Nancy Guy is the Democratic candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates District 83. Her name will appear on the ballot on Nov. 2.

Candidate: Nancy Guy

Race: Virginia House of Delegates District 83

Party: Democratic

Website: guyfordelegate.com

Biography: Nancy Guy proudly serves the 83rd District in the Virginia House of Delegates. Growing up in Virginia Beach and graduating from William and Mary and the University of Virginia School of Law, Guy is a proud product of Virginia’s public schools. She’s a former Virginia Beach School Board member, retired lawyer, small business owner, and education consultant.

Guy is married to Richard, an attorney, and they have two children, Donald and Maggie, son-in-law, Beau, and two grandchildren. Guy and her husband live in Ocean Park in Virginia Beach. Guy has always been active in her church, Bayside Presbyterian, where she is an elder and, through her work with the Community Service Ministry, has volunteered with a variety of programs that help others in the community.

As a delegate, she has fought tirelessly to improve our public schools and keep our students safely learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. As a strong advocate for the environment, she is pleased to serve on the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee, as well as being appointed by the speaker as one of three state representatives for Virginia on the multi-state Chesapeake Bay Commission. She brings the perspective of a former local elected official to the Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee and serves on the Courts of Justice Committee, where she has been a part of the transformational changes to Virginia’s justice system. 

Why should Virginians re-elect you to the Virginia House of Delegates?

Voters should re-elect me because I have delivered on my promises of 2019: I have projected access to health care, fought to improve funding to public education (I was named VEA Legislator of the Year because of my advocacy), passed common-sense gun safety laws, been a champion on defending the environment and battling sea level rise, and worked for meaningful criminal justice reform.

I have been accessible to my constituents throughout the pandemic and helped hundreds with VEC claims, PPP loans, ReBuild Virginia grants, and DMV appointments. I understand my job is to represent the people of the 83rd District and work with local, state, and federal government to address the issues that concern my constituents.

What do you hope to accomplish, if elected?

I hope to improve resources for public education (increased teacher pap, cut SOQ ratios to improve class size); protect the environment by improving electrification in the transportation sector, including school buses and public transport; expand local authority to address flooding and expand clean energy jobs; reform our criminal justice system, especially the juvenile justice system; and help our community recover from the pandemic.

What is the most important issue facing your district, and what is your position on it?

The continued public health crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Please see my responses below for my position on this issue.

What is your position on Virginia’s overall response to the coronavirus pandemic, and what might you have done differently?

Overall I am proud of Virginia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We did a lot of things right:

• We allocated resources effectively to our health care facilities to keep them from becoming overwhelmed as they were in other states.
• We struck a good balance between keeping businesses open and restricting flow to “flatten the curve” early on, including opening the beaches in Virginia Beach.
• We invested heavily in the ReBuild VA program — $400 million — to help small businesses recover.
• We used $1 billion to replenish the VEC trust fund and hold the line on unemployment taxes.
• Virginia was the number one state in the distribution of rental assistance funds to minimize evictions while protecting landlords.
• We deployed vaccines effectively to reach 70% of adult vaccinations by July 1.

We could have, of course, done some things better including:

• We could have helped our school systems more as they struggled with the challenges of remote learning and hybrid models.
• We could have staffed up the VEC more effectively to meet the demand and process appeals in a more timely fashion. 

What are the top three issues created by the coronavirus pandemic in your district, and how would you plan to address them?

1. Reopening schools safely, protecting our children while addressing the educational loss. I patroned a bill to have JLARC assess and quantify those losses so we can target resources to address them. I advocated for the increase in counselors and the $100 million in resources already deployed.
2. Uneven access to health care. The pandemic has highlighted the need to improve access to affordable health care, not just for the pandemic but for chronic health conditions ignored during the pandemic.
3. The pandemic’s impact on small business.