Candidate for Virginia State Senate - District 27 in 2023 Virginia Primary Election.
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Get StartedEqual Access to Assisted Reproduction. Learn more
Ben supports a Virginia constitutional amendment to protect abortion access. Learn more
Ensuring a Fairer Criminal Justice System. Ben supports reforming mandatory minimum sentences, post-conviction treatment including parole and clemency to provide incentives for prisoners to rehabilitate themselves, pretrial reform to ensure those who have not been convicted of a crime are not incarcerated while they await bail or their case is resolved unless those pose a risk to the community, increasing funding for public defenders, and ending the failed war on drugs. Learn more
Increasing Grant and Loan Programs. Learn more
Ben supports investment in “soft” infrastructure, such as affordable childcare, to allow more Virginians to enter the labor market. Over $50 billion per year is lost in revenue, wages, and productivity due to persistent childcare needs in the United States. Learn more
Prohibiting Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts of Practices. The Virginia Consumer Protection Act currently applies to a limited set of companies. Public utilities, banks, mortgage companies, insurance companies, and small-dollar lenders are exempt. Ben wants to close this loophole to ensure that all businesses in the Commonwealth engage in honest business practices. Moreover, he wants to amend the law to prohibit unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices comparable to federal consumer protection standards set out in the Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTC Act”) and Consumer Financial Protection Act (“CFPA”). Learn more
Ben supports taking decisive action against corporations that engage in price gouging and efforts to increase competition, including supporting new business development to bring prices down to combat record inflation. Learn more
Ben supports efforts to allow all families to build wealth and achieve the American Dream, including establishing state tax credits for working families, especially families with children, adopting a progressive income tax system, and lowering costs associated with higher education. Learn more
Ending the Politicization of Educators and Students. Learn more
Fair Funding for Fredericksburg City Public Schools. Learn more
Healthy Communities. Ben supports strong land protections to preserve our natural resources, ensure healthy communities, and protect our quality of life. He supports more funding for the Virginia Land Conservation Fund, Virginia Battlefield Preservation Fund, and Virginia Farmland Preservation Fund, which preserve our open space. He favors funding to keep our state parks functional and accessible. Learn more
Sensible Climate and Energy Policy. Ben supports efforts to reduce our carbon footprint in Virginia, including remaining in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (“RGGI”) and fostering the further deployment of renewable energy sources like wind and solar through strong incentives and policies that promote renewable energy. Learn more
Clean Water for Future Generations. Ben wants to preserve and protect water quality across the Commonwealth, including supporting funding to restore water quality, reduce pollution runoff, and protect clean water. He supports legislation requiring utilities to responsibly dispose of toxic waste, including coal ash, in permitted landfills and fully eliminate toxic waste in these sites. Learn more
Prohibiting Contributions from Regulated Monopolies. Ben supports prohibiting public utilities like Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power from using ratepayer money to buy the General Assembly. Learn more
Greater Transparency in Corporate Donations. Ben supports greater efforts to promote transparency and increase accountability in our elections, including requiring shareholder approval, public disclosure, and a business rationale for corporate political expenditures. Many states are also experimenting with banning corporate donations, like the federal prohibition on direct contributions from corporations. Ben supports reform efforts that put the government back in the hands of the people. Learn more
Campaign Contribution Limits. Learn more
Common-sense Gun Reform. Supporting common-sense gun laws, including a ban on assault weapons, limits on gun magazine size, red-flag laws, safe storage, gun registration, and licensing, is crucial for the safety and well-being of our communities. These measures can help to prevent gun violence, reduce the risk of mass shootings, and ensure that firearms are in the hands of responsible individuals. Learn more
Ben supports efforts to foster competition in the healthcare industry, including blocking anticompetitive practices, creating opportunities for smaller healthcare providers to compete with large health systems, and making it easier for doctors to sell their practices to their employees or other doctors rather than large healthcare systems. Learn more
Lowering Prescription Drug Costs. Ben supports efforts to reduce our prescription drug costs, including setting up a program to import prescription drugs into the United States from countries such as Canada, where they can be bought much cheaper. Learn more
Requiring Hospitals and Insurance Companies to Negotiate. Consolidation in the healthcare industry has trapped working families between large health systems and insurance companies. Learn more
Funding Homelessness Diversion Programs. Another aspect of supplying safe, affordable housing is ensuring dignity for the unhoused. Ben supports greater funding for homelessness diversion programs. Additionally, he supports efforts to create solutions for the chronically unhoused, including supporting efforts by local leaders like Micah Ecumenical Ministries to create communities where the chronically unhoused can receive safe, affordable housing along with a full complement of support to ensure they are on a pathway towards remaining. Learn more
Protecting Mobile Home Owners. Mobile homes are one of the last sources of affordable housing in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Yet, mobile homeowners have less protection than renters. Ben supports adopting a Mobile Home Owner Bill of Rights to protect mobile home owners from unreasonable increases in lot rent, require companies that maintain mobile home communities to protect the health and safety of the residents of these communities, and, when a company decides to sell, give the residents of the mobile home community the right of first refusal to purchase their community. He also supports allocating funding to support mobile homeowners’ abilities to purchase their communities. Learn more
Protecting Domestic Violence Survivors. Ben supports legislation making it illegal for landlords to evict survivors of domestic violence and crime victims simply for calling 911. Learn more
Workforce Housing. Ben supports increased funding for the Virginia Housing Trust Fund to support the development of more affordable housing, expanded grant programs to support first-time homebuyers, and laws to allow localities to impose affordability requirements on new construction. He also supports laws to make it easier for working families to build accessory dwelling units (“ADUs”) on their properties consistent with reasonable requirements imposed by local governments to protect health and safety. Learn more
Enhanced Penalties for Slumlords. Ben supports allowing localities to impose greater civil penalties on slumlords. Furthermore, he supports enhancing current landlord-tenant laws to give tenants the ability to fight against slumlords who refuse to maintain safe housing for their tenants. Learn more
Expanding Virginia Railway Express Service. Ben supports expanding VRE service during the weekdays to encourage greater ridership and providing weekend service to allow residents to travel to Washington, D.C., with their families, keeping more cars off the road. Learn more
Developing a Regional Transportation Authority. Too many transportation decisions affecting the Fredericksburg area are decided in Washington, D.C., or Richmond. Ben supports the creation of a regional transportation authority to ensure local control of transportation funding decisions making our transportation dollars work for us. Investing in High-Frequency Transit. Ben supports greater investment in high-frequency transit options, including the expansion of the FXBGO! bus fleet to include electric buses that offer expanded route options throughout the region comparable to the high-frequency Metrobus service provided in the Washington, D.C. area. Learn more
Ben also supports the right of workers to join a labor union and bargain collectively. Learn more
Ben believes that farmworkers must be covered by Virginia’s minimum wage laws, protected from heat stress, and provided a just pay for long hours worked in the fields, and that children, who are allowed to work on farms, should enjoy added protections from harsh working conditions. Learn more
Raising the Minimum Wage. Learn more
Promoting and Supporting Teachers Unions. Learn more
Ben believes that workers need to be able to stay home when they, or a loved one, is sick. Learn more
Increasing Compensation for our Educators. Ben supports appropriating greater funding in the Virginia budget towards increased compensation for our educators so that our educators receive compensation equal to the hard work they do to prepare our students for success. Learn more
Ben supports greater action to combat wage theft which can take many forms, including employers not paying the minimum wage, not paying overtime premiums, stealing workers’ tips, and not paying for all hours worked. Learn more
He supports allowing apprenticeships to meet occupational licensing requirements so that people can earn the skills and credentials they need while still earning a paycheck. Learn more
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