2017 General Election Elected 50 – 50 (345 vote margin)
Conquering Richmond
HD 68 is a challenge for a Democrat. Less than half the district is in the City of Richmond. More is suburban. Critics of gerrymandering have described the district as a “sleeping moose.” A Democrat needs to have a wide margin of victory in the City to win. Dawn Adams http://adamsfordelegate.com/ needs to wake up that moose.
Both candidates are experienced public figures. The Republican incumbent restaurateur was a Richmond City Councilor elected Mayor by Council members. He lost the mayoralty when the office became an elected one, elected by the people of Richmond. The Republican mayor lost to Doug Wilder, the first African-American Governor of Virginia. In 2007, relying on the suburban voters, the ex-mayor was elected as a Delegate from HD 68.
Dawn Adams http://adamsfordelegate.com/ is a six foot tall athlete. She joined the US Coast Guard when she was 17 and left as a Captain. She served as a search and rescue pilot. An extremely hard worker, she made her way through college and graduate school. She became an RN, a nurse practitioner, and earned a doctorate. Now she is Head of the Office of Integrated Health for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. She is no bureaucrat. She is an inspiration. Her story moves people.
Dawn Adams’ website shows a picture of her female partner. It is complicate. Her parents rejected her as a teenager when they learned she was gay. She tried to keep her sexual orientation secret for years. She kept it secret until she was 40. She created a life. She was rejected at home. Still, she tried to emulate her parents. Like her father, she joined the Coast Guard. Like her mother, she became a nurse. Unlike either of them, she was political.
Dawn Adams focus is on health. She won the Democratic primary for HD 68 by separating herself from the front runner, a Dominion Power environmental lawyer. Adams denounced the impact of carbon based energy on asthma and allergies and announced that she would not take money from Dominion Power.
For the general election, Dawn Adams focuses on expanding Medicare under the Affordable Care Act. She deflects discussions of her sexual preference. She expresses dismay that Virginia, the 8th wealthiest state in Virginia is, by some measures, among the bottom three in the provision of health care.
Dawn Adams has other issues:
- Education — Better pay for teachers, fairer distribution of education resources within the Commonwealth, and steps toward helping students who graduate from college with a crippling debt burden.
- Jobs — Strengthening education, building infrastructure, and developing alternative energy sources would, she says, bring Virginia more and better jobs.
- Civil Rights — Everyone, she says — deserves a shot at the American Dream. She says that when immigrants, members of racial minorities, members of the LGBQ community community lose their rights, everyone loses.
- Environment — Fresh air, clean water, green spaces, and the James River make Virginia a beautiful place to live, she says. She wants Virginia to keep those assets.
- Gerrymandering — She blames both parties for creating districts like “sleeping moose” HD 68. She proposed an independent and impartial commission that would be transparent and create districts that more truly represent communities.
Dawn Adams http://adamsfordelegate.com/ intends to be part of the Virginia Democratic wave in 2017. She just might do that if she can get some help. This election is this November. She needs the help now. See what you can do.
