HAMPTON, Va. — Virginia's 2023 general election happens on November 7, and all 140 seats in the state's General Assembly are up for grabs. This is also Virginia’s first election since legislative district maps were redrawn using 2020 census data.
Democrat Jeion Ward, the incumbent candidate, will face off against Republican challenger John Chapman in the newly drawn 87th District for the Virginia House of Delegates.
About Virginia House of Delegates District 87
House District 87, following the redistricting map, includes the majority of the city of Hampton: Northampton, West Hampton, Wythe and parts of East Hampton in and around downtown.
The district is made up of a majority of Black voters who have chosen Democratic candidates over the past several years, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
VOTER GUIDE: Virginia's 2023 elections are coming up. Here's a look at races, candidates, voter registration info and more.
Delegate Ward has served in office since 2004. She worked for years as an educator and is the president of the Hampton Federation of Teachers. Chapman worked as a transportation truck driver beginning in 2002 and now manages and trains drivers across the state in the food distribution industry.
What is the one piece of legislation you'd like to see pass first if you were to win the seat?
Del. Ward: "We've started already on increasing that minimum wage until it reaches that 15 dollars an hour. So, right now, I'm going to file legislation to make sure that everyone is able to have paid sick leave time that is so important to me to many of my constituents, but also to the entire community. No one wants a a waitress coughing all over your food trying to serve you. So that's important also."
Chapman: "Right now with education, it's kind of already in the works and I know that they're looking at ESAs [Education Savings Account], an education program that would actually give it's kind of referenced at school choice. So, that's one of the things I'd love to see past, so we can get more options out there for families that want to have a different, you know, different set of values, different career paths for their children."
What is your stance on Governor Youngkin's 15-week abortion ban proposal?
Chapman: "If we can give you additional resources to be able to take some of that burden away, and we have that opportunity for that child to actually have a chance. I think it's a good thing. So, I believe a 15 week ban is a good compromise to be able to protect the children and the life that is in the womb, but at the same time give opportunity for those instances such as rape, such as incest...all these different things that are brought up quite frequently as a need because the life of the mother is is always something that you have to dissenter as well."
Del. Ward: "I will not come between a woman and her healthcare provider. I don't care what it is. I am not a doctor. I'm not a health care provider, and neither are my colleagues in that General Assembly. So, I will not come between them. Whatever that doctor, the healthcare provider, and that woman decides I think that's what I will support."
Hampton is seeing a rise in overdose death rates. How would you address this problem?
Del. Ward: "Well, I know that we have to work with healthcare providers, that's the first thing. We have to make sure that everyone is looking at an individual's background before prescribing drugs, but then also we have to look at mental health, that's a big problem, a major problem one that sometimes we don't think about. Anytime people are continuing to take different kinds of drugs for pain medication. So we have got to address mental health."
Chapman: "Opioids are a danger to society. I think that the individuals that are responsible for them being introduced into our neighborhoods should be held responsible to not only if someone's distributing, they should not only be charged with that, but if there's a death as a result of their influence and providing of these dangerous materials, I think that they should be held accountable as well. I believe they should be charged with murder because that's, you know, with involuntary manslaughter, they don't choose that, but their their actions lead to that just like deaths on the roads."