This election will be held on November 4, 2025. Democrat Sara Ratcliffe and Republican Karen Hamilton will face off in HD-62.

Virginia’s House District 62 spans parts of Culpeper County, all of Greene County, portions of Orange County, and all of Madison County in Virginia’s Piedmont region. In the 2024 election it remained a strong Republican district by comfortable double‐digit margins

Democrat Sara Ratcliffe is a Greene County resident and advocate. She was raised by a single mother, whom she became a caregiver for at a young age. Ratcliffe also became the primary caregiver of her father. She holds a B.A. in Political Science with a concentration in United States domestic policy from George Washington University. She worked as a political research assistant and has worked with legislators at every level of government. Ratcliffe and her husband have one son. 

Constitutional Amendments
Sara Ratcliffe will fight to protect abortion access and keep reproductive decisions a person and their healthcare provider.

Education
Sara Ratcliffe pledges to champion high-quality K-12 public education. She supports raising teacher pay and investing in early childhood education funding and. She also looks to increase skills training and apprenticeship programs and support for local community colleges.

Economy and Inflation
Ratcliffe advocates for paid medical leave and paid family leave and affordable, quality childcare. She wants to support small business and farmers, as well as job protection and creation for small-town Virginia. She fights for limiting overdevelopment and preserving rural natural resources.

Health and Human Services
Ratcliffe prioritizes access to local, affordable healthcare options and community-based mental health treatment options. She wants to see better rural healthcare accessibility and more options and flexibility for elder care. She advocates for affordable prescription drugs and substance abuse counseling, covered by insurance. Ratcliffe also wants to ensure that support and services are especially accessible to veterans.

Other Issues
Sarah Ratcliffe vows to foster communication between law enforcement and the community. She supports commonsense, bipartisan policies to prevent gun violence. She also advocates for protecting the LGBTQ community from harm and harassment. Additionally, she wants to increase highway and traffic safety, encourage sustainable farming, and expand broadband access and strong cellular service.

The Opposition

Republican Karen Hamilton is a small business owner and daughter of Christian missionaries. She holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. After graduating, she worked as a structural engineer. She and her husband, who is currently serving in the Trump Administration, have three children. 

Karen Hamilton will not support HJ 1, which would enshrine reproductive rights in the Virginia Constitution. She states that enshrining abortion rights “subverts the very concept of rights.”

Karen Hamilton pledges to fight for better pay for teachers, as well as school choice as a way for public schools to compete for students. She homeschools her children. Hamilton wants to support our farmers by scaling back regulations and climate initiatives. She also wants to lower taxes and reduce regulations. Hamilton has expressed her support for federal law enforcement arresting immigrants. She will seek to repeal commonsense gun laws and oppose new legislation.

Recommendation

Based on her advocacy for quality public education, gun violence prevention, and affordable healthcare, Sara Ratcliffe is the progressive candidate in this race.