Grow Our Party seeks to inform Republicans in Virginia by ensuring that you have access to all the information you need to engage in the political process. We’ve watched a lot of excellent forums and town halls hosted by hard working activists across the Commonwealth, but the one thing we haven’t seen is a place to find in-depth information about our statewide candidate’s policy positions and plans, in their own words, as they compete for the nomination.
We want you to have that information, so you can make the best choice at the upcoming RPV Convention.
A few weeks ago, we put together the GOP 25—A detailed candidate survey on crucial public policy topics effecting Virginia’s voters. We reached out to all candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor asking them to participate and promising to present their answers unedited in order of response, so you can hear what they believe in their own words!
We’ve based the GOP 25 on the tenants of the Virginia Republican Creed, current hot topics in public policy, and a few light hearted questions to learn more about the things each candidate loves about Virginia!
**We want to thank Lance Allen for Lt. Governor for being the first statewide candidate to take our challenge.**We are incredibly thankful for the time he put in to making sure that you know where he stands on these important issues! Lance has provided incredibly thorough and thoughtful answers to these questions and we hope other candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor follow his lead.
Please take the time to read through his responses and help us start the conversation with our statewide candidates on how we can build a better Virginia together!
(If you are a candidate for Governor or Lt. Governor who has not received a copy of the survey from Grow Our Party, please reach out to us at hello@growourparty.org)
GOP 25 Survey
Our Republican Creed
Virginia’s economy has been hit hard by COVID-19 over the past year. How do you believe you can help our small businesses recover if elected?
We must safely re-open the economy, sustain a strong recovery, and build a better future
with opportunities for all Virginians. Virginia has the potential to lead the country in creating jobs, raising wages, starting businesses, and innovating, but today, bad policies in Richmond are holding us back. To fully recover from the economic downturn and succeed in the future, we must pursue policy reforms for both immediate challenges and to promote a more effective government long-term.
COMMITMENT: Re-open Virginia.
The choice our leaders have given us, between blanket shutdowns and business as usual, is a false choice. We need to allow businesses and communities the flexibility to find ways to open and operate safely. Local communities should have the flexibility to enact guidelines based on their unique situations, such as those for indoor and outdoor dining that we have seen work incredibly well across the State.
For example, after federal and state policymakers removed outdated regulatory restrictions, we saw remarkable progress made both in terms of vaccine creation, life-saving advances in treatments, and an FDA approved, at-home COVID-19 test that does not require a prescription.
COMMITMENT: Reform occupational licensing.
We should make it easier for people to get jobs by reforming occupational licensing laws. Today in Virginia, nearly 1-in-4 jobs require a license, many with excessive fees and burdensome training requirements — that are often unrelated to the job. While some jobs should require a license for safety reasons, jobs like travel guides and landscapers should not require a government permission slip.
These rules hurt the least fortunate by making it harder to earn a living, and they are often written by special interests to limit competition. Unfortunately, Virginia has been ranked as having the 7th most restrictive licensing requirements in the country. We should work to reduce fees, eliminate unnecessary requirements, and implement reciprocity agreements to recognize licenses across state lines. Other states are doing this. Virginia should be a leader, not a follower.
What can we do to measurably raise the standard of living for Virginians of all backgrounds?
NOTE: See Answers to Questions 1 & 6.
COMMITMENT: Defend Right-to-Work.
No one should have to pay fees to work or worry about being fired for choosing not to join a union. Every private sector worker should have a voice in their pay; not have part of it forcibly taken. Virginia’s Right-to-Work law protects the right of employees to take a job without being required to join a union or pay dues. Employees also retain their right to resign from a union at any time or to negotiate their own contracts with employers, rather than settling for the one-size-fits-all deal negotiated by the union.
Right-to-Work states out-perform non-Right-to-Work states in economic growth (27% compared to 15%) and personal income growth (39% compared to 26%). By making companies and communities less effective, compelled unionization harms employees long-term, leading to decreases in employment as uncompetitive firms and industries shrink. In recent years, there have been efforts to repeal Right-to-Work in Virginia. We must defend this law.
