Senate District 005

Incumbent Senator Lionell Spruill is a lifelong Virginian and Democrat. He was born in Norfolk and received an Honorary Doctorate from Norfolk University. Senator Spruill was a member of several civic leagues in the state, which led to his appointment as Chairman of the Chesapeake City Council in 1988. He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1994 and the state Senate in 2016.

Senator Spruill is pro-choice and has voted against personhood bills and mandatory ultrasounds before abortion. He supports legislation like the Virginia Energy Plan that would have put a 15 year pause on offshore oil drilling and encouraged clean energy options. Senator Spruill voted to expand Medicaid in Virginia and supports raising wages for Virginia families. He passed legislation to close Jim Crow loopholes in Virginia law that exempted some professions from the state minimum wage.

His opponent, Jeff Staples, is running as an independent. Staples supports ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment and expanding healthcare access. He does not have a clear stance on immigration, reproductive health, economic opportunity, or other progressive issues.

Senator Spruill is the progressive choice in this race.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn has served in the House of Delegates since 2010. She is currently the Minority Leader, the first woman to hold that role. Delegate Filler-Corn is a member of the Rules, Finance, and Commerce & Labor Committees. Prior to her election as Minority Leader, she served as Vice Chair for Outreach of the House Democratic Caucus and the House Democratic Whip.

Delegate Filler-Corn is an advocate for abortion access and has supported bills that would increase birth control access and promote consent-based sex education. She supports gun violence prevention and she sponsored a bill that would have eliminated sales tax from gun sales under $1,000. She also sponsored a bill that would have increased the felony threshold to $1000, ensuring that people who make a one-time mistake aren’t branded a felon for the rest of their lives. Delegate Filler-Corn also supports increasing the minimum wage so that all Virginians can afford to live with dignity. She was a strong supporter of Medicaid expansion.

Delegate Filler-Corn is being challenged by Rachel Mace, a Libertarian, and John Wolfe, an Independent. Mace is against gun violence prevention. She also is opposed to meals taxes that help fund important projects like affordable housing. Additionally, she opposes the elimination of student debt, but offers no solutions to the student loan debt crisis. Little information is available on Wolfe’s positions on key issues.

Delegate Filler-Corn is the more progressive choice in this race because of her support of abortion access, criminal justice reform, and Medicaid expansion.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Kathy Tran was elected to the House of Delegates in 2017. She is one of the 15 progressive candidates who were elected that year. Tran and her parents came to the United States as refugees from Vietnam when she was a child. Delegate Tran and her husband, Matt, live in West Springfield with their four children, Daven, Charlotte, Quinn, and Elise.

Tran is a strong progressive champion who supports access to abortion, gun violence prevention, immigrant rights, clean renewable energy, and investments in public education. She sponsored a bill to ban assault weapons in the commonwealth.

Republican candidate Steve Adragna is running against Delegate Tran. He believes the government should be as small as possible and that taxes should not be used to create a safety net for the most vulnerable members of our communities. Adragna does not support access to abortion. He would not have supported expanding Medicaid and does not believe that the government should be responsible for finding solutions to our health care crisis.

Delegate Tran has been a strong champion for Virginia families and is the progressive choice in this race.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Mark Sickles has served in the House of Delegates since 2004. He currently sits on several committees centering the environment, including the House committees on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources, and the Energy and Environment Commission. He also sits on the Appropriations committee and the Privileges and Elections committee.

Delegate Sickles is a member of the LGBTQ community and co-sponsored a bill that would criminalize discrimination based on sexual or gender identity. He also voted against a bill that would allow adoption agencies to discriminate based on sexual or gender identity. Delegate Sickles has voted against requiring specific, state issued photo IDs for voting, a bill that made it harder for some people to make their voices heard in our democracy. He is a supporter of the immigrant community and voted against legislation that prohibited sanctuary cities in Virginia. Delegate Sickles also supports access to abortion and affordable health care access for everyone. He voted for Medicaid expansion, which allowed an additional 300,000 Virginians to see a doctor when they need to.

Delegate Sickles is running against Independent G. Gail Parker. Parker’s primary stance as a member of the Green Party is mandated clean energy and usage of renewable resources.

Delegate Sickles is the more progressive choice in this race because of his positions on health care access, equality, and voting rights.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Charniele Herring was elected to the General Assembly in January 2009 in a special election. She was the first African American woman from Northern Virginia to be elected to the House of Delegates. She graduated from George Mason University with a degree in economics. She later went to law school and she currently works as General Counsel for a government contracting firm.

Since her election, Delegate Herring has supported fair, affordable housing, education, and affordable health care access. She was a strong supporter of Medicaid expansion and voted to allow an additional 300,000 Virginians to see a doctor when they need to. She is also in favor of renewable energy resources. Delegate Herring has been a champion for abortion access and founded the Legislative Reproductive Health Caucus. Additionally, she has consistently fought for gun violence prevention.

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