House District 085

Democratic candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe, was the 72nd Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2014 to 2018. McAuliffe was unable to seek reelection in 2017 due to a state law that bars sitting governors from serving consecutive terms. McAuliffe attended The Catholic University of America and Georgetown University Law Center. A lifelong businessman and entrepreneur, McAuliffe has lived in Fairfax County for more than 20 years with his wife, Dorothy. The couple has raised five children together.

McAuliffe is centering his campaign on building a strong Virginia economy that works for everyone. He plans to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024, two years ahead of the current schedule. He wants to require employers to provide paid sick days along with paid family and medical leave to all workers. Because Virginia is the 10th most expensive state for childcare in the country, McAuliffe wants to assist families burdened with childcare costs by providing subsidies, funneling federal money to families, and making it easier for people to qualify for assistance.

McAuliffe plans to invest $2 billion in Virginia’s education system every year so that teachers are paid above the national average, children have access to universal pre-K, and every student can get online. To make college more affordable to students, McAuliffe will offer more financial aid and expand on current Governor Ralph Northam’s program that makes community college free to low- and middle-income students studying in certain fields. McAuliffe also wants to boost enrollment at Historically Black Colleges and Universities by providing free tuition to students who promise to teach for five years in the state’s high-need areas.

While serving as Governor of Virginia, McAuliffe took action to reduce carbon emissions in the state and received a $120.5 million federal grant to combat the rising sea level on Virginia’s coast. He wants Virginia to reach 100% clean energy by 2035 and make access to clean energy and transportation infrastructure more affordable by providing subsidies for solar usage and public transit construction. McAuliffe also plans to address the racial impacts of climate change by providing funding to communities hit by extreme heat and rising sea levels.

McAuliffe pushed for Medicaid expansion during his first term and wants to increase access to affordable healthcare by supporting Virginia’s plan to create a state-run health insurance marketplace. He backs lowering prescription drug costs, reducing health insurance premiums, and creating a Medicaid buy-in option for people who make too much to qualify for the program but still can’t afford out-of-pocket costs on the marketplace. When he was governor, McAuliffe vetoed Republican legislation that would have limited abortion access. If reelected, McAuliffe plans to incorporate Roe v. Wade into Virginia’s constitution to guarantee that abortion access is protected.

McAuliffe is running against multimillionaire Republican Glenn Youngkin, the former president of Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. Youngkin wants to channel the state’s money from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to fund private schools. Youngkin has admitted that he opposes abortion access and will work to dismantle protections for reproductive freedom in the Commonwealth. Youngkin is also against making health coverage more affordable in Virginia.

McAuliffe is also facing a challenge from activist and educator Princess Blanding, an Independent candidate. Blanding is the sister of Marcus David-Peters, a young Black man who was killed by police in 2018. Blanding wants to hold police accountable by ending qualified immunity and shifting funding away from police departments to invest in community services. She also wants to make health coverage more affordable by creating a public healthcare system.

Due to his record in providing leadership for the Commonwealth and his support of Virginia working families, the environment, affordable health coverage, and reproductive rights, Terry McAuliffe is the most progressive choice in this race.

The daughter of a Salvadorian and North African immigrant father and a Lebanese and Irish mother, Delegate Hala Ayala was one of the first Latina women elected to the House of Delegates, having one her first election to represent the 51st District in 2017. She worked for over 20 years as a cybersecurity specialist and is the single mother of two grown children. If chosen by voters to be the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Ayala will be the first woman and Afro-Latina to do so.

Affordable access to healthcare is a central focus for Ayala. As a first-time mother, Ayala depended on Medicaid to give her son life-saving care. In 2018, Ayala voted to expand Medicaid to 400,000 Virginians. In 2020, she co-patroned legislation to cap the cost of insulin in the state. In 2021, she voted to make the cost of prescription drugs transparent and to boost Virginia’s capacity to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. She also wants to reduce Black maternal mortality and create a universal paid family and medical leave program in the Commonwealth.

