
Democrat
As a social worker, Elizabeth has seen first-hand how the criminal justice system has disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities, and how easy it is for people to fall into the school-to-prison pipeline from a young age and never get the chance to rebuild their lives. As recently as a few years ago, Virginia was ranked the worst state in the country when it came to referring school discipline cases to the criminal justice system. That’s why Elizabeth made criminal justice reform one of her key issues from her first year in office.
Elizabeth co-founded the Virginia Green New Deal coalition the is determined to leave a better planet to her four children, which is why she took on the environment as one of her key issues as a legislator. The League of Conservation Voters named Elizabeth a “Legislative Leader” in 2020.
As someone who was a teen mom herself, Elizabeth will always fight for other women to make their own reproductive choices. She knows that women’s reproductive rights are human rights and that abortion care is health care. She has proudly voted to expand access to reproductive health care and is chief co-patron of a new law to lift the ban preventing health insurance plans that include abortion coverage from being sold on a state health exchange.
Elizabeth believes that honoring veterans begins with helping military families build wealth before they transition out of service and join the civilian world. The unemployment rate for military spouses is about five times the national average, with military spouses earning on average 27 percent less than their civilian counterparts, amounting to a loss of more than $10,000 each year for military families.
State government
State level