needs

Health Care

Jenn's Perspective
Jenn knows that too many people are one accident or illness away from economic devastation. Jenn also knows that access to quality health care is out of reach for too many Virginians. The Coronavirus crisis has further exposed the disparities in our health care system and the strains on our health care safety nets. As a legislator, Jenn has fought to expand access to high quality, affordable health care, including preventative, reproductive, and mental health care.
As Governor, Jenn will continue to make access to a high-quality, affordable, comprehensive health care system available to everyone – from our newborn Virginians to those 50 and older- while also protecting the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship from undue government interference. Jenn will work to ensure that access to mental health and reproductive health resources are part of a comprehensive health care system.
Jenn’s Record
In the General Assembly, Jenn has worked tirelessly to address health care disparities and expand access to care and coverage for Virginians. Jenn has:
  • Created the Virginia Health Benefits Exchange under the Affordable Care Act, which will provide more affordable health insurance for approximately 300,000 Virginians
  • Led the fight for years to successfully expand Medicaid coverage to over 400,000 Virginians and has worked to expand services and reimbursement rates for providers
  • Worked to expand access to and lower the cost of prescription drugs and expand access to preventative, reproductive, behavioral, and long-term care for all Virginians while making the health care system easier to understand and navigate
  • Cosponsored legislation to improve health insurance coverage for families whose children have been diagnosed with autism
As the first member of the House of Delegates to be pregnant while in office, Jenn has been a fierce advocate for protecting access to reproductive care and supports for new mothers. Jenn:
  • Led the passage of the Reproductive Health Protection Act, the first proactive expansion of abortion rights in Virginia history, which eliminated mandatory ultrasounds, 24-hour waiting periods, and TRAP laws
  • Expanded access to birth control
  • Carried the bill to make Virginia the first state in the South to remove the ban on abortion coverage for health insurance plans offered through the health benefits exchange
  • Received the Planned Parenthood Votes South Atlantic’s Legislative Leadership & Courage Award, and the 2020 NARAL of Virginia’s Legislator of the Year Award for her work advancing access to reproductive care
  • Expanded nursing protections and supported Medicaid access for new mothers for the first full year after birth, and funding for home visiting programs for pregnant and postpartum care
Over the course of her legislative career, Jenn has emphasized the need for increased investment, destigmatization and decriminalization of mental health. In the General Assembly, Jenn:
  • Supported the creation, implementation, and $5.3 million dollars in funding for the STEP- VA program designed to improve the quality of community behavioral services in 2017; and an additional $30.2 million for fiscal year 2022 for STEP-VA, to address Accountability, Access, Quality, and Consistency across all Community Services Boards (CSBs) and to enable CSBs statewide to deliver, at a minimum, nine standard services plus care
  • Patroned a landmark justice reform bill that will make the criminal justice system more equitable for individuals with mental illness, autism, or developmental/intellectual disabilities by allowing evidence of their conditions to be presented during hearings
  • Patroned legislation directing the Board of Education to review and update the Standards of Learning for students to include mental health
  • Supported $1.6 million in funding to establish the Behavioral Health Loan Repayment Program to help increase behavioral health providers by coordinated efforts to recruit and retain providers in the Commonwealth
Jenn's Vision
As Governor, Jenn will continue to make access to a high quality, affordable, comprehensive health care system available to all Virginians. In Jenn’s vision for the future comprehensive care includes breaking down barriers so access reproductive health care and mental health care.
Jenn will:
  • Close access gaps for areas of Virginia that don’t have providers by expanding telehealth options and look at expanding scope of practice
  • Coordinate care that considers social inequities and a path to provide wrap-around services for needed additional resources outside of health care services
  • Implement the Virginia Health Benefit Exchange to improve access, lower premiums and improve efficiency of health care for Virginians
  • Address the disproportionate impacts of maternal mortality for women of color
  • Invest in bias and cultural training for health care providers and work to increase diversity in the health provider workforce
  • Breaking down barriers to care and resources for Veterans including providing mental health resources for the suicide epidemic among our veterans
  • Reform Virginia’s mental health care system with a comprehensive plan to break down barriers to accessing mental health care and ensure it is part of coordinated care with our health care system
  • Protect the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationships from undue government interference
  • Protect reproductive health care and expand access to care – ensuring that every Virginian can afford and access the reproductive care they need
  • Pass a constitutional amendment to enshrine the principles of Roe v. Wade
  • Focus on Early Intervention, Prevention, and Wellness across the Lifespan
  • Continue building and Strengthening Trauma-Informed Crisis System and Comprehensive Continuum of Care
  • Improve accountability, quality, and oversight within the behavioral health system
  • Work to destigmatize substance addiction while combating the opioid epidemic and making treatment more widely available
  • Strengthen the mental health workforce
  • Make equity a driving force of state mental health funding and other resources (i.e. direct agencies to adopt needs based funding formulas in allocating funds to communities/localities)

