Making Virginia a Force for ‘Enduring Change’

In the span of 6 weeks, we have lost the champion of equality on the Supreme Court and witnessed an unprecedented rush to shift the Court to a 6–3 right-wing majority.

The impacts for Virginia and the nation could be massive.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett had a historically short vetting period, but her record on reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, climate change, and health care is deeply concerning.

Virginia has made tremendous progress over the past several years on expanding access to health care, protecting equal rights, making it easier to vote, and ensuring more Virginians have educational opportunities and opportunities to participate in the economy. Much of that progress may be challenged by the new right-wing Supreme Court.

A right-wing Supreme Court increases the stakes for upcoming elections and makes it even more imperative for Virginia to be a force for progress.

As the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” The next step for America is to elect Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and a Democratic U.S. Congress on November 3. The next step in Virginia is to advance legislation that protects equality, reproductive health, and access to affordable, quality health care.

During my 15 sessions in the Virginia legislature, I’ve had the honor to work to deliver progressive change. We expanded Medicaid to provide health care for 450,000 Virginians and passed a law to create a state-based health exchange under the Affordable Care Act. And just this session, I was proud to carry or co-sponsor legislation making historic progress in Virginia.

We passed the Reproductive Health Protection Act, making Virginia the first state in the South to proactively protect access to safe abortion care.

We passed the Virginia Values Act, strengthening existing anti-discrimination laws and making Virginia the first state in the South to made to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

We passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act making Virginia the first state in the South to establish100% clean energy standards.

We passed the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, making Virginia the first state in the South to extend worker protections to domestic workers.

We passed a series of laws — in the home state of the NRA — to protect Virginians from gun violence.

We passed a series of laws transforming Virginia from one of the hardest states in which to vote to the 14th easiest.

And, during this special session, we passed historic criminal justice reform to protect civil rights and dismantle racial inequity in our policing system.

We cannot afford to let the Supreme Court drag us backward.

In Virginia, we must fight back by passing legislation to protect our progress and expand rights for all Virginians. We must protect the health care coverage extended to over 700,000 Virginians under Obamacare.

We must pass a constitutional amendment and legislation protecting reproductive rights.

We must protect the right to vote from any further barriers.

We must ensure no Virginia can be denied housing, employment, or public accommodation because of who they are, where they were born, or who they love.

In short, we must also take action to protect and expand the progress under threat from a right-wing Supreme Court. The rushed appointment of Amy Coney Barrett strengthens my resolve to make Virginia a proactive leader on progressive policy by passing new laws to further protect LGBTQ rights, civil rights, workers’ rights, clean energy, and access to health care.

The preamble of the US Constitution makes clear our government was established “to form a more perfect Union establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” In this difficult moment, we must strengthen our resolve to ensure that a more perfect Union comes to pass for all.

We cannot do that by retreating from the progress we have made, but by stepping boldly into the future.