Our policies are created for the people by the people. We understand all voices and concerns may not be reflected, and we encourage you to make your voice heard as we continue to evolve. We aim to be a campaign and party that understands, addresses, and reflects the needs of the people.
Public Safety and Criminal justice Reform
Racial justice
Community Care, Public Safety, and Protecting Black Lives must be prioritized.
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Hold police accountable by immediately ending Qualified Immunity, require that law enforcement officers live in the communities they work in, and ban police unions as they perpetuate a culture of racism and violence.
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End racist mass incarceration by identifying and eradicating the laws that create crime rates, such as ending cash bail and the immediate release of individuals with non-violent offenses, including those with drug charges.
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Restore voting rights of individuals with a prior felony conviction.
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Mandate county implementation of independent civilian review boards with subpoena power to increase police accountability. Boards will be free of former, retired, or current law enforcement officers.
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Close juvenile detention centers and transition to youth restorative justice and rehabilitation programs.
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Reallocate funding from police departments to reinvest in education, housing, sustainable energy, and community care programs.
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Legalize marijuana and utilize tax revenue to invest in communities disproportionately impacted by punitive drug law enforcement.
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Advance inclusive and safe gun ownership.
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Address the systemic societal issues that lead to gun violence such as over-policing, lack of resources, and access to mental health support which thereby leads to crime, rather than solely focusing on the symptoms of impoverished, disinvested, and underserved communities by levying anti-gun legislation.
Combat the lasting impacts of segregation and racism by prioritizing equity, inclusion and opportunities for our Black and marginalized communities.
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Investigate root causes and establish inclusive initiatives and legislation to combat the profound, systemic racism present in Virginia’s schools, hospitals, businesses, and the public that exist in the form of discrimination, intimidation and inequalities.
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Examine, pursue, and implement Reparations to Black Virginians for the state's history of violent enslavement in the form of direct payments to Black families in order to aid in economic mobility and further Black generational wealth.
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Build Black generational wealth through financial literacy programs, investment start-up grants, first-generation home ownership programs, and grants for Black entrepreneurship and businesses as a form of compensation for the racial inequities remaining from historically systemic racism and redlining.
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Defend our undocumented population by way of strengthening civil liberties and ending cooperation with ICE.
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Remove and prohibit all taxpayer-funded statues, racist symbols, and memorials to Confederate leaders.
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Require racial impact studies to be conducted prior to redistricting.
environmental justice
education
Transition to equitable, sustainable clean energy that slows global warming and protects Virginia’s future.
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Incentivize and subsidize transitions to clean energy and food composting programs.
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Mandate Indigenous sovereignty and racial impact studies prior to approving major environmental projects.
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Introduce legislation to permanently protect forests, waterways and mountains from industry and private development.
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Subsidize and transition to sustainable, renewable energy, ban harmful practices such as fracking statewide, dismantle existing fossil fuel infrastructure such as pipelines, and guarantee the restoration of environmental ecology moving forward.
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Protect the employment of workers in the fossil fuel industry by transitioning them to clean energy sectors.
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Guarantee that Virginia is a 100% clean energy state by 2050.
Foster an education system for the betterment of all students across race, orientation, ability, and economic background to ensure the holistic success of all learners.
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Establish flexible accountability evaluations allowing students of varied levels to demonstrate their understanding through alternatives to high stakes testing such as portfolios, hands on activities, and presentations.
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Implement a Family Choice Educational System that includes in-person, virtual, hybrid, self-paced, trades programs, and community hands-on learning options.
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Implement meaningful statewide annual raises for public educators; ensure competitive, professional salaries that foster the recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers.
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Update K-12 curricula to reflect the centrality of Black and Indigenous history and culture.
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Fully fund all public schools to ensure equity across all geographical and racial lines.
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Provide safe, state of the art learning environments to all students.
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End the school to prison pipeline by replacing school resource officers with school counselors and community mentors while implementing a statewide school restorative justice program that ensures equitable disciplinary practices.
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Reallocate funds from private education subsidies to invest in public schools.
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Make Statewide the practice of equitably pooling county tax revenue to fund public education based on the number of students served by a school opposed to district personal property tax rates.
housing
healthcare
Treat safe, secure, and dignified affordable housing as a universal human right.
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Nationalize vacant, corporate-owned, unaffordable units and place them under community control with rent-to-own programming, bolstering home ownership for marginalized communities.
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Fight gentrification by providing affordable housing in areas that have become inaccessible to Black and Latinx communities, and ensure aging Black community members are able to stay in their homes.
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Prevent unethical evictions by providing emergency funds to renters and enact rent control.
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Incentivize affordable housing options with state grants and repeal tax breaks to developers, in order to invest directly in affordable housing.