Justice Reform

Jenn's Perspective
While serving in the General Assembly, Jenn has seen the impacts of the justice system on her constituents. Virginia’s justice system has disproportionately affected communities of color and individuals with disabilities, criminalized childhood behavior, poverty and mental health conditions, and failed to provide all defendants with fair trials. The justice system has focused more on punishment and incarceration than prevention and rehabilitation and doled out punishments that are disproportionate to crimes. That’s why Jenn is committed to transforming justice throughout the Commonwealth to create a generational cycle of restoration and re-entry rather than one of inequity.
Jenn's Record
In the legislature, Jenn has been a leading and consistent champion of reforming the justice system to be truly just.
Over the past 15 years, Jenn:
  • Passed bills to break the school-to-prison pipeline
  • Cosponsored and helped to pass a sweeping police reform bill to require de-escalation attempts before use of force, require reporting of use of force incidents, and ban chokeholds, strangleholds and no-knock warrants
  • Served as a key member of the Caucus subcommittee that ushered in legislation to end 'no knock' warrants, ban chokeholds, and require more accountability from law enforcement officers and agencies
  • Cosponsored the bill that abolished the death penalty in Virginia
  • Patroned and cosponsored bills to reduce the criminalization of low-level offenses, including increasing the felony larceny threshold; repealing the Habitual Offender Act; and decriminalizing HIV status
  • Passed legislation to make hundreds of Virginians eligible for parole
  • Passed a resolution to examine the impacts of Virginia’s marijuana laws, which paved the way for enacting just marijuana policy. Introduced the amendment to move the timeline for marijuana legalization from 2024 to July 1, 2021
  • Passed a landmark justice reform bill that will make the criminal justice system more equitable for individuals with mental illness, autism, or developmental/intellectual disabilities by allowing evidence of their conditions to be presented during hearings
  • Cosponsored legislation reforming Virginia’s bail and sentencing laws
Jenn’s Vision
As Governor, Jenn will:
  • Eliminate mandatory minimum sentences
  • Repeal or reform low-level offenses that criminalize childhood behavior, poverty, addiction, and mental illness
  • Dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline
  • Reform and require greater transparency in the pre-trial systems and eliminate cash bail to end the criminalization of low-income Virginians
  • Champion restorative practices, including restoration of rights for previously and currently incarcerated Virginians
  • Enact Virginia’s marijuana legalization and commercialization equitably and redress the disproportionate harm against Virginia’s Black community through priority licensing and allocating revenue to communities most directly harmed by marijuna prohibition and criminalization
  • Continue reforming the judicial process so fair trials are not dependent on socioeconomic status and ensure sentences are proportionate to the crime
  • Reform incarceration to focus on rehabilitation and re-entry

Open and Transparent Government

Jenn's Perspective
The combination of Jenn’s passion for meaningful policy and her ability to see, hear, and listen to the challenges within her district has been a driving force for elevating her constituents’ voices. Jenn believes leaders must be accessible to their community and that transparency, accountability and lifting up community voices is key to good governance. Jenn wants to lead a transparent Virginia where all Virginians can participate in the democratic process. To achieve this, Virginia needs campaign finance reform to create greater transparency and accountability and to rebuild public trust and good government. Virginia is among the states with the weakest campaign finance laws.
As a working mom with young children, Jenn also knows the challenges of running for office while working and parenting two young children. The current system has inherent barriers that make it difficult for people to run for office due to their parental status, age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status. This limits diverse representation and participation in the legislative process. Our democracy is governed by, for, and of the people and it can only thrive when everyone can participate.
Jenn believes that we need comprehensive campaign finance reform and ethics regulations to restore faith in our open and transparent political system where everyone can contribute.
Jenn's Record
In the legislature, Jenn has fought to keep Virginia’s government ethical and accessible while operating a constituent-focused office. Jenn:
  • Cosponsored bipartisan ethics reform legislation that limited gifts that elected officials could accept from lobbyists and businesses
  • Cosponsored the law that created the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council
  • Supported a measure to create a comprehensive campaign finance reform committee
  • As a member of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, Jenn also supported campaign finance reform bills including:
  • Limiting all campaign contributions from public utilities, like Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power
  • Enacting campaign contribution limits.
  • Creating more stringent rules for banning personal use of campaign finance funds, with the exception of child care costs
  • Introduced legislation to make sure Virginians were not overpaying for utilities while public utilities were overearning
Jenn's Vision
As Governor, Jenn will:
  • Ban contributions from regulated public utility monopolies
  • Prohibit the use of campaign funds for personal use except in the case of child care
  • Empower the Ethics Council to investigate ethics violations in order to ensure accountability from our elected officials
  • Limit the size of campaign contributions
  • Promote accessibility – updating and reviewing regulatory notice and comment procedures to make the process more accessible to the community to ensure community voices and input are being heard and elevated

