Rod D. Thompson II
Republican | Virginia
Candidate Profile
Leans Conservative
BIOGRAPHY
Name
Rod D. Thompson II
Party
Republican
Election Year
2023
Election
Primary
Race
House of Delegates, Dist. 84
Incumbent
No
Links
EDUCATION
Saint Leo University, St. Leo, AA - Liberal Arts, 2011
Regent University, Virginia Beach, Cinema - Television
WORK & MILITARY
US Navy, Chief Petty Officer, 1999-2022
Author
Small Business Owner
AFFILIATIONS
Ebenezer United Methodist Church, President, Men's Ministry. Leader of Puppet Ministries., Bennett's Creek Little League (Baseball)
Coach, Eclipse Fourth of July Celebration - Suffolk, VA, Chairman / Parade Lead
USS SAN JACINTO, Volunteer Outreach Coordinator / CSADD Pressident
POLITICAL OFFICES HELD
Candidate did not provide
POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT
Candidate did not provide
Race
ENDORSEMENTS
REPORTED BY CANDIDATE (5)
Aimee Griffin - Widow of fallen Firefighter Chris Griffin, the first Virginia Firefighter to receive disability benefits under Virginia Presumption Laws
Gary Crossfield - Owner of CE Tactical, gun store.
Dr. DawnMarie Brittingham - Suffolk Public School Board Member
Sherri Story - Former Suffolk Public School Board Member
Thomas Hazelwood - Retired Commissioner of the Revenue, City of Suffolk
OTHER INFORMATION
QUESTIONNAIRE
RIGHT TO LIFE
Under what circumstances should abortion be allowed?
Rape, Incest, the health of the mother, and health of the child.
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive funds from federal, state, or local governments (including Title X grants).
Strongly Agree
I support 'aid in dying' laws which legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Neutral
I'm not familiar enough with euthanasia laws to make an informed decision.
ECONOMY
What changes, if any, should be made to the tax code?
I'm a firm believer in having a budget and sticking to it. Our current tax system is a self-licking ice cream cone of growth and reactive taxing to make up for that growth, then we do it all over again. I also support the abolishment of the military retiree tax, and any taxes placed upon first responders and law enforcement retirement as well.
What government spending would you reduce in order to balance the budget?
I need to sit down and look at where all of the money is going to make an informed decision, but Virginia celebrated a $3.6B surplus in the general fund. I think we have some room to chip away at the budget and reduce taxes all the same.
Taxpayer-funded public education should be guaranteed through college.
Strongly Disagree
The government should have as little to do with education as possible, and that's becoming more and more apparent in grades K-12, where curriculum is an antiquated mess, discipline is lacking, and the fundamentals of being a successful adult are falling by the wayside. The last thing we need to do is extend their overreach to collegiate studies. I believe state-funded schools should be reined in on how much they spend, especially when we're talking about the pay of employees.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Individuals and businesses should be required to provide services even if it would violate their moral and/or religious beliefs.
Strongly Disagree
I grew up in the era of "No Shoes. No Shirt. No service," in a free America where the owner of a business could deny service to whomever they choose. Now, that business owner would be held responsible for those actions if they were illegally discriminatory, but no person should be forced into a situation or to provide services that compromise or go against their own beliefs.
Under what circumstances can government close churches?
Never.
HEALTHCARE
What most closely matches your view on healthcare: A) Healthcare for all should be guaranteed and funded by the government with no private healthcare option. (includes "universal healthcare," "medicare for all," etc.) B) Healthcare insurance funded by the government should be available for all who want it, along with private healthcare options. C) Medicaid and Medicare should remain available, but no other taxpayer-funded programs are necessary. D)Tax-payer funded health care should be abolished in all forms, and Medicaid and Medicare should be de-funded.
B. I grew up poor and can count on two hands how many times I went to a doctor or dentist between ages 10 and 18. I'm NOT a socialist by any means, but there's no reason that we should not be taking care of the basic health needs of our population.
Under what circumstances (if any) should a government, school, or employer be allowed to require vaccinations?
Never.
NATIONAL SECURITY
What should the United States do to help eradicate the threat of Islamic terrorism?
As an Iraq War vet, almost twenty years from my days on the ground, I can tell you that if you don't kick the bee hive, the bees seldom attack. We have pockets and splinter cells that are slowly fading from existence with the growing tech and capabilities of clandestine forces. We should remain vigilant of intelligence to thwart possible attacks, but we cannot eradicate an entire ideology where we cut off one head and three grow back and where the soldiers willingly give their lives to end twenty of our own. Tomes have been written about the unease within the entire Arabian AOR and none of them have ever provided a single, guaranteed resource to rout Islamic terrorists because quite honestly, you can't wipe out an entire religion. That's actually called genocide.