How do you believe we can better ensure equal rights, justice, and opportunities for all Virginians?
COMMITMENT: EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW
We must pursue policies that promote public safety, rein in government over-reach, and protect constitutional rights equally for all. Our government must be limited, but effective. Government should be focused first and foremost on its core responsibilities of keeping people safe and ensuring equal protection under the law.
What, if any, reforms to the criminal justice system do you believe are needed in Virginia?
COMMITMENT: Ensure people who break the law pay their debt to society while enabling second chances for those who truly deserve them.
America is a nation that believes in redemption. Individuals who break the law must be held accountable but, we should also ensure that people who pay their debt to society and no longer pose a danger can rebuild their lives when they leave prison. Unfortunately for Virginia, the Democrat-controlled General Assembly has opted for a different approach, pushing through bad legislation like Senate Bill 5034. Loopholes in that bill allow violent sexual predators to go free after only serving a fraction of their sentence.
We must repeal unfair and unsafe legislation like SB 5034 and instead pursue criminal justice reforms that do not come at the expense of justice and victim’s rights. Dozens of reforms in other states — especially those led by conservatives — have shown that it’s possible to promote public safety and justice while also reducing unnecessary incarceration and providing a path to a second chance. For example, over the last 10 years, Texas has reduced its crime rate by 29% — falling to the lowest level in over 50 years — while shrinking its incarcerated population and closing ten prisons.
This was achieved through a host of practical reforms, like instituting mandatory drug rehabilitation as an alternative to prison for some first-time, non-violent drug convictions, and giving more flexibility to judges to set punishments that fit the crime. With these reforms, Texas saved $2 billion, freeing up resources to focus more on preventing serious crimes.
As Lieutenant Governor, I’ll support criminal justice reforms that ensure the punishment fits the crime, as well as promoting rehabilitation and re-entry programs that provide education and job training. I will also work to implement improvements to mental health services so that people in need get treatment rather than cycling through the prison system without effective interventions.
How do you believe we can better equip and support our members of law enforcement?
COMMITMENT: Equip police to do their jobs and work with law enforcement and communities to ensure accountability.
Rather than “defund the police,” leaders in Richmond must ensure law enforcement agencies have the training, skills, and resources to do their job. We can also do more to ensure that bad actors are held accountable by working with law enforcement, not against them. Today individual officers who abuse their power are often able to simply transfer to other departments, evading responsibility for misconduct. That’s why law enforcement groups support expanding the National Decertification Index so departments can more easily share information and identify those who would seek to misuse their authority.
Virginia ended the 2020 fiscal year with a budget deficit of $236.5 million. What policy changes do you propose to improve Virginia’s financial situation and create a more fiscally responsible state government?
COMMITMENT: Promote a strong and sustained economic recovery by cutting taxes for working families and reducing unnecessary government spending.
Virginia’s government spending has grown by nearly 70% over the last 10 years ($81B in 2011
to $137B in 2020) — 10 times faster than population. Our individual income tax burden is the 9th highest in the country and our economy is under performing.
Our budget should be smaller, and the tax burden should be going down. That requires identifying and eliminating waste and enacting reforms to costly programs. We must also hold the line against additional tax increases, like further hikes to the gas tax, which will hamper recovery.
To start, Virginia already delayed a $2.3 billion increase in spending during COVID-19. We should waive those spending increases permanently to protect taxpayers from additional tax hikes.
COMMITMENT: Enact a Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) to make government live within in its means.
This measure, much like the one successfully passed in Colorado, would limit government spending relative to the prior year and return surplus tax dollars to taxpayers, unless voters approve new spending. The TABOR Amendment would require voter approval for tax increases and increases the TABOR spending limit, which constrains state revenue from both taxes and fees. It requires a constitutional amendment — aiming for 2023 or 2025 — which is doable in Virginia, as we saw with the recent successful initiative on redistricting.
COMMITMENT: Crack down on special interest giveaways and corporate welfare.
Government should not pick winners and losers; businesses should succeed by serving customers. Too often government gives special favors to the well-connected at the expense of everyone else. We must close tax loopholes and limit the use of economic development incentives and other subsidies, including working toward an interstate compact to end this failed practice.
