Yesterday, 16 candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates stood up in Richmond to push for Single Payer medicine. They stand united behind a goal of single payer healthcare in Virginia. They know it’s a long fight, and they also will not stop until it is won.

The United States is the richest country in the history of the world, and yet many citizens lack even basic healthcare because of their inability to pay. These candidates believe that is it the responsibility of the General Assembly to protect the health and safety of all Virginians.

I wrote that out and had to pause. It seems so normal written out like that — why, then, do so many in the Assembly not act in a manner that protects the health and safety of their constituents? How does protecting the health and safety of Virginians feel so revolutionary when that is the literal purpose of the Virginia General Assembly?

I would like to link you the candidates who made this pledge. You all know what to do. $27 or a $1 meeeeeeelllion, whatever you can afford to getting people elected.

Lee Carter

Flo Ketner

Stephanie Cook

Angela Lynn

Joshua Cole

Morgan Goodman

Jamaal Johnston

Kimberly Anne Tucker

Steve Aycock

Steve McBride

Michele Edwards

Brent Finnegan

Kellen Squire

Francis Stevens

David Rose-Carmack

Cori Johnson

The full video is compelling. Seriously. It’s 24 minutes. When it reaches Cori Johnson, listen to her stories of being a paramedic and having to try and talk people into accepting treatment, because they know if they do, they will gain so much debt they can never crawl out of it.

Virginia NEEDS people in Richmond that are willing to fight for us. We’re gerrymandered. Many of the people in that video are being brave by taking on this fight for the people of their district.

The health care system is fundamentally broken. It can turn billion dollar profits, and still raise premiums every year. Deny people a decent quality of life — how long can we continue to live at the mercy of insurance and pharmaceutical companies? How long can we continue to treat healthcare like a commodity than a right?

Please support our candidates in their fight for Single Payer healthcare in Virginia.

Here’s a link to a news story of the press conference yesterday: Health Care Warriors of Virginia

And here is the entire press conference