All 100 seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates are on the ballot this fall, and Democrats are running in a record-setting 88 of them. Currently, the GOP controls the chamber with a 66-34 majority, and flipping 17 seats in a single cycle would require a tremendous wave, especially in light of the extent to which the state House map has been gerrymandered.
But you can’t win if you don’t compete, and Democrats are bringing the fight to the GOP all over the state in a big way. And women are leading the charge: Of the 54 Democratic challengers this cycle, more than half of them are women. One of these women is Debra Rodman, a first-time candidate running in a suburban Richmond seat that Hillary Clinton narrowly won last November.
Debra Rodman is running in House District 73 against Del. John O’Bannon, a 17-year GOP incumbent who’s only faced one Democratic challenger (in 2009) since a special election in 2000—to replace newly-elected Rep. Eric Cantor, remember him?—placed him in this once safely-Republican seat. Rodman is an anthropology professor at Randolph-Macon College and head of the school’s women’s studies program, where she teaches the next generation about diversity, the struggle for equality, and the impact of policy on people's day-to-day lives. Rodman also advocates for immigrants, children, people in the LGBT community, and other at-risk populations fleeing persecution in their home countries
Rodman’s opponent typifies the some of the worst that Virginia’s GOP has come to stand for. O’Bannon, a physician by trade, is nevertheless one of the General Assembly’s most ardent opponents of reproductive rights. He’s repeatedly voted to defund Planned Parenthood, supports blocking insurance companies from covering abortion services, champions banning abortion at 20 weeks, and even believes in so-called “personhood” legislation.
There’s more. O’Bannon has backed measures allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception, and he voted to declare the anniversary of Roe v. Wade a “Day of Tears.” He’s also a leader in the Republican effort to block Medicaid expansion in the state, denying some 400,000 Virginians access to healthcare. O’Bannon also boasts an ‘A’ rating from the NRA and scored 95 percent with the (somehow even more extreme) Virginia Citizens Defense League, thanks to his support for policies like allowing guns in schools. He also favors allowing government agencies to discriminate against LGBT Virginians.
O’Bannon’s nearly two decades in the state House have allowed him to build extensive fundraising connections among the state’s corporate interests and wealthy bundlers, and his campaign’s coffers are swollen with their largesse. Rodman is relying on grassroots voter outreach and the help of the progressive community to overcome her opponent’s money advantage.
Contribute $3 today to help oust a regressive Republican and elect Debra Rodman to the House.