Revitalizing the Economy

Jenn's Perspective
Jenn McClellan comes from a long line of educators, small business owners, domestic workers, and laborers. Jenn’s family experienced the bold economic recovery plans of Reconstruction and the New Deal but through the lens of the economic inequity of Jim Crow. As other workers gained economic benefits, many of Jenn’s relatives were denied basic protections – leaving them struggling to earn enough money to care for their family.
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified existing inequities and vulnerabilities in our economy. Virginia’s economy faces its greatest crisis in at least a generation, and every community across the Commonwealth has been hurt. Jenn is running for Governor to build a strong, inclusive, and resilient economy that gives everyone an opportunity for prosperity while meeting the changing demands of technology and the marketplace. She will build an economy that makes Virginia #1 for both workers and businesses.
Jenn's Record
Jenn has been a legislative leader for a stronger, more inclusive economy and:
  • Led the passage of the Virginia Clean Economy Act to make Virginia a national leader in the clean energy sector – creating 13,000 clean energy jobs per year in the Commonwealth, and prioritizing low-income and historically economically-disadvantaged communities in the development of energy and job training programs and the placement of renewable facilities
  • Expanded worker protections through the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act, the Virginia Values Act
  • Cosponsored a bill to expand collective bargaining to public employees, bills to provide paid sick leave, and paid family and medical leave to Virginia workers
  • Passed laws to stimulate new industries, including creating benefit corporations to make Virginia a hub of social entrepreneurship, removing red tape for local craft breweries – fostering job creation, and enabling the technology sector to work with transportation network companies to allow passengers to make reservations in advance and request specific designated drivers
  • Repeatedly supported and patroned laws to raise the minimum wage to $15, and eliminate minimum wage exemptions for workers over 65, individuals with disabilities, various jobs historically held by African-Americans, and domestic workers
Jenn’s Vision
As Governor, Jenn will:
  • Make Virginia number #1 in the country for workers and businesses
  • Build back a post-COVID economy that centers around workers and small business owners who have suffered the brunt of economic disparities exacerbated by the pandemic
  • Invest in Virginia’s workforce and strengthen workplace protections by establishing a paid family and medical leave program, and paid sick leave
  • Extend and modernize the unemployment system by allowing phone and email communication to become standard, require more timely responses from employers contesting workers’ claims, more leeway to forgive overpayments, and ensure 500,000 Virginia gig workers can opt into unemployment insurance
  • Expedite the transition to a $15 minimum wage, remove barriers to collective bargaining, including for public employees, and require those who benefit from a collective bargaining agreement or union representation in a grievance process to contribute to the cost for the service
  • Combat wage theft and worker misclassification
  • Create a COVID Long-Term Effects Small Business Loan, enabling Virginia small business owners to apply for a low-interest 30-year loan that allows for reinvestment in their business without red tape and with the potential for loan forgiveness
  • Increase funding to help small businesses with access to capital through increased funding partnerships with entities like the Virginia Community Capital Bank. She will increase funding to the Virginia Community Development Financial Institutions Fund by $2.5 million per year for a period of five years to provide greater support and resources for SWaM and micro businesses
  • Direct her administration to comprehensively study what laws and tax structures need to be updated to help make Small, Women, and Minority (SWaM) owned businesses, especially brick and mortar, more competitive
  • Make Virginia a national hub for clean energy job growth, building on the success of the Virginia Clean Economy Act with further action to expand deployment of solar and wind technology and invest in clean vehicles while creating green jobs and democratizing clean energy access by eliminating solar and wind tariffs
  • Collaborate with the Biden-Harris Administration to implement their 'Build Back Better' agenda and implement policies to make Virginia the #1 state for both business and workers

Transportation

Jenn's Perspective
As a member of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority Board and Senate Transportation Committee, Jenn has been a leader on key transportation decisions in both the Richmond area and across the Commonwealth. She understands that Virginia must make significant investments in transportation infrastructure, including improving roads and bridges, investing in public transportation, and providing infrastructure for a transition to electric vehicles.
Jenn believes the Commonwealth needs to focus on creating a multimodal transportation system that provides for the most efficient, accessible travel options for people and products while also protecting and preserving the environment.
Jenn’s Record
Jenn has worked to improve Virginia’s transportation infrastructure. As state Senator, she:
  • Cosponsored a new law that modernizes Virginia’s transportation system this year with the Clean Car Standard to curb vehicle emissions and transition Virginia to an all-electric vehicle fleet
  • Passed legislation to increase electric vehicle charging stations in Virginia
  • Supported an electric vehicle rebate to help make electric vehicles more affordable in Virginia
  • Initiated a study to create an east-west Commonwealth Corridor passenger rail service which would connect Hampton Roads, Richmond, and the New River Valley
  • Supported the 2020 transportation bill that streamlined transportation funding allocation and secured sustainable revenues for WMATA and VRE
  • Cosponsored a bill to create a regional passenger rail station authority for the New River Valley
Jenn’s Vision
As Governor, Jenn will:
  • Invest in multi-modal transportation infrastures including roads and bridges – electric vehicles, ports, trains, bicycles and pedestrian infrastructure
  • Expand high-speed rail infrastructure, open and maintain an east-west rail transit system and work with the Biden-Harris Administration’s $2 trillion dollar infrastructure plan to fund a mass transit revolution.
  • Make Virginia a national leader in electric vehicles and create a path for Virginia to be 100 percent low- and zero-emissions vehicles by 2035
  • Decarbonize public transportation and the state fleet
  • Protect commuting buses
  • Provide more funding for local public transit including Metro funding
  • Reward localities that make public transit a priority with more funding for road maintenance
  • Require a public transportation plan be submitted for all new major housing and industrial developments

