State tier49 of 50 rubric questions apply at this office level — federal-only questions are marked N/A and excluded from the dynamic max. How tier grading works →
Last verified: · scorecard-level timestamp
✝ God First0/ 70
🏛️ State First0/ 30
★National Rank
#4,823 of 8,776 · bottom 45.0%among candidates with at least one scored answer
Background: Democratic VA State Senator, District 23 (Hampton / part of Newport News); serving continuously since 2004. Political scientist — Professor Emerita and former Dean at Hampton University; former Hampton City Council member and Hampton's first African American mayor (2000-2004). Chairs the Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Democratic Caucus; sits on Finance & Appropriations.
VA State Senator, SD-23 (Hampton), continuously since 2004; chairs Senate Rules and the Senate Democratic Caucus. [2026-06 RESOLUTE refinement, state tier] Long progressive leadership record. Co-patron of the reproductive-freedom constitutional amendment (SJ247) and voted the Democratic line on it (re-affirmed 2026); public statement vows to 'fiercely … protect an individual's right to reproductive health care without barriers or restrictions.' Voted the Democratic line for the same-sex-marriage amendment (SJ249/HJR3, 26-13). CHIEF PATRON of the felon-voting-rights-restoration constitutional amendment (SJ248), which she frames as undoing a tool 'to block Black people from voting.' Giffords-endorsed 'proven champion' who sponsored gun-restriction bills (guns-in-libraries ban; as Rules chair, guns banned in the Capitol/Capitol Square). No conservative deviations found. Many specific cells (school choice, christian liberty, voter-ID/mail-in specifics, public justice, federal overreach, border) returned no public record and are NULL — not inferred from party.
Candidate opposes state recognition of same-sex marriage / civil unions / domestic partnerships, and supports state non-recognition resolutions where federally permitted
Candidate has voted for state school-choice (vouchers, ESAs, charter expansion) and supports state homeschool freedom statutes
Not yet verified
Candidate has voted for state law requiring parental notification + consent on minors' medical, mental-health, and gender interventions (incl. school counseling referrals)
Not yet verified
Candidate has voted for state law restricting CRT/SOGI/comprehensive-sex-ed/gender-ideology curricula in K-12
Not yet verified
Candidate has voted for state age-verification laws on pornographic content and state criminal penalties for sexualizing minors
Not yet verified
Candidate has voted for state RFRA-style protections for faith-based adoption + foster agencies; opposes state-mandated SS-couple placement
Candidate has voted for state law protecting cash as legal tender, opposing state-level CBDC pilot programs, and protecting crypto-as-property status
Not yet verified
Candidate supports sound-money policies including gold/silver as constitutional money and audit/abolition of the Federal Reserve
N/A · out of tier
Candidate has voted for state balanced-budget compliance + opposed state borrowing for non-capital expenditures
Not yet verified
Candidate has voted for state usury caps + state predatory-lending protections + state charitable-deduction parity
Not yet verified
Candidate has voted for state pension/treasury divestment from ESG-aligned funds (e.g., BlackRock) + state anti-monopoly enforcement against financial cartels
Candidate (state SoS/legislature) has voted for state hand-count requirements / opposed electronic voting machines
Not yet verified
Candidate (state SoS/legislature) has voted for state photo voter ID + citizenship verification at registration
Not yet verified
Candidate has voted to restrict state early-voting windows + tighten state absentee qualifications to verified medical/military
Not yet verified
Candidate has voted against state mass mail-in voting expansion, against state drop-box deployment, and against legalizing ballot harvesting
Not yet verified
Candidate (state SoS/legislature) has voted to ban state acceptance of private election grants ('Zuckerbucks') + state penalties for foreign interference
Bias ratings sourced from AllSides and Ad Fontes Media. Classifications for government, reference, and advocacy domains are maintained by U.S.M.C. Ministries; see source_bias.json.
References & footnotes
Every answer above with a [n] marker corresponds to one of the footnotes below. Wayback-archive links preserve the page as it read at our access date so a reader can verify the citation even if the original URL changes or disappears.
Virginia Legislative Information System · accessed 2026-06-02 · Fetch Wayback archive
Co-patron of the SJ247 reproductive-freedom amendment; vows to protect abortion access 'without barriers or restrictions' — does not affirm personhood from conception.
Co-patron of the SJ247 reproductive-freedom amendment; vows to protect abortion access 'without barriers or restrictions' — does not affirm personhood from conception.
Giffords-endorsed 'proven champion'; sponsored gun-restriction bills (guns-in-libraries ban; guns banned in the Capitol/Capitol Square as Rules chair) — supports the restrictions this cell opposes.
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