I support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement to pressure Israel to withdraw from occupied territories, remove the separation barrier in the West Bank, allow full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees.
Choose not to answer
IMMIGRATION
The U.S. should do more to physically secure the southern border.
Strongly Agree
While I'm a proponent of legal immigration and the American Dream, we must understand that drug and sex trafficking across our borders are a daily occurrence. A strong border is a deterrent, but we must also invest in continuous ground-penetrating radar scans to combat the tunneling that allows quicker access to illegal immigrants.
Who should be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. and under what circumstances?
E Puribus Unum translates to "Out of many. One," and the Statue of Liberty does come with any caveats. Our laws provide for legal entry into the county, and anyone who falls within those laws has my full encouragement to contribute to the growth of our society.
EDUCATION
I support school choice, including voucher programs, tax credits, charter schools, private schools, and home schools.
Strongly Agree
Public schools are failing. We need to act swiftly to shore up the leaks and protect our children by any means necessary! School choice is a powerful tool to increase competition among schools and students to seek out and attend the best possible institution in their area. If we continue on our present course, where students leave high school far less intelligent than their annual predecessors, we're going to find that our future workforce will be less than spectacular.
VALUES
Judeo-Christian values established a framework of morality which is necessary for our system of limited government.
Strongly Agree
I knew a man whose father was a lawyer, and though not a Christian, the man knew the Bible front to back. Why? "Because," he said, "All laws come from the Bible." While I am a firm believer in freedom of religion, Christianity at its core is about worship, love, and service. When we empower the citizenry, whether they be Christian or not, we entrust them to serve their communities with an earnest desire for a good life. Big government imposes. Small government empowers.
I support adding gender identity as a specially protected class in non-discrimination laws.
Disagree
Adding gender identity as a specially protected class in non-discrimination laws could infringe on the rights of others, create legal challenges, and potentially undermine the effectiveness of existing laws. It could also conflict with religious freedom and create a burden for businesses and organizations. With subjective definitions of "gender," it opens the doors to unimaginable discrimination lawsuits based on people simply gaming the system by attempting access to otherwise off-limits spaces
Marriage is a God-ordained, sacred and legal union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to alter this definition.
Neutral
Depends on your God. As a Christian, I know what the Bible says, but not all Americans are Christians. We cannot besmirch their Consitutional beliefs for the sake of our own religion, as that would be oppressive in nature. Marriage in the United States is nothing more than a legal agreement between two adults to "share the benefits and the bills" so to speak. It's why we need lawyers and a judge to perform a divorce, not a pastor or priest.
I agree with Critical Race Theory (CRT) which asserts that the institutions in the United States are fundamentally racist.
Strongly Disagree
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
Christian. Matthew 22:37-39 sums it up. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Take care of the people around you as you would take care of yourself. Provide in ways that uplift, empower, and enrich all communities. Love is not just limited to believers, but extends to all humanity regardless of their faith or background. Therefore, I choose to love everyone, even those who would hate me and will let God sort them out on the back side of this life.
ELECTIONS AND VOTING
People should be able to vote without photo identification.
Strongly Disagree
This is common sense. You can't buy alcohol or cigarettes without ID, but voting is all willy-nilly. Democrats oppose proving your identity for the sake and sanctity of our electoral system and default to the insulting proclamation that minorities can't get IDs as easily as whites. That's simply not true and there are a plethora of videos online to prove otherwise. We need to shore up our electoral system and remind the American people that their vote matters and is safe.
What laws would you propose to change present voting practices?
Clear voter rolls of the deceased every year for the sake of mail-in voting. Make election day a state holiday, and shorten early voting to fifteen days. Any and all cases of election fraud are punishable as felonies with a minimum sentence to be determined. This is the start. In third-world countries, citizens vote on one day, and they dip their fingers into a staining ink that lasts for days to prevent them from voting twice. We're the country that made an art of representative elections, but somehow we're now living in an era where people no longer trust the sanctity of their votes. That is completely unacceptable and we should work to do everything we can to restore that trust.
EQUALITY
Is racism a threat to domestic security in the United States? Why or why not?
