Progressive Voters Guide

Democratic candidate Jennifer Woofter is running against incumbent Republican Delegate Kathy Byron. Woofter currently sits on the Lynchburg City Schools’s Equity Task Force and is the co-chair of ROSEL's List, a nonprofit dedicated to identifying, mentoring, and electing women to positions of leadership in Central Virginia. She is also a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer in the foster care system. Woofter lives in Lynchburg with her husband and their three children.

Woofter supports raising the minimum wage and creating jobs that pay a living wage that don’t require a college degree. She supports affordable healthcare access and expanding broadband to rural areas of Virginia. Woofter wants to fully fund our schools and increase teacher pay. She also wants to bring universal background checks and gun violence prevention measures to Virginia. Woofter believes that citizens should pick their legislators, not the other way around and will fight for an independent redistricting commission to end gerrymandering and make that a reality.

Delegate Kathy Byron was first elected to the House of Delegates in 1997. She is anti-choice and sponsored the infamous 2012 bill that would have required people seeking an abortion to undergo a medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound. She does not support marriage equality and has worked to prevent equality for members of the LGBTQ community. She was opposed to Medicaid expansion and thinks our healthcare crisis can be solved with health savings accounts.

Jennifer Woofter is the more progressive choice in this race because of her position on redistricting reform and increasing the minimum wage.

Democratic candidate David Zilles is a thermal fluids engineer who has lived in Lynchburg since 2012. Zilles, a father of two children, decided to run for office after the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.

Zilles is running to ensure health care is affordable and accessible to all. He wants to make cost-sharing plans more available, lower prescription drug prices, and combat the opioid crisis. He also will fight to address climate change and make investments in renewable energy. He supports policies that will help to dismantle structural racism, such as creating universal pre-K, eliminating cash bail, expanding voting rights, eliminating gerrymandering, and ending mass incarceration. A pro-choice candidate, he supports the Whole Woman’s Health Act and ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Zilles supports equal rights for everyone and promises to reject any legislation that does not advance equal rights. He will oppose laws that make it more difficult for same-sex couples to marry or create a family.

Zilles’s opponent is Republican candidate Wendall Walker. Walker is a long-time Republican activist who specifically highlights his support of President Trump on his campaign website. Walker is anti-choice, against common sense gun violence prevention measures, and will work to prevent the government from collecting taxes.

Because of his support of affordable health care access, gun violence prevention, and combating climate change, David Zilles is the more progressive choice in this race.