The Northam Administration has aggressively pushed legislation restricting the right of law abiding gun owners in Virginia. What will you do to protect the 2nd Amendment rights of Virginians?
COMMITMENT: Protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners and work together to keep communities safe.
“Shall not be infringed” was not a suggestion. I believe in the Second Amendment and will stand up for the rights of law-abiding gun owners. And, as a husband, father, and veteran, I will work tirelessly to make our communities safer. Unfortunately, politicians often seek to divide people on this issue by presenting a false choice: either crackdown on law-abiding gun owners or do nothing about gun violence. We saw that earlier this year, when politicians in Richmond passed partisan gun-control laws that infringe on constitutional rights — even though there’s no evidence laws like these will reduce gun violence.
First, the “red flag” law violates due process, allowing authorities to take a person’s firearms before they have been convicted, or even accused, of a crime. There’s no evidence red flag laws stop violent crime and these new powers can be abused.
Second, if law enforcement has compelling evidence that somebody is an immediate danger to themselves or others, they may be detained for a mental health evaluation, but just confiscating their legally obtained firearms violates their rights and fails to solve the problem.
I’ll fight to repeal red flag laws, arbitrary time limits on gun purchases, excessive government powers to control where guns can be carried, and other unconstitutional and ineffective laws. I’ll also fight to keep our schools and communities safe by ensuring they have proper law enforcement protection, such as school resource officers.
What, if any, restrictions on firearms do you believe are the appropriate purview of the Government?
“Shall not be infringed” was not a suggestion. None – See Question 7.
Virginia has seen several public colleges and universities limit conservative voices and organizations on campus, how do you intend to protect the 1st Amendment Rights of Virginia’s college students?
COMMITMENT: Protect the First Amendment rights of every citizen.
Liberal voices were once among the loudest defenders of free speech, but unfortunately today many on the Left espouse authoritarian crackdowns on speech they don’t like or they deem harmful. This is evidenced by Max Boot’s Washington Post column in which he wrote, “Just as we do with foreign terrorist groups, so with domestic terrorists: We need to shut down the influencers who radicalize people and set them on the path toward violence and sedition.”
In the 1989 Supreme Court case Texas v. Johnson, Justice William Brennan upheld one of America’s bedrock principles – freedom of speech – when he wrote government “may not prohibit expression simply because it disagrees with its message.” Brennan noted that the remedy for expression we don’t like is not to outlaw or suppress it, but “to persuade [others] that they are wrong.”
For all the recent rhetoric about a “return to normalcy,” perhaps we need to start with heeding Justice Brennan’s words and restoring the spirit of the First Amendment. As Lieutenant Governor, I will fiercely guard the First Amendment rights of all citizens of the Commonwealth.
What do you believe can be done to decrease violent crime in the Commonwealth?
To decrease violent crime, we have to start looking at the whole picture. Crime is often misrepresented by the media as a simple cops versus robbers dynamic – a misrepresentation that more often than not criminalizes things like poverty. More work needs to be done understanding the social, political, and economic structures that sustain these high levels and intervene early. We know that a better understanding of the drivers of violence is essential, and that starting interventions early (childhood) is crucial.
COMMITMENT: Improve foster care to help every child find a safe and loving home.
Virginia’s foster care system is deeply troubled. In 2018, the legislature’s nonpartisan watchdog agency issued a scathing report on failures in the Virginia foster care system. Our foster care system ranked 49th out of 50 states in helping kids find permanent families.
As Lieutenant Governor, I will work closely with the bipartisan Foster Care Caucus — the first such legislative caucus in the country — to ensure effective oversight, implement the prior reforms, and work toward additional changes that help children and families. For example, I’ll work to promote “kinship arrangements” — where children are given the chance to live with relatives or trusted non-relatives — by providing these caretakers with the same support as other foster families.
Virginia has one of the largest populations of active duty and retired military in the country and is home to the largest naval base. How do you believe we can better assist members of the military in transitioning to civilian life?