Universal Child Care and Education

Jenn’s Perspective
Jenn’s mom was the 12th of 14 children and the first member of her family to go beyond the 8th grade and graduate college. She went on to become an early childhood educator and college counselor. Jenn’s dad was a third-generation educator. Jenn’s parents taught her that a good education is the key to economic opportunity, thriving communities, and a healthy democracy. As a graduate of Chesterfield Public Schools and the mother of children in Richmond Public Schools, Jenn has a long record of fighting to increase education investment and improve our schools to build Virginia’s future.
The path to success in school and life begins at birth and is shaped before kindergarten- 90 percent of a child’s brain develops before age 5. The foundation for an equitable and high-quality education starts with infant care and early childhood education.
As a working mother of two young kids, Jenn also knows how hard it is to find affordable, quality child care. As a legislator, Jenn has seen firsthand the child care crisis in Virginia. Even before the pandemic, Virginia was ranked 41st in the country in child care affordability, putting a major strain on Virginia families and our economy. The pandemic has worsened the child care crisis. More than 40% of Virginia’s child care facilities closed, and it has sent a ripple effect through Virginia’s economy – including women dropping out of the workforce at record rates. The crisis has disproportionately impacted women and Black and Brown communities in Virginia.
Equity is at the heart of Jenn’s education plan from birth to career. Access to quality education should not depend on what zip code you live in, but decades of underfunding have resulted in Virginia having some of the top and lowest performing schools in the nation. These inequities exist in Virginia’s early childhood, K-12 and higher education systems. These disparities hurt students’ ability to access a future of economic opportunity, which in turn impacts how our communities and democracy thrive.
Jenn’s Record
In the legislature, Jenn has laid the groundwork to stabilize and invest in the child care industry.
  • Championed the passage of the Child Care Stabilization and Quality Care Act, which provided greater financial stability for child care and early childhood education providers by launching a new two-year pilot program creating flexibility in how federal subsidy dollars are used, and allowed for portable background checks to address workforce shortages. Jenn’s bill made Virginia 'a leader in moving down the path of providing flexibility and stability to the child care sector,' according to Voices for Virginia Children
  • Cosponsored legislation that created a statewide unified system for early childhood care and education
  • Supported a bill that strengthened background checks for child care providers
As a legislator, Jenn has led the fight to fully fund Virginia’s K-12 public schools and address inequities in the education system.
  • Led the passage of a 2021 bill that invests $50 million in hiring more school support staff, such as social workers, nurses, and mental health professionals
  • Spearheaded legislation that created the Commission on School Construction and Modernization, which will make funding recommendations to fix crumbling schools across the Commonwealth
  • For two years in a row, chief sponsored a bill to increase Virginia public school funding by $2 billion by fully funding the Virginia Board of Education’s recommended Standards of Quality, including addressing educational inequity
  • Passed two bills to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline, which had led to increased racial disparities in Virginia’s education system
  • Fought for higher educator pay and increased support staffing, including a 2020 amendment to give teachers a 5% raise, and a 2019 amendment to hire more administrators and school staff
  • Received the Virginia Education Association 'Legislator of the Year' award in 2021, and numerous Virginia Education Association Legislative Champion awards for her work to improve school funding
Jenn has also been fighting for equity and affordability in higher education.
  • Supported legislation that will require more transparency from higher education governing boards
  • Cosponsored the bill which will make tuition-free community college available to low- and middle-income students who pursue jobs in high-demand fields
  • Cosponsored legislation that allows DACA Dreamers to qualify for in-state tuition
Jenn’s Vision for Universal Child Care and Early Learning
As Governor, Jenn will:
  • Provide universal child care by 2025, ensuring that every Virginia child has access to affordable child care
  • Provide families up to 200% of the poverty level a waiver for free child care
  • Ensure no family in Virginia will pay above 7% of their income for child care
  • Put more than 80,000 more Virginians to work in our child care system, make sure more kids receive quality early childhood education, and support families’ work-life balance
Jenn’s Vision for K-12
As Governor, Jenn will:
  • Invest a record $2.3 billion more per year into Virginia’s K-12 education system
  • Fully implement and fund the Board of Education’s Standards of Quality
  • Create an Equity Accountability Program to address educational inequities, including a new Director of Inclusion & Diversity under the Secretariat of Education, establish a new School-to-:*Prison Pipeline Task Force, and require all school districts to set concrete policies to address racism and bias
  • Bring much-needed reform to the Local Composite Index, updating the funding model to accurately calculate the true needs of school divisions
  • Increase teacher salaries to an average of $65,000 in order to remain nationally competitive and retain the best teachers, and do right by the Commonwealth’s educators
  • Lift the funding cap on school support staff, providing $350 million to ensure a ratio of no more than 250 students per 1 school social worker, school psychologist, school nurse, licensed behavior analyst, licensed assistant behavior analyst, other licensed health and behavioral positions, assistant principals, and custodial staff
  • Update the profile of a 21st Century Graduate and reform the early childhood, K-12, and educator prep program curriculum to ensure that students have the life and work-ready skills and competencies they need to succeed in the 21st century
  • Reform Virginia’s standards of learning and assessment programs to evaluate student learning and growth rather than how well they perform on multiple choice standardized tests
  • Address long-standing inequities in special education
  • Empower local school divisions to determine when to start and end the school year
  • Modernize teacher preparation programs and licensure and build and sustain a robust, diverse teacher workforce
  • Create a sustainable and dedicated fund to address school infrastructure issues, while accelerating the deployment of solar power to school districts that are implementing renewable energy programs
Jenn’s Vision for Higher Education
As Governor Jenn will:
  • Increase state funding for higher education to move away from a model that relies heavily on tuition and fees
  • Require four-year colleges to set goals for low-income and middle-class student enrollment levels
  • Work closely with the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia to monitor higher education institutions’ actions and take budgetary or administrative action or seek legislative action necessary to ensure Virginia is adequately and fairly meeting the needs of our students and employees
  • Implement Get Skilled, Get a Job, and Give Back program, and ensure it continues to be funded in her budgets. This new program focuses on low- and middle-income students pursuing degrees in high demand areas in health care, skilled trades, technology, early childhood education, and law enforcement
  • Create a new funding stream exclusively dedicated to Virginia’s HBCUs
  • Work with the Biden-Harris Administration to address the burden of student loan debt and to implement their $2 trillion dollar infrastructure plan that will designate billions for community colleges and HBCUs
  • Ensure higher education institutions are meeting the financial aid and support needs of students, particularly low-income and first-generation students

