Senate District 009

Incumbent Senator Jennifer McClellan is a Democrat who grew up in Petersburg. She serves on the board for both the YWCA of Richmond and the Richmond NAACP. She is also on the board of the Children’s Museum of Richmond and the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood.

Senator McClellan was elected in 2017 and is the only Senator that has been pregnant while in office. Prior to her election, she served in the Virginia House of Delegates for 11 years. She has proven herself to a pro-choice champion, sponsoring multiple bills to protect and expand reproductive rights. She has voted to raise the minimum wage and to increase teacher salaries. Senator McClellan also voted to expand Medicaid in Virginia and fought to put protections for breast feeding into state law.

Her opponent, Libertarian Mark Lewis, advocates for eliminating the minimum wage and expanding access to guns. He would repeal Medicaid expansion and supports school voucher schemes.

Senator Jennifer McClellan is the progressive choice in this race.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Rip Sullivan was elected to the House of Delegates in a special election in 2014. He is an attorney who graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as the President of Legal Services of Northern Virginia, which helps low-income people access legal services in the region. Delegate Sullivan and his wife, Beth, have 4 children and recently welcomed their first grandchild.

As a Delegate, Sullivan has supported increased funding for education, transportation, and affordable health care access. He is an advocate for equality by backing the Equal Rights Amendment and reproductive rights. He opposes discrimination against the LGBTQ community and believes in fair housing.

Delegate Sullivan is running unopposed and is the progressive choice in this race.
 

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Alfonso Lopez was elected to the House of Delegates in 2011. During his time in office, Lopez has been a strong supporter of workers and families, passing legislation like the Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund, fighting to strengthen protections for tenants against retaliatory evictions, working with the labor community to protect Project Labor Agreements, and fighting to save funding for Child Advocacy Centers.

Delegate Lopez is a strong supporter of increasing the minimum wage and organized legislators in Northern Virginia to successfully push the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) to increase the minimum wage for contract employees at our local airports. He is a reliable pro-choice vote. He supports the LGBTQ community, opposes any discriminatory laws, and supports clean energy.

Delegate Lopez’s opponent is Terry Modglin. Modglin is anti-choice. He wants to raise the minimum wage, increase education funding, and supports Medicaid expansion. He also wants to increase gun violence prevention and to protect the environment.
 

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Lee Carter was elected in 2017 as the first Delegate to identify himself as Democratic Socialist. In his first term as a Delegate, Delegate Carter has proven to be a strong supporter of reproductive rights. He opposes discrimination against the LGBTQ community and immigrants. Delegate Carter believes in criminal justice reform and wants more funding for public education, transportation, and expanded access to affordable healthcare. He supports workers’ rights and unions. Delegate Carter also advocates for clean energy.

Ian Lovejoy is Delegate Carter’s Republican opponent. Lovejoy supports market solutions to the health care crisis, and it is not clear that he would protect Medicaid expansion. His website lacks clear positions on key issues like reproductive health care access, increasing the minimum wage, and voting rights.

Delegate Carter is the more progressive choice in this race because of his support of Medicaid expansion, equality, and abortion access.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Hala Ayala was elected to the House of Delegates in 2017. She is a graduate of the Virginia Progressive Leadership Project. As Delegate, she co-sponsored a bill that seeks to keep guns away from people posing a substantial risk of harming themselves or others. She’s a strong advocate for progressive priorities that help working families like paid family leave, paid sick leave, and increasing the minimum wage. She also voted for Medicaid expansion, allowing an additional 300,000 Virginians to access health care when they need it.

Her opponent is former Republican Delegate Richard Anderson. As Delegate, Anderson voted for bills that shame and stigmatize women who seek an abortion and voted against a program that would have allowed low-income women to access birth control. He also had an A rating from the National Rifle Association and voted against a commonsense bill that would have required background checks before guns can be purchased.

Delegate Ayala is the more progressive choice in this race because of her support for Medicaid expansion, paid family leave, and increasing the minimum wage.

As a former Louisa County teacher and professor at the College of William and Mary, Democratic candidate Juanita Jo Matkins believes all Virginians deserve a fair chance. Matkins has lived in the 56th District for much of her life, educating its young people and serving her community through her church and various volunteer organizations. Her top priorities are increased education funding, healthcare access for all, and access to high-speed internet. She supports a number of progressive priorities including raising teacher pay, expanding affordable access to health care, criminal justice reform, and expanding voting rights.

She is running against incumbent Republican Delegate John McGuire. Delegate McGuire voted to notify ICE when undocumented Virginians are in police custody. He is also anti-choice. His position on other progressive priorities is unclear.

Juanita Jo Matkins is the more progressive choice in this race.