Hi folks!

Sheila Bynum-Coleman here, candidate for Virginia House of Delegates District 66. We have a lot of great candidates running here all throughout the commonwealth, but I’m in a particularly unique position: not only am I running in one of the handful Clinton-won, Republican-held seats, but I am also taking on Speaker of the House Kirk Cox.

In fact, Vanity Fair recently called our race “a microcosm of the political trends and battles that have come to define the Trump era.”

Speaker Cox owes his political career to brutal, illegal racial gerrymandering; the Republicans packed as many African-American voters into surrounding districts to shore him up. But the federal courts found that Virginia “sorted voters into districts based on the color of their skin” and undid the Cox-mander. Outrageously—but unsurprisingly—Cox decided to petition the Supreme Court to revert back to the racist, gerrymandered map, spending millions of Virginia taxpayer dollars to do so. Fortunately, he failed and fair maps prevailed. Game on.

Now the voters in Chesterfield County and the City of Colonial Heights get to choose their delegate, not the other way around. And once I tell my story, I am convinced the people of the 66th District will choose me to represent them.

I’m a working mother of five, small business owner, and community activist. I first got involved in politics once my delegate decided I wasn’t worth his time to discuss my child with special needs. That fueled me to run for office—but it wasn’t until my daughter got shot that I became a #MomOnAMission to fundamentally change Virginia politics. While she survived, I know far too many people in my community who have lost loved ones to this crisis, and I refuse to let the gun lobby win on this issue.

I take the issue of gun safety extremely seriously. After the horrific shooting in Virginia Beach, Speaker Cox publicly stated that sensible gun violence prevention laws are “hasty and suspect.” As more than just a gun violence survivor—as a human being—I was deeply offended by his remarks.

I also deeply care about so many other issues that affect Virginia such as the environment, funding for our public schools, raising the minimum wage, protecting women’s reproductive freedoms, and ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment. But I will expand on these in a future post.

Right now, I am asking you for your support. We have a crucial June 30 fundraising deadline coming up, and I need your help to #CancelCox and help flip VA blue!

See you on the trail (and future blog posts),

Sheila