Voting Rights

Jenn's Perspective
In 1901, Jennifer McClellan’s great-grandfather, Henry Davidson, went to his local registrar’s office in Alabama to register to vote. He was subjected to a difficult literacy test and then was told to find three white men to vouch for his character. Over forty years later, Jenn’s own father had to pay a poll tax to vote.
Jenn knows voting is the most precious right and fundamental act in our democracy. Yet throughout our country’s history, powerful forces have worked to silence voices and deny the franchise to many. Jenn believes Virginia must remain a bedrock to protect the fundamental right to vote. She is determined to see that Virginia proactively safeguards access to the ballot for all voters.
Jenn's Record
In the legislature, Jenn has always fought to ensure every Virginia voter can have equal and fair ballot access. Jenn’s first bill passed in the General Assembly expanded absentee voting in Virginia. This year, Jenn passed the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, making Virginia the first state in the South to pass a voting rights act. The Virginia Voting Rights Act is modeled after the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and will protect voters in the Commonwealth from suppression, discrimination, and intimidation and expand language access to voters for whom English is a second language.
Jenn has fought against Republican attempts to impose unnecessary barriers to voting such as voter ID requirements. Jenn also cosponsored newly passed laws that remove restrictive voter ID requirements, and allow no-excuse absentee voting. She was also the Senate sponsor of a law that bans prison gerrymandering and stops gerrymandering based on racial or political data.
Jenn’s Vision
As Governor, Jenn will:
  • Protect and defend the significant recent voting rights progress made in Virginia
  • Continue working to end gerrymandering
  • Ensure that our elections system is free, fair and accessible to all
  • Modernize ballot-tracking software and infrastructure to increase transparency and efficiency in the vote-by-mail system
  • Work towards a vote-by-mail system that automatically sends every voter a ballot
  • Ensure polling places are fully accessible to voters with disabilities[61]
 ”
—Jennifer McClellan's campaign website (2021)[66]


Campaign advertisements

This section shows advertisements released in this race. Ads released by campaigns and, if applicable, satellite groups are embedded or linked below. If you are aware of advertisements that should be included, please email us.

Lee Carter

"For the Rest of Us" - Carter campaign ad, released Jan. 1, 2021

Justin Fairfax

"Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax on Justice Reform" - Fairfax campaign ad, released May 3, 2021
"Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax on Education" - Fairfax campaign ad, released April 26, 2021

Jennifer Carroll Foy

"Petersburg" - Carroll Foy campaign ad, released May 17, 2021
"Shoes" - Carroll Foy campaign ad, released April 28, 2021
"My Grandmother" - Carroll Foy campaign ad, released April 15, 2021
"Virginians Don't Back Down" - Carroll Foy campaign ad, released June 22, 2020
"Beneath" - Carroll Foy campaign ad, released May 27, 2020
"Launch Video" - Carroll Foy campaign ad, released May 27, 2020


Terry McAuliffe

Supporting McAuliffe

"Righting a Wrong" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released May 7, 2021
"My Dad" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released April 15, 2021
"Day One" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released April 10, 2021
"News Citizen" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released April 8, 2021
"Restoration of Rights" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released April 6, 2021
"STEM-H Education Plan" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released Feb. 19, 2021
"Affordable Housing" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released Feb. 15, 2021
"Criminal Justice Reform" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released Jan. 29, 2021
"New Virginia Way" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released Jan. 22, 2021
"All In" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released Jan. 13, 2021
"On Our Side" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released Jan. 11, 2021
"Going big and bold on Education" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released Dec. 15, 2020


Opposing Youngkin (R)

"Why Glenn's Running" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released May 20, 2021
"Virginia Forward" - McAuliffe campaign ad, released May 11, 2021

Jennifer McClellan

"Perspective" - McClellan campaign ad, released May 18, 2021
"Still Fighting" - McClellan campaign ad, released April 6, 2021

Satellite group ads

Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls


Virginia gubernatorial election, 2021: Democratic primary election polls
Poll Date Carter Fairfax Carroll Foy McAuliffe McClellan Undecided/Other Margin of error Sample size Sponsor
Roanoke College[46] May 24 - June 1, 2021 1% 5% 11% 49% 9% 24%[67] ± 3.9 637 N/A
Christopher Newport University[55] April 11-20, 2021 1% 8% 5% 47% 6% 33%[68] ± 3.9 806 N/A
Public Policy Polling[57] April 12-13, 2021 4% 7% 8% 42% 8% 29%[69] ± 4.3 526 N/A
Christopher Newport University[70][71] Jan. 31 - Feb. 14, 2021 1% 12% 4% 26% 4% 54%[72] ± 4.9 488 N/A

Campaign finance

The tables below contain data from financial reports submitted to state agencies. The data is gathered and made available by Transparency USA. Transparency USA tracks loans separately from total contributions. View each candidates' loan totals, if any, here and learn more about this data here.

