Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com  Look at the recent Political Notes and Len’s Letters on the website.  Political Note #380 Seven Vulnerable Virginia Democrats, Political Note #395 Four More Vulnerable Virginia Delegates, Political Note #403 Six Virginia Democrats Planning to Flip Republican Delegate Seats

July 8, 2021           Six Virginia Democrats Planning to flip Republican Delegate Seats

2021                         General Election

Challengers

Debra Gardner        Jasmine Gore               Katie Sponsler

Jeff Feld                       Kimberly Melnyk          Finale Norton

The Virginia House of Delegates has a 55-45 Democratic majority.  Protecting that majority requires protecting every one of the vulnerable members and working to flip some Republican seats besides.   So far, I’ve written urging you to support eleven members of the Democratic majority. Now here are six challengers:   Debra Gardner HD27, Jasmine Gore HD62, Katie Sponsler HD 66, Jeffrey Feld HD81, Kimberly Melnyk HD84, and Finale Norton HD100.

Debra Gardner HD27 https://debragardnerfordelegate.com is the Democratic nominee to challenge Republican Roxann Robinson in this district south of Richmond. Debra Gardner has lived in Chesterfield County for more than thirty years.  Her BA is from North Carolina Central University. She has an MPA from Virginia Commonwealth University where she now occasionally teaches executive leadership.  She has had several state-wide leadership positions.  She worked for the Virginia Commission on Alcohol Safety Action Program for 21 years, the last seven as Executive Director of the Commission.  In 2010, she became the Chief Deputy Director of the Commonwealth’s Department of Criminal Justice Services.  In 2011, she became Chief Deputy Director of the Commonwealth’s Department of Corrections.  In 2014, she became the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer of Human Services for the City of Richmond, a position she held until 2017.

Debra Gardner is facing an opponent who was elected in 2010 with 72% of the vote. Not so much recently, though.  in 2017 the incumbent won by a margin of 124 votes and by less than 200 votes in 2019.  If Debra Gardner can oust Robinson, she will be the rare African American elected to represent a majority white district in Virginia – in this case, a district which is more than 70% white and only 20% Black.  She begins her campaign with a focus on the Commonwealth recovering from Covid-19.  She emphasizes the importance of an education and a criminal justice system that people will trust.  She’ll need to earn enough trust from her electorate to get past that 50% mark.

Jasmine Gore HD62 https://www.gorefordelegate.com is running for delegate in this district well south of Richmond.  Routes 95 and 295 go north and south through the district.  Route 85 meets Route 95 south of Petersburg and Fort Lee – all of which are south of the southern border of the district. Hopewell, the town Jasmine Gore has served as mayor, is on the east central border of the district. She is running against the incumbent Republican – a member of the Chesterfield County School board beginning in 2011 who was elected as a delegate in 2019 with 55% of the vote.  The incumbent will not be easy to defeat in this district with a Republican lean.  She will be especially difficult to defeat because she has more than $125,000 on hand for her campaign while Jasmine Gore doesn’t have much.

Jasmine Gore graduated from high school in 2004.  She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and completed an internship with then-Delegate Jennifer McClellan.  She returned home to Hopewell and joined organizations and boards, created a website for herself and ran for City Council.  She was the first woman elected to represent Ward 4 and the youngest City Councilor ever.  She had argued the importance of bringing new blood to the City Council and had made her youth an asset.  She served for six years on the Council and served briefly as Vice-Mayor.  She was elected by her peers (older peers) as Mayor by a 4-3 margin.  She took the vote as a mandate.  She worked to put an end to two local scandals, improved the city’s capacity to rely on technology, and took advantage of a Robert Wood Johnson grant and participation in the Cities of Opportunity Program to improve the city’s approach to health, housing, economic opportunity, and workforce development.  Now she is attempting to take her local success to a state position.

Katie Sponsler HD66 https://www.katiesponsler.com/ is the Democratic nominee for an open Republican seat.  The seat had been held for years by Kirk Cox, once Speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates, this year a candidate, but not the Republican nominee for Governor.  The district’s southern border is Petersburg, from which it extends north toward Richmond west of Route 95.  With Cox as Delegate, the district was the bluest district in Virginia with a Republican incumbent. His retirement creates a good opportunity for a Democrat to win this district that is 60% white and 35% African America.

Katie Sponsler grew up in as blue collar a community as you can get. If Katie Sponsler had remained in her hometown of Warren Ohio, Tim Ryan would be her Congressman.  Her father was an auto worker. Her mother was a secretary.  She was the youngest of seven children, married and divorced young, a single mother, a weapons loader in the US Air Force, and, back in Ohio, a Park Ranger and a student at Youngstown State.  In Virginia, with a new partner since 2011, now a mother of two, she has been an activist and advocate for health care services, racial justice, gun violence prevention, education, labor, and the environment wherever she lived and whatever else she was doing.  Her opponent describes himself as a Conservative Christian fighter who will never back down.

