2017 General Election Lost 49 – 49
(Tie vote after a court awarded an additional vote to her opponent, then lost election drawing lots)
November is coming. HD 94 has a substitute teacher
Shelly Simonds http://www.shellysimonds.com/ , a former teacher and current member of the Newport News School Board , has stepped in as a substitute Democratic candidate for District 94 of the Virginia House of Delegates. The original candidate stepped down. Family obligations and two jobs were not enough to keep him from running. Fundraising did him in.
Shelly Simonds is not new to the political world. She has been a School Board member since 2012 and was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Commonwealth’s Board for Professional and Occupational Regulation. She was the Democratic candidate for HD 94 in 2015, losing to the incumbent. She has enough resources so that she can do at least partial self-funding.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bucknell with a Master’s Degree from Stanford, Shelly Simonds is married to an aeronautical engineer. After living in Spain, Costa Rica, and Chile, she is a fluent Spanish speaker. Her recent focus has been at home — her family, her business, and her politics. She has been managing her family’s real estate investments. She served as president of a middle school PTA followed by a campaign for the school board.
Shelly Simonds won her first school board election with 52% of the vote. She had no opponent in her second campaign. On the school board has favored support for more and better teaching of math and science and effective technical/career education. We know more than would be expected about Simonds’ views about educational policy because she participated in Ballotpedia’s survey of school board candidates. Shelly Simonds highest priority (of those from which she was given an option) was improving relationships with teachers, lowest was increasing choice for students. She did not oppose Charter schools in her community but called for them to live by the same rules as the local schools. She did not oppose accountability. She did propose assessing students’ achievement broadly using portfolios in addition to test scores.
How does Shelly Simonds turn her interests into her second candidacy for the Virginia legislature?
- Her focus remains on education: In addition to expanding math and science and vocational/technical education, she is an advocate of the state taking steps to raise teacher pay.
- Her focus is on medical care: She would expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and would ensure that medical care is not taken from women — positions opposite to those of her Republican incumbent opponent.
- Her focus is local: As Delegate, she is in a position to help Newport News retain the last large piece of waterfront property and help the city make it a waterfront park. She explains that this position is a product of meeting with and listening to members of the community to identify important local issues.
Shelly Simonds http://www.shellysimonds.com/was quick to gain community support through her efforts to listen to the community. She has gained an endorsement from Emily’s list. She sees the tenor of the country and the Commonwealth as being different in 2017 from what it was in 2015. She is putting in the effort required to win. You can help her do just that. Even though she has resources of her own, she needs more help than her own resources. Remember: November is coming soon. She starting late. Help her catch up.