Satellite spending

See also: Satellite spending

Satellite spending, commonly referred to as outside spending, describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.[73][74][75]

This section lists satellite spending in this race reported by news outlets in alphabetical order. If you are aware of spending that should be included, please email us.

  • CASA in Action spent a total of $29,639 supporting Carroll Foy beginning in March 2021. Click [show] on the table below to view specific expenditures.[60]
  • Fund Her PAC spent a total of $20,216 supporting McClellan beginning in May 2021. Click [show] on the table below to view specific expenditures.[60]
  • March On PAC spent $20,000 on digital advertisements supporting Carroll Foy on May 27, 2021.[60]

Debates and forums

June 1 debate

On June 1, 2021, Carter, Carroll Foy, Fairfax, McAuliffe, and McClellan participated in a debate moderated by 13News Now at Christopher Newport University's Ferguson Center in Newport News, Virginia.[47]

Official debate video, released June 1, 2021


Click the links below for summaries of the debate:

May 20 debate

On May 20, 2021, Carter, Carroll Foy, Fairfax, McAuliffe, and McClellan participated in a debate sponsored by the Virginia Democratic Party, NBC 4, and Telemundo 44 and hosted by Chuck Todd.[48]

Part 1

Official debate video, released May 20, 2021

Part 2

Official debate video, released May 20, 2021


Click the links below for summaries of the debate:

May 12 candidate forum

On May 12, 2021, Carter, Carroll Foy, and McClellan participated in a candidate forum hosted by the Democratic Latino Organization of Virginia, the Democratic Asian Americans of Virginia, and the Democratic Black Caucus of Virginia.[49]

May 6 debate

On May 6, 2021, Carter, Fairfax, Carroll Foy, McAuliffe, and McClellan participated in a debate hosted by WCYB at the Bristol Hotel in Bristol, Virginia.[51]


Click the links below for summaries of the debate:

May 4 candidate forum

On May 4, 2021, Carter, Carroll Foy, McAuliffe, and McClellan participated in a candidate forum hosted by The Arc of Northern Virginia and the Autism Society of Northern Virginia via Zoom.[52]

May 2 candidate forum

On May 2, 2021, Carroll Foy and McClellan participated in a #SheGotNext candidate forum hosted by Higher Heights for America.[54]

April 22 candidate forum

On April 22, 2021, Carter, Fairfax, Carroll Foy, and McClellan participated in a candidate forum hosted by the Chesterfield, Henrico County, Petersburg, and Richmond Alumnae Chapters of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Independent gubernatorial candidates Princess Blanding, Paul Davis, and Merle Rutledge also participated in the forum.[56]

April 6 debate

On April 6, 2021, Carter, Fairfax, Carroll Foy, McAuliffe, and McClellan participated a debate hosted by WKTR News 3 on the Virginia State University campus in Ettrick.[58]


Click the links below for summaries of the debate:

April 3 candidate forum

On April 3, 2021, Carter, Fairfax, Carroll Foy, and McClellan participated in a candidate forum hosted by the Young Democrats of Virginia.[59]


Click the link below to view a summary of the forum:

March 24 candidate forum

On March 24, 2021, Carter, Fairfax, Carroll Foy, McAuliffe, and McClellan participated in a candidate forum hosted by the Democratic Party of Virginia.[76]


Click the link below to view a summary of the forum:

March 16 candidate forum

On March 16, 2021, Carter, Fairfax, Carroll Foy, and McClellan participated in a candidate forum as part of the Virginia People's Debates series hosted by multiple organizations including Our Revolution Virginia and Progressive Democrats of America.[77]

"Virginia People's Debates - Governor," released March 16, 2021

Click the link below to view a summary of the forum:

Primaries in Virginia

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Virginia utilizes an open primary process in which registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party's primary.[78][79]

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

What's at stake in the general election?

See also: State government trifectas

The general election for governor helped determine the state's trifecta status in tandem with elections for the House of Delegates. A state government trifecta is a term to describe single party government, when one political party holds three positions in a state's government: the governorship and majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Prior to the 2021 general election, Virginia was a Democratic trifecta since 2019, when Democrats won a majority in the state House and state Senate. The state had most recently been a Democratic trifecta in 1994.

Race ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

  • Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
  • Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
  • Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.[80]
  • Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.[81][82][83]

Race ratings: Virginia gubernatorial election, 2021
Race trackerRace ratings
November 1, 2021October 26, 2021October 19, 2021October 12, 2021
The Cook Political Report with Amy WalterToss-upToss-upToss-upToss-up
Inside Elections with Nathan L. GonzalesToss-upTilt DemocraticLean DemocraticLean Democratic
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal BallLean RepublicanLean DemocraticLean DemocraticLean Democratic
Note: Ballotpedia updates external race ratings every week throughout the election season.