Yes. There is a continuous push from the left to race-bait and push anti-white agendas with a focus on historic injustices - effectively picking old scars to make them bleed again. The strategic aim of the Democratic party is to control minority populations, thereby growing their power grasp through the exploitation of the news, current events, and historic economic inequality. Yet, the Democrats have never once provided any viable resolution to enriching minority communities once in power. In fact, it's the opposite. Democrats pander and perpetuate the habit of never fulfilling their oath to minority communities, while systematically blaming the Republican party for the plight of minority populations and people of color. The left's continuous abuse of power is only exasperated by Republican inaction. In fact, the right's outright refusal to acknowledge the BLM movement in its infancy led to the Democrat party's weaponizing of said platform, and now the "activist group" is nothing more than a corrupted, militant arm of the Democrat party who has pocketed millions in donations with only fractional aid to the black community. We’re three years from the outrage over George Floyd that spurred donors to throw $90 Million dollars at BLM in 2020, and where has all of that money gone? How are America’s black communities prospering from BLM’s involvement? How are our local black communities any better than they were before? BLACK LIVES DO MATTER - unless you’re the Democrat at the top who is stuffing your pockets by stoking division while taking advantage of the outrage. Where are our local Democrat politicians who received endorsements from socialist organizations, and call themselves socialists? Why aren’t they calling to “redistribute” the wealth from the very organization that is supposed to be aiding and furthering our black communities? If this is allowed to continue without intervention by moderate Republicans, Democrats, and local activist leaders, we will continue to see the devolution of society. Minority communities should be a focal point for elected officials to uplift without creating dependency, which has been the case with the Democrats.
Reparations should be given to people on the basis of race.
Strongly Disagree
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Which comes closest to your view? A) Stricter environmental laws and regulations cost too many jobs and hurt the economy. B) Stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost.
There's a middle ground. We can grow without tearing down every tree, plowing under every field, and paving over every blade of grass. I'm not sure why it's so hard to provide growth opportunities without destroying natural resources. I would say that we've reached a point in history where technology has evolved within the industrial sector to support upgrades to less-polluting methods of production, and for those legacy factories still in operation, there should be provisional resources to offset pollutants without hurting the company's bottom line. This is an issue that is at the heart of my district, as we find growth and solar power encroaching upon historically valued farmland and treasured wetlands that provide for the fishing and oyster industries. Nature doesn't "bounce right back" after it's been razed and we need to be mindful of finding our balance with the natural resources around us. There is an entire branch of scientific study dedicated to exactly this, ergo I would default to sitting down with people far smarter than I in this field of study, to better understand the give and take aspect and find that balance.
I support the use of hydraulic fracking to extract oil and natural gas resources.
Neutral
ABOUT YOU
What do you think is the general purpose of government?
To work FOR the people. Not the other way around. The government should rein itself in to be as easily manageable as possible with as little power as possible. I'm a fan of Ronald Reagan and share his love of the Constitutional granting of power to the citizens of this country, and our trust in the government is a fatal flaw in the plan of our republic. Let them pass laws that directly promote the growth and the benefit of their country, state, or locality, but hold up before they get too powerful.
When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and religious liberty, which of the following best describes you overall?
Conservative
Please provide publicly available information, including interviews and media reports, validating your answer to the previous question (other than your website).
https://www.smithfieldtimes.com/2023/03/31/84th-house-race-changes-to-gop-primary-following-court-ruling-in-senate-dispute/ https://hamptonroadsblackcaucus.com/
Have you ever been convicted of a felony or been penalized in either civil or criminal court for sexual misconduct? If so, please explain.
No.
What else would you like voters to know about you, including your legislative priorities?
My bottom line is public service. I don't care about glory or titles. I want to do the right thing for the people of my district and inspire others to take up the mantle of service. Our country needs fewer politicians and more public servants, comprised of average Joes and Janes with an earnest desire to make our country a little bit better. People should stop calling politicians "leaders," and remember that they're elected servants. When we put too much faith in the government, following 9/11, our way of life has since formed into nothing more than a shade of its former self.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE & PUBLIC SAFETY
Police officers should be personally immune from prosecution for conduct consistent with departmental policy (qualified immunity) while on duty.
Strongly Agree
I support redirecting funds from police departments to mental health and community programs.
Strongly Disagree
Law enforcement officers need the funding to do their job. There are enough squandered dollars in the budget to move elsewhere for mental health and community programs. Again, there was a $3.6B surplus in the budget this year. We don't need to take away from funding that could save lives and keep our streets safe.
2ND AMENDMENT
What restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety?
None. Criminals don't obey laws. I'm of the mind that Constitutional carry, firearm safety and familiarity training in elementary education, and empowerment of the average Joe to embrace gun culture would create an incredibly hard target for criminals in less than one generation. People fear that Constitutional carry would lead to an "old west" mentality, but that's just fearmongering by those who probably don't possess the required boldness to defend themselves anyway.
Victims of gun violence should be able to sue firearms dealers and manufacturers.
Strongly Disagree
I can't sue the maker of a pencil if my son fails a college class for not passing his final. Likewise, manufacturers should NOT be held liable for the actions of those who utilize their products for criminal purposes. Bad people will do bad things with whatever tools that they can find, and holding a manufacturer liable is both moot and asinine.
