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Blaizen Buckshot Bloom
Blaizen Buckshot Bloom (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Virginia House of Delegates to represent District 89. Bloom lost in the Democratic primary on June 17, 2025.
Bloom completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Blaizen Bloom was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Bloom graduated from Deep Creek High School and attended Old Dominion University. Bloom's career experience includes working as a laborer.[1][2][3]
Bloom has been affiliated with the following organizations:[3]
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local #666
- Chesapeake Democratic Committee
- Suffolk Democratic Committee
- Chesapeake Democratic Women
- Hampton Roads Young Democrats
- Virginia LGBTQ+ Democrats
- Chesapeake NAACP
- Rural Chesapeake Preservation Committee
- Mitigation & Adaptation Research Institute
- Institute for Coastal Adaptation & Resilience
- Civics Unplugged
- Virginia States of the Students
- Bay Group Sierra Club
Elections
2025
See also: Virginia House of Delegates elections, 2025
General election
General election for Virginia House of Delegates District 89
Karen Robins Carnegie and Michael Lamonea are running in the general election for Virginia House of Delegates District 89 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
 | Karen Robins Carnegie (D) | |
| Michael Lamonea (R) | ||
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Virginia House of Delegates District 89
Karen Robins Carnegie defeated Blaizen Buckshot Bloom in the Democratic primary for Virginia House of Delegates District 89 on June 17, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Karen Robins Carnegie | 77.8 | 4,656 |
 | Blaizen Buckshot Bloom | 22.2 | 1,329 | |
| Total votes: 5,985 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Virginia House of Delegates District 89
Michael Lamonea defeated Kristen Shannon in the Republican primary for Virginia House of Delegates District 89 on June 17, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Michael Lamonea | 66.0 | 2,562 | |
| Kristen Shannon | 34.0 | 1,317 | ||
| Total votes: 3,879 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- N. Baxter Ennis (R)
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Bloom received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
2023
See also: City elections in Chesapeake, Virginia (2023)
General election
General election for Virginia Dare Soil and Water Conservation District (2 seats)
Incumbent Vickie Greene and Lawrence Mason defeated Blaizen Buckshot Bloom and incumbent John Pierce in the general election for Virginia Dare Soil and Water Conservation District on November 7, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Vickie Greene (Independent) | 36.2 | 34,436 | |
| ✔ |  | Lawrence Mason (Independent) | 27.3 | 25,949 |
| Blaizen Buckshot Bloom (Independent) | 23.2 | 22,096 | |
| John Pierce (Independent) | 13.3 | 12,622 | ||
| Total votes: 95,103 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Bloom in this election.
2022
See also: Chesapeake Public Schools, Virginia, elections (2022)
General election
General election for Chesapeake Public Schools, At-large (5 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Chesapeake Public Schools, At-large on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Kim Scott (Nonpartisan) | 12.8 | 42,363 | |
| ✔ | Brittany Walker (Nonpartisan) | 12.0 | 39,870 | |
| ✔ |  | Amanda Dean (Nonpartisan) | 11.8 | 39,039 |
| ✔ |  | John McCormick (Nonpartisan) | 11.5 | 38,272 |
| ✔ | Michael Lamonea (Nonpartisan) | 11.3 | 37,557 | |
 | Shirley Auguste (Nonpartisan) | 9.8 | 32,548 | |
| Malia Huddle (Nonpartisan) | 9.4 | 31,300 | ||
| Bradley Moore (Nonpartisan) | 8.7 | 28,935 | ||
| Gayle Gilmore (Nonpartisan) | 3.0 | 9,986 | ||
| Blaizen Buckshot Bloom (Nonpartisan) | 2.7 | 8,936 | |
| Jared Miller (Nonpartisan) | 2.3 | 7,525 | ||
 | Kimberly Alameda (Nonpartisan) | 2.3 | 7,496 | |
 | Jennifer Economy (Nonpartisan) | 2.1 | 6,808 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 1,295 | ||
| Total votes: 331,930 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Tiffany Thompson (Nonpartisan)
Endorsements
To view Bloom's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Blaizen Buckshot Bloom completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Bloom's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Growing up working class across Chesapeake and Suffolk taught me how to fight back against a system that’s failing you. It took my father, a disabled Navy, a decade to win the care he needed and deserved from our underfunded VA – a decade we’ll never get back. My mother survived a string of abusive relationships while struggling to raise us on one paycheck. I hid my Asthma and Crohn’s Disease out of fear of creating another bill. That’s not how kids should grow up.
I turned this experience into advocacy. I helped kill the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which could have incinerated every student in Thurgood Marshall Elementary School with a single spark. I fought for safe COVID reopening and trans student rights. I formed a bipartisan group—the Rural Chesapeake Preservation Committee—to balance rural and urban needs.
I’m in this race because resisting Trump isn’t enough. We need to show how government should work. We can build affordable housing, protect farmland, manage flooding, invest in schools, care for veterans, and stop price gouging. I know personal freedom is inseparable from economic stability. I’m running to help Virginians lead big, healthy lives that include the right to love who you love and to afford a life of dignity.- My focus is creating economic security in our district by raising wages and lowering costs. I support raising the minimum wage to no less than $17/hr (indexed to inflation/productivity) and strengthening unions by repealing "right-to-work" laws to empower collective bargaining. Unions built the middle class, and we must restore their power to uplift workers. I'll push to replace the grocery tax with a luxury goods tax, to make essentials more affordable. We can address housing costs by streamlining permitting for & incentivizing construction of starter homes to increase supply and restricting private equity speculation to curb artificial price inflation. Finally, we must cap runaway prescription drug costs, particularly for insulin.
