City of Chesapeake

Kim Melnyk was raised in Virginia Beach and earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Longwood University. She taught at several Virginia Beach schools for more than a decade and currently serves as vice-chair of the Virginia Beach School Board. She is a member of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church. Melnyk and her husband reside in Christopher Farms of Virginia Beach, where they own a manufacturing company. The couple has three children, all of whom have attended local schools.

Educational equity is a top priority for Kim Melnyk, and she hopes to translate her successes as a school board member to the General Assembly. She will push for fully-funded public education in the Commonwealth, including special education and full-day kindergarten. Melnyk wants to ensure that students are provided with the mental and behavioral health services they need. She also supports raising teacher pay up to the national average to attract the best talent and prevent high turnover.

As a resident of a coastal area, Melnyk understands the urgency of the climate crisis and will use legislative action to tackle the issue. Melnyk will advocate for better infrastructure to address rising sea levels and flooding in the district. She also wants to direct resources to local farmers who are impacted by flooding and prepare them for the future. She supports efforts to educate young people on protecting the environment, becoming better stewards of Virginia’s natural resources, and envisioning a sustainable future.

Melnyk has been directly impacted by gun violence and supports keeping communities safe by passing common-sense gun violence prevention measures like universal background checks, waiting periods for gun purchases, and closing existing loopholes that make it easy to obtain guns. She also wants to ban the sale of ghost guns and keep guns out of the wrong hands of people deemed to be a risk for themselves or others.

Melnyk wants to make access to quality, affordable healthcare a reality for all households in the district. She will work to protect people with pre-existing conditions and lower prescription drugs costs. She will fight to protect access to reproductive healthcare and abortion. Melnyk believes ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment in Virginia was a great step toward ensuring equality for women and wants to ensure women can remain in the workforce by implementing paid family and medical leave.

Melnyk is challenging Republican incumbent Delegate Glen Davis who has represented the district since 2014. In 2020, Davis opposed raising the minimum wage and the Virginia Clean Economy Act. This year the delegate voted against marijuana legalization, the abolition of the death penalty, and the Voting Rights Act of Virginia.

Due to her support of public education, the environment, access to affordable healthcare, reproductive rights, and gun violence prevention, Melnyk is the most progressive choice in this race.

Virginia’s new 89th House of Delegates district encompasses parts of Chesapeake City and parts of Suffolk City. With over 64,000 registered voters, this district is a competitive district that doesn’t lean in one direction or another.

Incumbent Delegate Angelia Williams Graves has represented the 90th District since a special election in January 2021. Prior to her election, Del. Graves served on the Norfolk City Council for ten years and as vice mayor of Norfolk for three years. She attended Tidewater Community College and Old Dominion University, graduating with a degree in business administration and marketing. She owns her own realty company and has two sons. She’s a member of Grove Baptist Church.

In the General Assembly, Del. Williams Graves advocates for equitable criminal justice reform. She was chief patron of a bill to strengthen civilian oversight of sheriff’s offices, covering a loophole in previous bills and ensuring all law enforcement officers are held accountable. She introduced legislation to expand an individual’s access to a lawyer to include their first court appearance and bail hearing. She voted to legalize marijuana and wants to ensure that legalization is done equitably to support Black and Brown communities ravaged by the Drug War.

Williams Graves supports making the promise of democracy real for us all by expanding access to the ballot. She was a chief co-patron of legislation that allows localities to expand access to early voting on Sundays. She fought to keep voters safe and healthy during the pandemic by removing the requirement for a witness signature on absentee ballots during an emergency and establishing dropboxes available for voters to leave their ballots. She voted for the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, which prohibits discrimination at the polls.

Serving on the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee, Williams Graves advocates for environmental protection and understands the threat of rising sea levels to her district. She worked with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to ensure Virginia’s rivers and bays are clean and protected from polluters. She voted in favor of a bill that establishes new fuel efficiency standards and mandates car manufacturers produce a certain percentage of low- and zero-emission vehicles, supporting the Commonwealth’s transition to relying on 100% renewable energy.

Williams Graves has also been an advocate for the rights of workers and tenants, ensuring everyone can afford to live and work in Virginia. She voted in favor of a successful bill to establish a housing tax credit for low-income individuals. She voted in favor of expanded legal protections from foreclosures for individuals living in mobile home parks. Williams Graves also received the “Family Friendly Seal of Approval” from the Virginia Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy for her commitment to expanding options for childcare, eldercare, paid sick days, and family leave.

Williams Graves is facing a challenge from Sylvia Bryant (R), a local mother and business administrator for a construction company. Bryant supports using taxpayer money to fund private education. She opposes a person’s right to decide when and whether to become a parent and is against keeping our communities safe with common-sense measures to prevent gun violence.

Due to her advocacy for equitable criminal justice reform, working families, the environment, and voting access, Del. Angelia Williams Graves is the most progressive choice for this race.