COMMITMENT: Help veterans overcome barriers to opportunity so they can create small businesses and find fulfilling work.
The Commonwealth is home to 780,000 veterans. Over 70,000 of them operate small businesses but, for almost 8 years, small business growth in Virginia has flatlined due to increased regulation which has more than doubled the time it takes for a business to get off the ground.
As Lieutenant Governor, I’ll bring my experience in both the military and private sector to help support entrepreneurship ecosystems tailored to veterans — so that state colleges, local nonprofits, startup accelerators, public agencies, and other stakeholders are working in sync to help veterans get training and access to financing and markets to build small businesses. I’ll work with state programs, like Virginia Values Veterans, to develop more partnerships with educational organizations and employers that expand job opportunities for veterans. And I’ll work with the Virginia Department of Veterans Services and nonprofits like the Virginia Veterans Services Foundation to help ensure the effective delivery of health care and mental health services.
Many places of worship have been required to stop holding in-person services over the past year, do you believe this was appropriate and how would you ensure the freedom to worship is protected if elected?
COMMITMENT: COMMITMENT: Protect the First Amendment rights of every citizen.
The First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers. Government may not impose special restrictions on religious activity; it may not order houses of worship to close, limit their congregation size, or otherwise impede religious gatherings. Religious institutions must not be singled out.
Religion and religious worship are central to the lives of millions of Americans. This is true now more so than ever. The pandemic has changed the ways Americans live their lives. Religious communities have rallied to the critical need to protect the community from the spread of this disease by making services available online and in ways that otherwise comply with social distancing guidelines.
As Lieutenant Governor, I will remain committed to ensuring that religious freedom remains protected by ensuring that now law or regulation singles-out, targets, or discriminates against any house of worship.
Hot Topics
Virginia’s K-12 students and their families are currently struggling with the challenges of online learning. Should we reopen schools and how do we ensure that our students continue to perform competitively in the academic arena, while maintaining safety?
COMMITMENT: Help schools re-open safely.
Many K-12 school districts in Virginia remain closed due to COVID-19, leading to months of lost learning and severe strain on families. But, as recommended by public health leaders, schools should re-open, and we must equip them with resources to do so safely. The state government should work with communities to ensure the availability of testing, necessary protective equipment and facility upgrades, and information to help schools re-open safely.
COMMITMENT: Equip teachers to serve students: put more money in the classroom, raise teacher pay, and reduce unnecessary administrative costs.
Today, politicians in Richmond are failing teachers. Virginia teacher salaries are $8,000 less than the national average, ranking 49 out of 51 in competitiveness. The Democratic controlled General Assembly has cut over $250 million from schools in recent years, leaving gaps in core learning priorities. While the General Assembly has promised teacher pay increases, the budget shortfall from COVID-19 now threatens those increases.
We need reforms that address the long-term problem in K-12 education of increased administrative costs crowding out investment in teaching. For example, in recent decades, the number of school administrators increased three times more than students and 25% more than the increase in new teachers. In Virginia, only $0.65 of every dollar taxpayers spend on education goes to instruction.
As Lieutenant Governor, I’ll work with educators to identify unnecessary administrative and facility costs to put more money in the classroom and raise teacher pay. We’ve seen in other states that it’s possible to invest in teachers without busting the budget. For example, recently, Republican leaders in Florida succeeded in raising teacher pay, putting Florida in the top five states for starting teacher salary. If Florida can raise teacher pay — in a state with no income tax — we can do so in Virginia. But it will take new leadership with the right priorities.
Do you believe Virginia should move towards school choice as an alternative to the current structure of our public education system?
COMMITMENT: Empower students and families to pursue the education that is right for them.
Nobody’s future should be determined by their ZIP code or parents’ income, and no one-size-fits-all model will serve every student. Instead, every kid should have access to education that fits their unique needs. Public resources should follow the child to support their growth — whether that leads to traditional public schools, private schools, homeschooling, or other avenues. Despite divisive voices on the extremes, nearly 80% of voters support this goal.