As a graduate of Prince William County schools, Ayala believes that a well-funded education system is critical to a thriving Commonwealth. In 2021, she voted to increase teachers’ salaries by 5%. She also supported the “Get Skilled, Get a Job, Give Back (G3) Fund and Program, which provides free community college to low- and middle-income students who are studying in certain fields. As lieutenant governor, Ayala will prioritize expanding access to pre-K, reducing overcrowding in classrooms, and dedicate more funding to improve school infrastructure.

Recognizing the climate crisis as a national security threat, Ayala believes the state needs to play a bigger role in addressing the impacts of climate change. She co-patroned the Virginia Clean Economy Act in 2020, which will eliminate carbon emissions in the Commonwealth by 2050. She also wants to dedicate more funding to communities dealing firsthand with the effects of climate change, believing that solutions to the crisis must be created with racial equity in mind.

Ayala personally understands how hard it is for families to make ends meet. Her family struggled financially when she was a child, and she worked and raised children while obtaining her degree. In 2020, Ayala voted to raise the state’s minimum wage. She supports making paid family and medical leave available to all Virginia working families. In 2021, she voted to strengthen the rights of tenants and protect them from eviction during the pandemic. She also sponsored legislation to protect workers during the pandemic by requiring employers to provide them with personal protective equipment and hazard pay.

Ayala is running against former delegate Winsome Sears, a Republican who represented Norfolk in the House of Delegates from 2002 to 2003. Sears owns a plumbing and appliance repair store in Winchester. Sears opposes legislation that would make our communities safer from gun violence. She also supports using public money to fund private schools and wants to create deliberate barriers to voting access that make it more difficult for people to participate in our democracy.

Due to her support of affordable health coverage, the environment, public education, and Virginia working families, Delegate Hala Ayala is the most progressive choice for lieutenant governor in Virginia.

Incumbent Attorney General Mark Herring is seeking his third term in office after having been first elected in 2013. Raised by a single mother in Loudoun County, Herring obtained a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the University of Virginia before earning his law degree from the University of Richmond School of Law. He and his wife of 30 years, Laura, raised two children together.

Herring has stood up for access to affordable healthcare by fighting off efforts by the Trump administration to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In 2021, Herring defended the ACA by joining a coalition of 21 attorneys general to argue in front of the U.S. Supreme Court against a lawsuit from the Trump administration that would have dismantled the ACA, protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and Medicaid expansion.

Herring is a champion of reproductive rights and abortion access, and has used his office to support a person’s right to decide when and whether to become a parent. He has signed onto several lawsuits that challenge different states’ restrictive abortion laws. He issued an opinion in 2015 to strike down medically unnecessary Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws that shuttered women’s health centers in the Commonwealth. In 2019, he successfully filed an injunction against the Trump administration’s efforts to halt contraceptive coverage in health insurance.

Herring has worked to keep our communities safe from gun violence by standing up to the gun lobby. In 2020, he defended two common-sense laws passed by the General Assembly aimed at preventing gun violence, the one-handgun-a-month law, and extended background checks. The same year, he also successfully defended a challenge to Virginia’s extreme risk protection law, which keeps guns out of the hands of people who pose a risk to themselves or others.

During his time in office, Herring has fought to keep the promise of democracy real by protecting access to the ballot box. This year, he applauded the passage of the Voting Rights Act of Virginia and joined other attorneys general in urging Congress to pass safeguards that guarantee people’s rights to participate in our democracy by voting. In 2020, he ensured that voters did not face intimidation while casting their ballots in our fair and free elections. In 2016, he defended a decision from former Governor Terry McAuliffe to restore the rights of returning citizens in the Commonwealth.

Herring is facing a challenge from Delegate Jason Miyares, a conservative Republican who wants to create deliberate barriers to voting access, undermine workers’ rights by keeping Virginia a right-to-work state, and oppose efforts to shift funding away from police budgets to community services. As a delegate, Miyares voted against raising the state’s minimum wage, expanding access to affordable healthcare to hundreds of thousands of Virginians, abolishing the death penalty, and legalizing marijuana. He also opposes abortion access.