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Support individuals experiencing housing instability by altering tax, rental and zoning laws to guarantee that our community members’ dignity and safety comes before profit.
Enact healthcare policies that treat healthcare as a human right, not a privilege.
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Guarantee all Virginians, regardless of gender identity, race or immigration status, a universally available, quality public healthcare system.
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End the for-profit nature of the healthcare system.
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Increase availability of free clinics and income based facilities, and free medical transportation services.
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Provide immigrants safe access to care with protections to eliminate the risk and fear of Immigrations and Customs involvement.
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Protect and expand upon reproductive freedoms without government interference to include clear, safe access to abortion and provide supportive services and aid to all pregnant people regardless of choice.
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Increase preventative mental health and substance use support and establish mobile and stationary crisis services that include well-trained mediators, counselors, and dispatchers under an expanded and strengthened Marcus Alert System.
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Blanding Campaign Statement and Policy on Vaccine Mandates:
LGBTQIA + Rights
Food Sovereignty
Ensure the rights of people of all genders and sexual orientation are protected.
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Commit to preventing discrimination and violence against an individual on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
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Enact legislation that protects against lending discrimination, healthcare discirmination, housing discrimination, gender intimidation and harassment.
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Provide a non-binary bathroom choice in all public schools and state-run government buildings.
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Protect LGBTQIA+ rights to equitable health care, housing and lending practices; fight employer discrimination against LGBTQ+ workers.
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Create community based, anti-violence initiatives serving Transgender individuals, particularly Black and Latinx women and nonbinary people while guarenteeing them safe and stable housing and job security.
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Implement grants for LGBTQIA+ small business owners.
End food insecurities, while increasing community health and self-sufficiency.
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Address food oppression through eliminating food deserts, making fresh food affordable, local food accessible across the commonwealth.
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Allow Virginia farmers to accept SNAP benefits.
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Mandate that state institutions purchase a percentage of their product from Virginia farmers and offer grants for supply chain infrastructure.
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Water must be recognized as a civil right, with access and protection to water ensured by the state.
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Create statewide and support existing community gardens, food-bearing green spaces, community pantries, and community kitchens in marginalized neighborhoods and urban landscapes.
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Introduce local food infrastructure mini-grant programs for individuals.
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Implement racial equity in agriculture commission.
COVID-19
LABOR
Implement equity-focused policies in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic while centering science over politics.
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Mitigate disproportionate harms to Black, Latinx and other vulnerable communities.
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Increase support, protection and compensation for front line workers.
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Establish a COVID-19 Educational Impact team to evaluate the effect of the pandemic on our students’ academic progress and put forth recommendations to the VDOE.
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Create state funding programs to prevent evictions and mitigate losses sustained by small businesses linked to COVID-19.
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Increase free COVID-19 testing, free public access to PPE, and contact tracing programs, while safeguarding the health and safety of undocumented community members.
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Increase family support and services for COVID-19 related hardships.
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Establish a COVID-19 Mental Health Impact team to evaluate and make recommendations on how best to support affected communities.
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Expand sentence commutation of at-risk imprisoned populations such as elderly, pregnant people, and those with compromised immune systems on a case by case basis, recognizing the history and effect of racial and class bias in judicial sentencing.
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Ensure those incarcerated and detained receive quality PPE, testing and medical care.
Fight for, protect, and facilitate the power of the working class in Virginia to ensure more equitably shared wealth and power.
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Extend Protections to all workers regardless of union status, and require all employers to provide a safe work environment, family benefits, and compensate workers with a dignified wage.
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Strengthen and facilitate the formation of labor unions, including the public sector, by facilitating contract administration and collective bargaining for wages, safety and benefits, while repealing all of the dangerous aspects of Virginia’s “right to work” status.
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Establish safe minimum staffing levels for front line workers and laborers.
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Bolster the rights of workers injured on the job and increase fines to companies that unlawfully endanger worker welfare.
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Guarantee that minimum wage is tied to and adjusted with inflation.
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Enact laws to ensure full time workers receive 3 weeks yearly paid time off, and 2 weeks minimum sick leave.
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Guarantee 3 months pregnancy/new child leave and a combined 4 weeks familial care giver/bereavement leave job protection for all workers.
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Protect workers from arbitrary firing.
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Compensate domestic workers (including but not limited to service industry workers, in home caregivers, in home child care providers, professional housekeepers) according to state minimum wage regulations, and extend all protections to include them, based on their valued skill and service.
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Legalize sex work as a form of legitimate business, subject to labor protections, regulation, and taxation, while prioritizing safe working environments for sex workers.
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Ban police unions, as they serve to protect and embolden bad cops, catalyze use of excessive force, reduce transparency and accountability, and further the legal authority of law enforcement to oppress all other types of workers, all of which fundamentally contradicts the sentiment of unions to protect the working class.