Jeffrey Feld HD81 http://feldfordelegate.com is running against a Republican incumbent who was first elected in 2009.  The district is U shaped.  The left arm is south of Norfolk and east of the Great Dismal Swamp.  The right arm is south of Virginia Beach.  The base is north of Maycock and Knott’s Island.  The district is almost evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.  Jeffrey Feld, a podiatrist, has been in Virginia Beach for about 20 years. Before creating his own practice, now in multiple locations, he worked in Virginia at Veteran’s Administration facilities.

Jeffrey Feld is running against an opponent whose victory margin has been dwindling and won his seat most recently by 970 votes.  Jeffrey Feld has been active in the community – through youth sports and cub scouts, providing medical care at local nursing homes.  His run for school board was unsuccessful, but the electorate for Delegate has less of a Republican lean.  He brings a commitment to accessible health care, higher quality education, to addressing climate change and coping with the flooding caused by climate change in his district.

Kimberly Melnyk HD84 https://kimfordelegate.com , is a former Republican. She and her Republican opponent, Glenn Davis are part of the story about change in Virginia.  Glenn Davis was elected Delegate in 2013.  He won reelection in 2019 by only 500 votes.  Virginia allows a Delegate to run for reelection and for state office at the same time.  Davis lost his effort to become the Republican nominee for Lt. Governor, so he’s back.  Kim Melnyk was a prominent Republican in her own right.  As a Republican, she was President of the Virginia Beach School Board.  Her last Republican donation was in 2018.  She’s running in a district which is 65% white, 20% Black, and 10% Asian.

Kimberly Melnyk’s candidacy is controversial among Democrats.  She beat out a Filipina-American for the nomination and has been criticized for that by Democrats who preferred a person of color and a long-time Democrat as the nominee. One Democrat’s reaction was to say that Kimberly Melnyk was a nice person, but really should have run as an Independent when she left the Republican Party rather than as a Democrat.  How Democratic is Kimberly Melnyk?  She says affordable, quality health care is a human right and should be available to every Virginian.  She is proud of her record on the Virginia Beach School Board – creating universally available full day kindergarten, responding to the pandemic by ensuring that every child had a Chrome book to participate in online learning, and expressing praise for the statewide raise for teachers. She joins those who acknowledge the flooding caused by climate change and the need to fight climate change and to take steps to prevent flooding.  She has praise for the Democratic governor’s initiatives for the economy and discusses the importance of gun safety initiatives – background checks, waiting periods for the purchase of guns, and closing gun show loopholes.  She sounds like a Democrat to me.

Finale Norton HD 100 https://norton4delegate.com is running in a district with a Republican Delegate.  Still… Democratic US Senator Tim Kaine carried the district in 2018 by 10 points.  And Democratic Governor Ralph Northam carried the district in 2017 by 7 points.  In 2021, it is not unreasonable to think that a Democratic candidate for Delegate could defeat a Republican incumbent.  Virginia’s eastern shore is a peninsula extending from a peninsula.  The larger peninsular is mostly Maryland, with Delaware in its northeast corner.  The smaller peninsula is in Virginia and, for this purpose, is Virginia’s District 100.  From the southern tip of the peninsula, it is less than a half hour drive to Norfolk and longer to Hampton because there is no direct bridge from the peninsula to Hampton.

Finale Norton is Virginia eastern shore local.  African Americans, her mom cleaned houses until she was able to get a cosmetology license.  Her dad shucked clams until he died when hit by a truck.  Finale Norton was in eighth grade at the time.  She worked to help the family make ends meet, but stayed in school.  After high school graduation, she earned her degree from Hampton University.   She married a navy man, remained in the area, and went to work.  She worked for Bank of America for 26 years.  You might consider her as having benefitted from living during a time-period when banks supported affirmative action.  Finale Norton retired as a Senior Manager in Financial Services, Distribution, and Marketing.  She opened her own business after retiring – Common Sense Consulting.  “Don’t make it harder…..bring Emotional Leadership everyday…..”  She’s bringing that same leadership to the campaign – arguing for safe schools, fair pay, a green economy, affordable health care, and broadband infrastructure.

Support these six candidates. Five women and a man.  Three African Americans.  One former Republican.  If these six candidates flip Republican seats, Virginia Democrats can rest easy about their legislature.  They will be assured of a Democratic House of Delegates. Help now.  The election is November 2, 2021.

Previously Reported Vulnerable Incumbents in Virginia’s House of Delegates

 District 10 – Wendy Gooditis  https://www.wendygooditis.com

 District 12 – Chris Hurst https://www.hurst4delegate.com 

 District 21 – Kelly Convirs-Fowler https://www.delegatefowler.com

 District 28 – Joshua Cole    https://jgcole.org/

 District 31 – Elizabeth Guzman https://www.elizabethguzmanforvirginia.com

 District 40 – Dan Helmer  https://danhelmer.com

 District 73  – Rodney Willett https://www.rodwillett.com

 District 75  – Roslyn Tyler, https://www.delegatetyler.com

 District 83 – Nancy Guy. https://guyfordelegate.com

 District 85 – Alex Askew https://alexaskew.com

 District 91 – Martha Mugler  https://www.muglerfordelegate.com

 

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