Vivian E. Watts

I support current Virginia law which is grounded on precedent under Roe v. Wade. Note: Not a single Republican in 2020 voted for my bill to protect FDA approved birth control (such as the IUD or the Pill that prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus) from being termed an abortion.

Disagree

Choose not to answer

The Virginia state and local tax structure needs to be modernized to close loopholes giving certain technologies and means of doing business an advantage, to relieve our colonial dependence on the real estate tax, and to reflect inflation which has created a greater tax burden for middle and low income.

Virginia has and always has had a balanced budget without borrowing for operating expense and with maintaining healthy reserves for a rainy day, both of which are important elements of our AAA bond rating.

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I strongly agree that taxpayer funding should support K-12. I strongly agree that community college should be funded by taxpayers to a much greater degree than four-year institutions of higher learning. I strongly agree that Virginia should work its way back to reducing tuition at four-year institutions, which now covers half of the cost for in-state students rather than only one-third as it did some 25 years ago.

Agree

Freedom of religion is preserved by individuals choosing not to be employed to provide services that would violate their moral and/or religious beliefs. A business is obligated to serve the public within the community standards context regarding obscenity or professional practice.

Very, very rarely. While in hindsight some governments over-reacted in the pandemic, the problem they faced was that individual decisions to possibly expose themselves to people whom they didn't have a reasonable belief didn't have COVID-19 could make that individual a carrier to other un-suspecting persons and spread the disease more broadly and to particularly vulnerable individuals. We must not lose the perspective that over one million Americans lost their lives to COVID and over 100 million contracted COVID some with having long-term affects.

My response starts at C, with expansion of government-backed insurance to specific populations that private insurers will not cover at affordable rates.

To control communicable disease, with an opt-out for individuals whose health would be compromised by a specific vaccine.

We need to combat all forms of terrorism. In 2021, over 48,000 people died from gun-related homicide and suicide.

Neutral

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As a Virginia legislator, I do not have the base of knowledge necessary.

U.S. immigration law has long needed reform, including significantly increasing the number of hearing officers and judges to process asylum cases, legal status of "Dreamers", essential workers, and foreign students graduating from U.S. colleges and universities.

Strongly Disagree

Agree

Agree

Strongly Disagree

The Golden Rule; Matthew 25:40 (In as much as you done it unto the least of these ...); Matthew 25:14-30 (Parable of the Talents); married in a white dress, with mutual loyalty and support that has lasted 63 years.

Agree

I would make it easier for physically-disabled to vote (especially seniors), but my focus is primarily on preserving the recent changes in Virginia's voting access to allow early voting starting 45 days before an election, counting of ballots received Friday after the election but post-marked before the election, same day registration, no-excuse absentee voting, etc.

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Critical Race Theory does not assert that "the institutions in the United States are fundamentally racist." It is an analytic approach to determine whether a legal case can be made that the results of the way that a given institution has functioned has resulted in substantially different outcomes on different races.

Yes. I believe that America is strongest when each person's abilities are engaged to the greatest degree.

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The GI bill was key to opening up educational and home ownership opportunities broadly to veterans who, otherwise, wouldn't have been able to move beyond their up-bringing. Unfortunately, those opportunities weren't typically open to Black veterans, leading to wide differences in average wealth that's persisted, if not grown, in generations that followed. While I don't believe in reparations, this adds to my realization of the need to specifically address the needs of low income communities.

B

Disagree

"Liberty and justice for all"

Lean Liberal

A Delegate to the Virginia General Assembly gets little or no attention in the media market of the Nation's Capitol, which also covers millions of people and many local governments. Therefore, the only source of publicly available information is vivianwatts.com/About Me; vivianwatts.com/Vivian's Views; vivianwatts.com/The Election; the General Assembly website https://leg1state.va.org; and the Virginia Public Access Project https://vpap.org.

No

My legislative priorities are mental health, K-12 funding, and tax modernization focused on equity.

Choose not to answer

While I agree with the concept of qualified immunity for conduct while on duty, it only works if there is well-developed department policy that reflects prevailing professional standards. Appropriate application of qualified immunity has further been abused by court rulings based on very precise determinations that the facts of a case do not precisely match the precedent of a prior court ruling.

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I support increased funding for mental health and community programs as being far more effective to reduce police officers being diverted from law enforcement. I do not support reducing police budgets in order to fund meeting human needs, given that well-screened and well-trained officers operating within a structured and adequately staffed system of accountability needs to be assured.

My support of gun safety legislation includes universal background checks, red flag laws, authority to prohibit weapons on posted government property, and an age limit to purchase a military assault weapon.

Agree