Incumbent Delegate Martha Mugler was first elected to the House of Delegates in 2019. She is a native of Hampton and worked in higher education and banking. She spent 12 years on the Hampton School Board, serving as chair of the board for four years. She’s passionate about improving the lives of children and is involved with the Downtown Hampton Child Development Center Board and No Kid Hungry, among other organizations. She is also a proud mother and grandmother.

Since her election, Mugler has voted for environmental protections and facilitated Virginia’s transition to relying on 100% renewable energy sources. She voted in favor of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which facilitates Virginia’s power grid relying on renewable sources by 2050. To help with this process, Mugler was chief patron of a bill that established the Division of Offshore Wind to manage wind energy projects and established Hampton Roads as a location for future offshore wind generation. These projects will be critical to Virginia’s transition to renewable energy as well as create many new jobs in the wind industry.

As a member of the House Education Committee, Mugler has fought for quality and well-funded education at all levels, from early childhood to higher education. She is proud of her work on the budget to increase teacher salaries, giving all teachers a 5% raise. She’s dedicated to ensuring that Virginia pays teachers more than the national average and believes that having competitive salaries will help the state recruit and retain high-quality educators. Mugler also worked to add $88 million dollars to the budget for early childhood education and expanded opportunities for financial aid for in-state college and university students.

Additionally, Mugler wants to boost opportunities for working families. She voted to raise the minimum wage in 2020. She successfully patroned legislation to expand child care subsidies in the Commonwealth by doubling the income threshold for individuals eligible for subsidies and expanded it to individuals looking for work. Mugler received the “Family Friendly Seal of Approval” from the Virginia Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy for her dedication to expanding options for paid family and medical leave.

Mugler has also worked to increase access to affordable healthcare. She voted in favor of capping the price of insulin at $50. She voted for legislation to end surprise billing so that there is more transparency about medical costs. She supports expanded access to reproductive healthcare and voted in favor of requiring insurance companies to cover abortions. She voted to establish a state-run health insurance marketplace, which helps uninsured or underinsured residents who aren’t covered by an employer-provided health plan to get affordable coverage. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she advocated for expanded protections for sick leave for healthcare workers.

Mugler’s opponent is Republican A.C. Cordoza, an Air Force veteran who works in cybersecurity and serves as vice-chairman of the Hampton Republican Party. He opposes common-sense gun safety legislation and supports using taxpayer money to fund private education through school voucher programs. Cordoza does not believe that the rich and wealthy corporations that have benefitted from our communities should have to pay their fair share in taxes.

Due to her support of the environment, public education, working families, and access to affordable healthcare, Delegate Martha Mugler is the most progressive choice for Virginia’s 91st District.

Incumbent Delegate Jeion Ward has represented the 92nd District since 2004. A native of Hampton Roads, she attended Thomas Nelson Community College before graduating from Christopher Newport University. She became a teacher and is the president of the Hampton Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 4260. She is active in the Hampton Branch NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Hampton Democratic Committee. She is married to her high school sweetheart with whom she has three sons.

Ward is a strong advocate for working families and serves as chair of the House Labor and Commerce Committee. She successfully sponsored legislation to raise Virginia’s minimum wage in 2020. She fought the following year to remove a Jim Crow-era exemption that bars farmworkers from earning the minimum wage but was unsuccessful. Ward supports the right of workers to form unions and voted for legislation to allow municipal employees to collectively bargain. She also wants to repeal Virginia’s right-to-work law.

Ward voted in favor of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which will facilitate Virginia’s transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050. She also supported the creation of new emission standards for cars and requiring car manufacturers to produce a certain percentage of low- and zero-emission vehicles. She voted in favor of the creation of a rebate for individuals who purchase electric vehicles, incentivizing the use of efficient transportation. Additionally, she is working on expanding the state’s vehicle charging infrastructure.

As a middle school teacher, Ward believes in the importance of a well-funded education system. She voted for 5% raises for teachers, which she sees as a critical step for addressing the teacher shortage in Hampton and statewide. She supports increasing funding to allow for smaller class sizes, particularly for younger students who benefit from more teacher-student interaction. She also voted for additional funding for schools so they can reopen safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ward wants to keep communities safe with common-sense measures to prevent gun violence. She was chief patron of a successful bill to establish a one-handgun-per-month purchase limit. She also supported universal background checks and the right of localities to regulate the possession of firearms, along with other gun violence prevention legislation passed in 2020. She voted in favor of abolishing the death penalty in Virginia and for the legalization of marijuana.

Ward is facing a challenge from Republican Benjamin Siff. He opposes a person’s right to decide when and whether to become a parent and the Virginia Clean Economy Act. Siff supports using taxpayer money to fund private education through school voucher programs. He also opposes policies to make our public schools welcoming and inclusive places.

Due to her support of working families, the environment, gun violence prevention, and public education, Delegate Jeion Ward is the most progressive choice in this race for the 92nd District.

Chesapeake is an independent city located in Hampton Roads. It is surrounded by Norfolk and Portsmouth to the north, Suffolk to the west, and Virginia Beach to the east. It is the second most populous independent city in Virginia. The city has close to 175,000 registered voters. The city skews Republican, though it is considered a bellwether.