We must promote K-12 educational freedom through policies that focus on funding families, not institutions. We should defend and expand Education Improvement Scholarships which help children with special needs or low family income attend private schools.
We must also encourage open-enrollment policies so families can select the public school of their choice; ensure Virginia is friendly to charter and magnet schools; protect the right of parents to homeschool; and explore innovative reforms like Educational Savings Accounts to help families access private schools or pay for supplemental resources if they choose.
COMMITMENT: Ensure teachers have the flexibility to innovate while supporting new educational models that break the mold.
Not only should students and families have a choice in their education, they should have better choices. We should promote innovative schools and partnerships with nonprofits that supplement traditional education — while reducing top-down mandates and over-reliance on standardized testing that tie the hands of teachers.
Virginia is home to a wide range of innovative schools and educational programs that we can build upon. For example:
- CodeRVA is an innovative public magnet school for kids passionate about computer science and technology. CodeRVA not only teaches cutting-edge skills but uses innovative learning methods, like greater emphasis on projects with real world applications, to help students succeed.
- The skilled trades are a promising path for many students to find success and fulfillment. Organizations like Skills USA provide training, scholarships, and events to help Virginia K-12 students learn skills for success in high-demand roles like becoming electricians, plumbers, or aviation technicians.
- The Young Entrepreneurs Academy is an innovative partnership between the Loudoun Chamber Foundation and middle and high schools that helps students learn the skills to launch small businesses or nonprofits.
How do you believe we can better prepare our students to enter the workforce?
COMMITMENT: Promote apprenticeships and technical education for jobs in the skilled trades and technology.
NOTE: See Question 2.
Apprenticeships can help people build fulfilling careers in high-demand fields or re-train for new lines of work. We should partner with private sector employers to establish more apprenticeship programs for jobs in the skilled trades and emerging tech fields. To facilitate this process, we can expand the current modest tax credit for firms that participate in apprenticeships.
In the aftermath of COVID-19, we see the potential of apprenticeship programs to help people rebuild their careers:
- The Virginia Ready Initiative is a new nonprofit network that is helping people who lost their jobs during COVID-19 get retrained for high-demand fields, like cyber-security and health care. Supported by corporate partners, such as BAE, PWC, and Bank of America, and working alongside Virginia community colleges, VA Ready aims to help 15,000 people over the next two years.
Do you believe the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority [ABC] should continue to hold a monopoly on liquor sales in the Commonwealth?
No.
What is your stance on the decriminalization or legalization of cannabis?
[Left Blank]
Virginia’s rural voters often struggle with access to the internet, a problem which has been highlighted by this year’s school closures. How do you believe we can increase internet connectivity in rural areas?
COMMITMENT: Modernize Virginia’s Communications Infrastructure
We must ensure that all Virginians have access to safe and reliable communication so that our commonwealth is connected and competitive in the global economy.
As Lieutenant Governor, I will be an advocate for the infrastructure needs of communities and the commonwealth as a whole. I will work to remove regulatory barriers that limit the adoption of 5G, such as enacting a version of over-the-air-reception-device (OTARD) rules that allow households, businesses, and localities to acquire 5G technology without unnecessary fees and restrictions. Since 5G relies on a distributed network of small antennae, this technology can help connect rural areas.
The Waterways of the Chesapeake Bay are crucial to our Commonwealth’s industry in many sectors. What, if anything, do you believe should be done to safeguard our waterways and natural resources for the future?
COMMITMENT: Promote energy that is good for both our economy and our environment — while rejecting costly, ineffective government mandates and tax hikes.
In April 2020, the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) was signed into law. Similar to the Green New Deal, it aims to eliminate fossil fuels in electricity production by 2045. Renewable energies can play an important role in our energy mix, especially as technological advances make these resources more efficient in the years to come. But the approach laid out in the VCEA is impractical and actually harms nature and will have a negligible impact on climate change. For instance:
- VCEA will increase Virginians’ electricity bill by 58%, or $800 more per year, with a new “electricity tax.” Dominion Energy will collect an additional $51B from customers by the end of the decade to the cover the costs of expensive new projects.