Virginia gubernatorial election history

The section below details election results for this office in elections dating back to 2001.

2017

See also: Virginia gubernatorial election, 2017

Virginia held an election for governor on November 7, 2017. Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) was term-limited and ineligible to run for re-election to a consecutive term.

The general election took place on November 7, 2017. A primary election was held on June 13, 2017. The filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in the primary election was March 30, 2017.

Ralph Northam (D) defeated Ed Gillespie (R) and Cliff Hyra (Libertarian) in the election for Governor of Virginia.[84]

Virginia Gubernatorial Election, 2017
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Ralph Northam 53.93% 1,409,175
     Republican Ed Gillespie 45.00% 1,175,731
     Libertarian Cliff Hyra 1.07% 27,987
Total Votes 2,612,893
Source: Virginia Department of Elections


Ralph Northam defeated Tom Perriello in the Democratic primary for Governor of Virginia.[85]

Virginia Democratic Gubernatorial Primary, 2017
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Ralph Northam 55.90% 303,541
Tom Perriello 44.10% 239,505
Total Votes 543,046
Source: The New York Times


Ed Gillespie defeated Corey Stewart and Frank Wagner in the Republican primary for Governor of Virginia.[85]

Virginia Republican Gubernatorial Primary, 2017
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Ed Gillespie 43.71% 160,100
Corey Stewart 42.53% 155,780
Frank Wagner 13.76% 50,394
Total Votes 366,274
Source: The New York Times

2013

On November 5, 2013, Terry McAuliffe won election to the office of Governor of Virginia. He defeated Ken Cuccinelli (R) in the general election.

Governor of Virginia, 2013
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.pngTerry McAuliffe 47.7% 1,069,789
     Republican Ken Cuccinelli 45.2% 1,013,354
     Libertarian Robert Sarvis 6.6% 146,984
     Write-In Various 0.5% 11,087
Total Votes 2,241,214
Election results via Virginia State Board of Elections.


State profile

Demographic data for Virginia
 VirginiaU.S.
Total population:8,367,587316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):39,4903,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:69%73.6%
Black/African American:19.2%12.6%
Asian:6%5.1%
Native American:0.3%0.8%
Pacific Islander:0.1%0.2%
Two or more:3.2%3%
Hispanic/Latino:8.6%17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:88.3%86.7%
College graduation rate:36.3%29.8%
Income
Median household income:$65,015$53,889
Persons below poverty level:13%11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015)
Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Virginia.
**Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Virginia

Virginia voted for the Democratic candidate in five out of the seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, five are located in Virginia, accounting for 2.43 percent of the total pivot counties.[86]

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Virginia had five Retained Pivot Counties, 2.76 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More Virginia coverage on Ballotpedia