- We should promote economic growth by supporting small businesses and expanding local manufacturing into offshore wind through the following policies: Reform the flat business tax to a progressive one, starting at 0% for new businesses, to incentivize growth. Establish a statewide fund, supported by large corporations, to help small businesses transition to policies like a higher minimum wage and paid leave, enabling them to compete for talent. Invest in shovel-ready sites and school apprenticeship programs to position our region as an offshore wind industry hub, leveraging its central location and deep-port advantage. Partner with industry, offering incentives tied to guaranteed development, to create sustainable, high-paying, union jobs.
- As Trump destroys due process, tanks our economy and attacks all our institutions at once, there’s a reason Democratic leadership is frozen: they have no experience being marginalized. But that’s what I, and other working class activists, have always overcome. It’s what my dad taught me by battling the VA to win the care he deserved. It’s what my mom taught me by just surviving. It’s what I did when I took on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline with its millions and lobbyists. It’s what I did when I took on the school board as those conversations were at their most toxic. I helped kill that pipeline and won real changes for our students. We need Democrats who know how to resist and win when your back is up against a wall. I do, because I have.
The second is environmental justice. As an environmental policy scientist who grew up low-income, I understand how our underserved communities bear the brunt of industrial pollution, have the least protections against climate change, and have the least access to natural beauty. I’m committed to making sure these communities get less pollution, less flooding, and more trees.
I took that energy into my advocacy, and it empowered me to help kill the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a classic case of environmental injustice that could have incinerated Thurgood Marshall Elementary School with a single spark. That energy helped me win some REAL mental healthcare improvements for students when I took on a toxic school board culture that wanted to use “mental healthcare” as a smokescreen to ban books and bully queer/trans youth. That energy is what we need in our legislators right now if we want them to effectively fight for the big improvements we need in the face of the monumental forces aligned against us. We need people who understand that when forces try to intimidate and quiet you, the response is to get louder and more active, not patiently wait for a more opportune circumstance that may never come.
Climate Change: The increasing threat of sea level rise, extreme weather events, and the need to transition to clean energy pose significant challenges, particularly for vulnerable coastal communities like those in the Hampton Roads region. The urgency of this issue requires both mitigating its effects through pollution reduction and adapting our infrastructure and communities to be more resilient, especially to flooding.
Economic Inequality: Long-standing economic disparities, exacerbated by factors like unequal access to quality education and job opportunities, continue to affect working families across Virginia. Addressing these inequities through policies that support good wages, affordable healthcare, and access to resources is crucial. Every Virginian should be able to afford a life of dignity.
Equitable Development: The need to balance economic growth with environmental protection and social equity is paramount. This includes ensuring that development benefits all communities and doesn't perpetuate historical patterns of environmental injustice or displacement. For example, The Chesapeake Mall region requires smart redevelopment that brings current businesses and residents along for the ride, while our small farms in the south require policies to help them retain their current character.
This prohibition will not in any way disincentivize new construction or prevent individuals from holding investment properties. What this would stop is private equity firms manipulating the housing market by buying up large chunks of homes, most of which were bought up during and following the 2007-2008 housing crisis, thereby reducing supply and spiking prices. We need policies that actively increase the supply of housing for everyday people, and this is one I would champion.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2023
Blaizen Buckshot Bloom completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Bloom's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Economically & Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture
- Environmental Conservation & Green Infrastructure
- Community Partnerships
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2022
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released Oct 7, 2022 |
Blaizen Buckshot Bloom completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Bloom's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- My top priority is addressing the mental health needs of our student population. An easy first step is creating a health curriculum that educates the stigma out of mental illness. A great model to utilize is a framework tested in Texas Public Schools called “Eliminating the Stigma of Difference.” In addition, we must ensure that every school has at least one social worker and psychologist, with an end goal of achieving a 250:1 and 700:1 student-to-faculty ratio. In addition to their assigned tasks, those staff could perform annual mental illness screenings for students ages 12+ as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
- My second priority is improving the work environment for our educators. The best means to achieve this is by removing workload from our staff members. That includes expanding our current mental health offerings, creating a proactive yet effective discipline system, and ensuring IEPs and 504s are correctly implemented and utilized. Furthermore, until we can recruit additional teachers to keep the student-to-teacher ratio low, we must hire more teacher assistants to help in the classroom. Finally, we must restore funding for teachers pursuing continuing education to ensure our teachers are among the best.
- My third priority is creating an efficient, transparent budget. A line-by-line breakdown of the budget must be made publicly available, including actual spending of our district over the year prior. Moreover, Chesapeake Public Schools’ spending of Covid relief funds implies poor spending within our current budget. Such expenditures included $500,000 for plastic dividers that proved ineffective, though well-intentioned. Still, we must look for ways to improve our current budget without sacrificing the quality of education. One idea is partnering with local businesses and the military through our non-profit. As older technology gets replaced, our district can accept it to substitute even older, worse-for-wear technology.
Yet another aspect of this dilemma students face is the accessibility to resources. I was terrified of the repercussions of crying out for help, but I also worried about the financial burden I would place on my struggling household. I wasn’t alone in that thought. It was another fear in our minds, an idea that we would become a financial burden for treatment of this disease in our minds.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
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Candidate Virginia House of Delegates District 89 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 9, 2022
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 28, 2023
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 3, 2025