Due to his support of access to affordable healthcare, abortion access, gun violence prevention, and voting rights, Attorney General Mark Herring is the most progressive choice for this race.

Gabe Morgan has served as the sheriff of the City of Newport News since 2006 and is currently serving his fourth term. Morgan is a graduate of the University of the State of New York at Albany, the Army's Command and General Staff College, and the 90th Session of the National Sheriff's Institute. He is an army veteran with over 21 years of service. As Sheriff, he manages a staff of more than 200 workers and oversees multi-million-dollar budgets.

Morgan has worked to address issues of overcrowding during his term as Sheriff. He lobbied for legislation that allowed the City of Newport news an exemption on the moratorium on jail expansion and construction. He was a leading decision in creating a jail annex that served as a rehabilitation facility. He also worked with the city council to add over 200 additional bed spaces for inmates in need through his jail annex expansion project.

Under his leadership, the sheriff’s office has partnered with other local, city, state, and federal agencies. He established a crisis intervention team that sends trained professionals to respond to situations involving a mental health crisis, alleviating jail as an immediate solution. His office has also partnered with the federal government to prioritize returning soldiers with employment opportunities. He continues to work with and support local civic organizations to meet community needs better.

Morgan continues to work towards improving and enhancing existing correctional programs to reduce recidivism in Newport News. The sheriff's office’s primary initiative has been to work with the Newport News Public School system to improve the jail’s GED program; these efforts have led to more inmates obtaining their GED degrees while serving their time. His office has also increased the number of drug rehabilitation classes provided and created a work-release program.

He also works to ensure the environmental health and safety of all inmates. His office has invested in a purification system that would destroy nearly any airborne disease, virus, bacteria, and mold species. He also created a K-9 unit that tackles the flow of incoming drugs into the jail. He invested in an emergency evacuation chair to assist disabled inmates in case of an emergency evacuation. He also remodeled and replaced existing jail infrastructure to address health and wellness issues for staff and inmates.


Sheriff Gabe Morgan is running unopposed. Due to his initiatives towards inmate rehabilitation and alternate response units to mental health issues, he is the progressive choice in this race.

Newport News native Howard Gwynn has served as commonwealth’s attorney since 1990. He obtained his bachelor’s from Dartmouth College and his law degree from the University of Michigan.

Gwynn is a member of the Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice, a group of eleven Commonwealth’s Attorneys advocating for criminal justice reform. He supports legislation to expunged records of qualified individuals, ending the three-strikes felony enhancement for petty larceny offenses, and ending cash bail.

No further information was available at the time of this publication.

Howard Gwynn is running unopposed. Due to his membership in the Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice and his commitment to criminal reform, Gwynn is the progressive choice in this election.

Taylor Boyle has served as the commissioner of the revenue since 2018. Boyle comes from a military background; her father is a retired Air Force Sergeant. She has been a resident of Newport News for over 20 years. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Wesleyan College and a master’s degree from the University of Maryland University College. She currently serves as chair of the Hampton Roads district of the Commissioners of the Revenue Association of Virginia. Boyle is the mother of a high school-aged daughter.

As Commissioner of the Revenue, Boyle is dedicated to the effective and efficient usage of tax dollars. She seeks to educate residents on changes to tax codes and business processes. Her office also offers taxpayers various workshops including tax preparation, owning a small business, and obtaining a business license. She has also committed herself to attend the General Assembly to lobby on behalf of taxpayers. Her office also allows for constituent outreach through initiatives such as the Labor Education Entrepreneurship Diversity workshop. Boyle was an instrumental member in creating the first statewide minority business commission.

Her office is also working towards more open transparent practices. In doing so, she plans to continue to update all technology and information literature. She also promises to be more visible on social media platforms as a way of communicating with community members. She created an annual newsletter that keeps citizens and businesses updated on taxpayer dollars. She has also started a number of programs and initiatives geared towards more community engagement.


Tiffany Boyle is running unopposed. Due to her commitment to educating small business owners and transparent tax practices, Boyle is the progressive choice in this election.