- Based on the results of a pilot project, state regulators have estimated Dominion’s wind power expansion will cost 26 times more than electricity on today’s market.
- To comply with the VCEA, Dominion Energy’s plan would require replacing 490 square miles of farmland and forests with large solar installations — that’s 25% more land than the whole of Fairfax County. This form of utility-scale solar production is also linked to other environmental damage like soil erosion and wildlife destruction.
- The plan also acknowledges that retiring fossil fuel production in Virginia would still require importing fossil fuel produced energy from neighboring states to meet our needs.
We should repeal the mandates and tax hikes in the VCEA and pursue reforms that will lower the cost of energy and promote good environmental stewardship.
- Virginia should work to eliminate taxpayer subsidies to energy companies — whether for renewables or fossil fuels — which prop up politically-connected firms rather than the most effective.
- We should build upon some recent reforms that lifted needless legal barriers on residential solar, such as easing restrictions on multi-family residences sharing solar panels if they choose to.
- Virginia must also modernize our regulatory system (such as ensuring a faster, fairer approval process for new energy facilities), so the commonwealth is open to new technologies that produce affordable, reliable energy with less impact on the environment. For example, increased use of natural gas is the main reason America has reduced greenhouse gas emissions over the last decade, and advances in carbon capture technology can reduce the impact further.
- Breakthroughs in nuclear technology — like the design approved by federal regulators in 2020 — can make reactors far safer and more efficient than older models. In time, these advances can upgrade Virginia’s decades-old nuclear infrastructure and produce low-cost, emissions-free energy.
After the 2020 election cycle, many voters are concerned about election integrity throughout the country. What steps do you think should be taken to ensure that Virginia’s elections are safeguarded and to restore the faith of concerned voters?
COMMITMENT: Free & Fair Elections
Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our representative government. But today elections in Virginia and across the country face a host of threats and the public is losing confidence in how elections are conducted. We must ensure the integrity of our elections so that no person’s vote is cancelled due to fraud, negligence, or interference, while also removing unnecessary barriers to civic participation.
- Virginia should reinstate its photo ID requirement to vote. In 2020, Democrats in Richmond repealed the commonwealth’s photo ID law, which had been supported by 75% of Virginians. Reinstating this measure would reduce the risks of voter fraud while also keeping elections accessible, since, as the evidence has shown, ID laws do not decrease voter turnout.
- We must promote in-person voting, which is the most secure and reliable way to vote. For example, historically, absentee ballots have had higher rates of rejection than in-person ballots. We should limit absentee voting to those who request a ballot and have a legitimate reason for needing one.
- To ensure that everyone is able to participate, we should also maintain the current law which allows early in-person voting at designated locations beginning 45 days before an election—including Saturdays—so people have ample time to cast their ballot.
- We must prevent hackers from interfering with election infrastructure. Election infrastructure is a target for both non-state actors and foreign governments like Iran, Russia, and China that have launched cyber-attacks in recent years. Virginia should ensure defenses, such as regularly updating cybersecurity measures for voting machines and databases, requiring a paper ballot record of all votes cast, and conducting rigorous post-election audits.
Virginia Highlights
What is your favorite State Park in Virginia?
Sky Meadows
What Virginia small business in your home town/city do you think everyone should visit?
Red Truck Bakery – Marshall, VA
If you could live anywhere else in Virginia, other than your current home town, where would you live?
My family and I love Marshall. I don’t see us moving.
Who is your favorite historical figure in Virginia’s long and proud history?
James Madison for his contribution to the Bill of Rights.
What would you tell someone to convince them to move to our Commonwealth?
From mountains to beaches, cityscapes to majestic landscapes, Virginia has something for everyone. Whether you want a small-town feel or life in the big city, we’ve got it all. Our history is rich, but the character and drive of our people are even more rich. Virginia is a place to raise your family, start your business, or embark on your next adventure – even if that adventure is finally putting your toes in the sand.
Final Editor’s Note:
If you’d like more information on Lance Allen for Lt. Governor, please check out his website https://lanceforva.com/ or reach out to the campaign Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and be sure to register as a delegate for the upcoming RPV Convention!