See also

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External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The New York Times, "Virginia Primary Election Results," accessed June 14, 2021
  2. ↑ The Washington Post, "Last-minute campaigning underway as Virginia Democrats prepare to pick statewide nominees Tuesday," June 5, 2021
  3. ↑ Local Majority, "Jennifer Carrol Foy," accessed April 6, 2021
  4. ↑ https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/biography/176347/jennifer-carroll-foy VoteSmart, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," accessed April 6, 2021]
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Huffington Post, "Major Progressive Group Endorses Jennifer Carroll Foy For Virginia Governor," April 20, 2021
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Twitter, "Clean Virginia," April 5, 2021
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Twitter, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," March 16, 2021
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Jennifer Carroll Foy's campaign website, "Press Releases," accessed April 5, 2021
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Virginia Department of Elections, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed April 16, 2021
  10. ↑ Leaders Magazine, "Financing the Road to the White House," July 2007
  11. ↑ VoteSmart, "Terry McAuliffe," accessed April 6, 2021
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Axios, "Ralph Northam backs predecessor Terry McAuliffe for Virginia governor," April 8, 2021
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 Terry McAuliffe's campaign website, "The Latest," accessed April 6, 2021
  14. ↑ LinkedIn, "Jennifer McClellan," accessed April 7, 2021
  15. ↑ Jennifer McClellan's campaign website, "Meet Jenn," accessed April 7, 2021
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Jennifer McClellan," Feb. 11, 2021 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "nvme" defined multiple times with different content
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Twitter, "Jennifer McClellan," Feb. 10, 2021
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Jennifer McClellan's campaign website, "Endorsements," accessed April 6, 2021
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Facebook, "NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia," May 17, 2021
  20. ↑ YouTube, "Virginia Forward," May 11, 2021
  21. ↑ Facebook, "WCYB," May 6, 2021
  22. ↑ https://www.jennifermcclellan.com/mcclellan-statement-on-gop-nominee-glenn-youngkin/ Jennifer McClellan's campaign website, "McClellan Statement on GOP Nominee Glenn Youngkin," accessed May 14, 2021]
  23. ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Election Results," accessed April 13, 2021
  24. ↑ Augusta Free Press, "Who we’re backing for governor of Virginia: Jennifer Carroll Foy," Feb. 3, 2021
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 The Washington Post, "Opinion: Terry McAuliffe was a first-rate governor. He makes a compelling case that he would be again." April 26, 2021
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 The Hill, "Lauren Underwood endorses Jennifer Carroll Foy in Virginia governors race," April 8, 2021
  27. ↑ Terry McAuliffe's campaign website, "Newly-Elected Hampton Roads Delegate Angelia Williams Graves Endorses Terry McAuliffe for Governor," March 26, 2021
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Augusta Free Press, "Jennifer Carroll Foy picks up endorsement from People For the American Way, former NAACP President Ben Jealous," April 9, 2021
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Facebook, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," May 13, 2021
  30. ↑ The Hill, "Major union that backed Biden in 2020 endorses Foy in Virginia governors race," Feb. 17, 2021
  31. ↑ The Hill, "Major trade union endorses McAuliffe in Virginia governor's race," Feb. 22, 2021
  32. ↑ Twitter, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," Jan. 19, 2021
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Facebook, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," April 22, 2021
  34. ↑ Twitter, "Jennifer McClellan," March 23, 2021
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Facebook, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," May 14, 2021
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Augusta Free Press, "International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation endorses Terry McAuliffe for governor," May 6, 2021
  37. ↑ Twitter, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," Feb. 24, 2021
  38. ↑ Twitter, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," April 2, 2021
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Facebook, "Jennifer McClellan," April 20, 2021
  40. ↑ CNN, "Sunrise Movement endorses Jennifer Carroll Foy for Virginia governor," March 22, 2021
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Facebook, "Jennifer McClellan," May 19, 2021
  42. ↑ Twitter, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," Aug. 27, 2020
  43. ↑ Twitter, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," Sept. 3, 2020
  44. ↑ Twitter, "Jennifer Carroll Foy," Sept. 28, 2020
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 Facebook, "Jennifer McClellan," April 27, 2021
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 Roanoke College, "Virginia Democratic Primary," June 4, 2021
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 YouTube, "The Virginia Democratic Governor's Debate," June 1, 2021
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 YouTube, "Virginia Democrats in governor’s race meet for 3rd debate - Part 1," May 20, 2021
  49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 Facebook, "Democratic Latino Organization of Virginia," May 12, 2021
  50. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named simone1
  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 Facebook, "WCYB," May 6, 2021
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 Facebook, "The Arc of Northern Virginia," May 4, 2021
  53. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named helmere
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 Facebook, "Higher Heights for America," May 2, 2021
  55. ↑ 55.0 55.1 Christopher Newport University, "2021 Virginia Democratic Primary Report," April 22, 2021
  56. ↑ 56.0 56.1 Facebook, "The Richmond Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.," April 22, 2021
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 Public Policy Polling, "McAuliffe Has Commanding Lead in Primary," April 13, 2021
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1 Facebook, "WTKR News 3," April 6, 2021
  59. ↑ 59.0 59.1 Facebook, "Virginia Young Democrats," April 3, 2021
  60. ↑ 60.0 60.1 60.2 60.3 Virginia Public Access Project, "2021 Democratic Primary (6/8/2021)," accessed July 12, 2021
  61. ↑ 61.0 61.1 61.2 61.3 61.4 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  62. ↑ Lee Carter's campaign website, “Issues,” accessed April 29, 2021
  63. ↑ Justin Fairfax's campaign website, “Home,” accessed April 6, 2021
  64. ↑ Jennifer Carroll Foy's campaign website, “Issues & Priorities,” accessed May 26, 2021
  65. ↑ Terry McAuliffe's campaign website, “Terry's Vision,” accessed May 26, 2021
  66. ↑ Jennifer McClellan's campaign website, “Issues,” accessed April 7, 2021
  67. ↑ Undecided: 24%
    Someone else: 0%
  68. ↑ Undecided: 27%
    Someone else: 2%
    Don't know/refused: 4%
  69. ↑ Undecided: 29%
  70. ↑ Christopher Newport University, "Virginia Primaries - February 2021," Feb. 19, 2021
  71. ↑ Margin of error and sample size for the Democratic gubernatorial primary question were provided via email correspondence with Dr. Quentin Kidd on April 2, 2021
  72. ↑ Undecided: 49%
    Don't know/refused: 5%
  73. ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Outside Spending," accessed September 22, 2015
  74. ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Total Outside Spending by Election Cycle, All Groups," accessed September 22, 2015
  75. ↑ National Review.com, "Why the Media Hate Super PACs," November 6, 2015
  76. ↑ Facebook, "Democratic Party of Virginia," March 24, 2021
  77. ↑ YouTube, "Virginia People's Debates - Governor," March 16, 2021
  78. ↑ NCSL,"State Primary Election Types," accessed October 7, 2024
  79. ↑ Virginia Department of Elections,"Casting a Ballot," accessed October 7, 2024
  80. ↑ Inside Elections also uses Tilt ratings to indicate an even smaller advantage and greater competitiveness.
  81. ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Nathan Gonzalez," April 19, 2018
  82. ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Kyle Kondik," April 19, 2018
  83. ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Charlie Cook," April 22, 2018
  84. ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "List of Statewide Candidates," October 17, 2017
  85. ↑ 85.0 85.1 Virginia Department of Elections, "2017 Primary Filing," accessed May 12, 2017
  86. ↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
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