Rae Cousins is a lawyer and candidate for the House of Delegates. She graduated from The College of William & Mary and Howard University School of Law. Cousins has worked at BrownGreer, a local law firm in Richmond, where she manages the administration of multi-million- and billion-dollar settlement programs for people injured by harmful drugs and medical devices and environmental disasters. She has a passion for voter registration and has worked on voter registration drives throughout the city. Cousins is endorsed by Governor Ralph Northam, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Delegate Jay Jones, and many other organizations and unions, including the Working Families Party, Bold Progressives, and the National Women's Political Caucus of Virginia.

Cousins promises to be a strong voice for tenants’ rights. Her plans to enhance tenants' rights include increasing the inventory of affordable housing and supporting people who want to stay in their communities despite rising tax revenues and costs of living. She also seeks to keep utility prices down and address environmental hazards that disproportionately affect low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. To achieve this, she plans to ensure more urban green space, invest in clean energy, and fight for transparency and community input in the decisions behind new development projects.

With the Commonwealth one election away from bans on abortion access, Cousins understands that the time is now to enshrine reproductive rights into law. She will advocate for the right to an abortion and the use of contraceptive methods, and she will be a champion for reproductive health on the floor of the Virginia House of Delegates. She also aims to expand affordable quality healthcare for all Virginians and promote preventative healthcare, access to fresh and healthy foods, and enhanced maternal health care services. She supports or sponsors legislation aimed at ensuring paid family and medical leave and will not compromise with Republicans seeking to dismantle public healthcare for low-income Virginians and the elderly.

Cousins believes that all Virginians deserve to feel safe in our neighborhoods. As Delegate, she will work to enhance sensible gun violence prevention measures to keep our streets safe. She will also work to eradicate the school-to-prison pipeline, invest in after-school enrichment programs, provide funding for programs that support individuals with felony convictions as they reenter society, and work with community stakeholders and law enforcement to implement data driven policies that cut to the root cause of crime in our neighborhoods.

As a lawyer committed to equal justice, Cousins understands that a good education is the foundation for economic opportunity. She is committed to defending public education and to renewing our commitment to our students by modernizing technology and maintaining our school buildings. As delegate, Cousins will defend public education from Gov. Youngkin’s so-called “school choice” policies, which amount to defunding our public schools. Cousins is also committed to securing funding for career and technical skills training for Richmond’s young people, universal pre-K and early childhood care, and increased teacher pay. She will work to ensure that all students, regardless of their gender or sexual identity, feel at home in Virginia.

There are no other candidates on the ballot in this race, but given Cousins’ commitment to ensuring access to healthcare for all Virginians, her support of common sense gun violence prevention legislation, and her advocacy for tenant’s rights, Cousins is decidedly the progressive choice. This recommendation remains in line with Progress Virginia’s endorsement of Cousins in the Democratic primary.
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