Candidate Profile: Shelly A. Simonds (Va. District 70)

Shelly A. Simonds is a Democratic candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates District 70. Her name will appear on the ballot on November 7, 2023.

Simonds is running against Michael D. Bartley and Matt J. Waters.

10 On Your Side reached out to all of the candidates running in this race with specific questions. The responses below came directly from the candidate and are unedited. If you do not see the candidate listed with a profile, we did not receive one.

Name: Shelly A. Simonds

Age: 55

Race: Virginia House of Delegates District 70

Party: Democratic

Website: www.simondsfordelegate.com

Biography: Shelly Simonds is a current member of the Virginia House of Delegates who is
running for re-election in the 70th district in Newport News. She is a former journalist and
Spanish teacher, who started her time in elected office as a member of the Newport News
School Board. Del. Simonds is a passionate advocate for students and teachers as a member
of the Education Committee in the House, where she has passed legislation promoting STEM
education and workforce development. She co-founded the Career and Technical Education
Caucus, a bi-partisan effort to connect students to careers. After a dramatic tied election in
2017, Del. Simonds has fought for fair elections and voting rights while serving in the House.
She has also passed legislation to fight human trafficking in hotels. Del. Simonds attended
Bucknell University for her undergraduate degree, studied economic development at the
University of Chile, then completed her Master’s at Stanford University. She and her husband, a
NASA engineer, live in the Denbigh area and have two daughters attending university.

Why are you running for this office?

I’m running for re-election because I enjoy all the various aspects of serving my
community: I like listening to people, being out in the community at events, I enjoy
researching policy, writing newsletters, and, above all else, delivering resources to
Newport News. It’s been the honor of my life to serve and I have been and will always
be committed to being a servant leader who works for the people, and with the people,
to get things done and solve problems in our community.

What is the most important issue facing Virginia, and what is your position on it?

Adapting to technological change is the overall theme I’ve seen in the General
Assembly and our biggest challenge. We see this in education, in terms of modernizing
our curriculum and infrastructure to prepare students with the high tech skills needed in
today’s global economy. We also see this challenge in controlling new drugs and the
proliferation of illegal Fentanyl.

Currently, the General Assembly is trying to keep up with constant innovations in
gambling like online sports betting and regulating the gray machines at convenience
stores. Finally one of the most important issues facing Virginia is helping people deal
with cost of living increases, especially the rising costs of prescription drugs. Advances
in healthcare and drug technology, improves our medical care, but can make it more
expensive. There are things we can do in government to make prescriptions more
affordable for Virginians including creating a Drug Price Affordability Board.

My position on all this is that legislators need to work collectively and decisively to adapt
our laws in this landscape of constant change. Technology means things change fast
and policy has to keep up and that is our greatest challenge in Virginia.

What it the top challenge facing your district, and how would you address it?

Making sure we have enough places for people to live and that we have affordable real
estate for people to buy is a huge challenge in Newport News and all over Hampton
Roads. In fact, the ODU State of the Region report said that a lack of housing may be
hampering the economic recovery, post-pandemic, in our region. Because we are
surrounded by rivers and water, we are running out of land that can be developed and
we need to talk to our communities about modernizing our zoning so we can have more
infill development, especially along public transportation corridors. We need to think
about how we can create nice and affordable places for our young families to live when
they settle down and the answer to that challenge may be to start building more on the
peninsula, but we cannot begin to explore these options without community input.

What is your view on Governor Glen Youngkin’s proposal for a 15-week abortion ban with restrictions?

All successful nations recognize the importance of birth control for helping women and
their families lead healthy productive lives. Access to all forms of contraception is an
essential part of ensuring that young women can achieve their educational goals before
starting a family and improves the economic outlook for everyone in society. Access to
abortion care is critical life-saving healthcare and is often performed for women
experiencing miscarriage or ectopic pregnancies. About one in four women will
experience a miscarriage during their lives. Access to medical care should not be
politicized. If we continue to drag the abortion issue out of the healthcare space and into
the political space, patients will suffer, doctors will hesitate to perform these life-saving
measures and we will discourage medical students from going into women’s healthcare.
Then it will be harder to get an appointment with an obstetrician and more dangerous to
have a baby.

How do you feel about the politicization of public education?

It’s shameful. The politicization of public education is making it harder to recruit and
retain teachers when we need them the most, especially after the pandemic. As a
result, we have massive teacher shortages now in Virginia. Instead of fighting culture
wars, we need to do what’s necessary to strengthen the teacher workforce with better
training, benefits and pay. We should also be focused on updating our woefully
inadequate SOQ funding models which have systematically underfunded our schools
for decades.

Other urgent priorities are updating our math and reading curriculums to make sure
students are both workforce ready and prepared for college. Finally, it’s no longer
acceptable to leave our littlest learners, children under 4 years old, out of our public
education system. We need to invest in early childhood education and make sure all
children are ready to learn in elementary school.

What legislation would you plan to sponsor in your first year?

From education policy, to environmental justice to human trafficking prevention, I have
not shied away from a fight as a legislator. I will continue to push for legislation that
helps working people like my bill to require that all elementary school teachers receive a
30 minute lunch break.

Labor issues and making sure our economic system works for everyone, not just
corporations, are also important to me. That’s why passing a railroad safety law to
ensure all trains have two crew members on board in case of emergency is another
priority. I will also work on legislation to help support human trafficking victims get back
on their feet and return to healthy productive lives. In the healthcare space, I will
introduce a bill to limit out of pocket costs for diagnostic breast cancer screenings. To
address the high cost of living and prescription drugs I will once again co-sponsor a bill
to establish a Drug Price Affordability Board.

What is your view on unlimited campaign contributions? Should that change?

I support campaign finance reform and putting limits on campaign contributions. As a
member of the House of Delegates, I do not accept contributions from companies like
Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power. Their ability to buy influence in Richmond is
why I support banning contributions from these public service corporations that are
regulated by the General Assembly. Doing so will go a long way in building trust,
leveling the playing field and facilitating real progress on environmental issues in the
Commonwealth of Virginia. Another way we can improve civic participation is by
allowing localities to establish voluntary public financing systems for local elections. This
would limit the influence of big money and make small donors the most powerful force in
campaigns to ensure community leaders with grassroots support can run for office
without having to rely on wealthy donors and corporate special interests.

How will you still value constituents with whom you disagree with?

As an elected representative, it’s my duty to hear people out and listen to their
perspectives because this is how we come to understand each other in our community.
I have been doing a lot of listening lately at community forums and by knocking on
doors in neighborhoods in the new 70th House district. I also value my constituents by
communicating with them about the legislative process and the latest happenings in the
General Assembly through weekly newsletters during session. I always send a
personal letter to senior citizens after the close of the General Assembly session in case
they are not receiving online communications. One of my core values is making sure
everyone feels included and heard in the legislative process, no matter their
partisanship.

Would you work to change anything about disciplinary practices as a result of the Richneck Elementary Shooting?

This spring I decided to knock on doors and talk to neighbors in the Richneck community to
check in and get their perspectives on gun safety. The parents seemed optimistic about some
of the steps being taken to secure the school like the added security personnel and the
weapons detection system at the entrance. Many people felt that we need to do more to make
sure children do not have access to guns at home and they wanted stiffer penalties for adults
who do not store weapons safely. They also wanted better communication from schools about
safe gun storage and school safety in general. Finally, they wanted better systems for handling
behavior problems in schools. That’s why I think adding positions in counseling and mental
health should be a priority in our public schools. This goes back to our SOQ state funding
formulas and making sure every school has enough councilors, support staff and assistant
principals