Cathy Rec is the democratic candidate running for Virginia’s House of Delegates representing the 33rd district, which includes Shenandoah and Page Counties. The seat, which is currently vacant, had been held for nearly 20 years by former representative Todd Gilbert, who stepped down earlier this year when he was nominated to be the U.S. Attorney for Virginia's Western District, which was later rescinded. Rec has long been active with campaigns. WMRA's Calvin Pynn asked Rec what first sparked her interest in politics.
Cathy Rec: My background is helping my friends. I met my best friend now during the Biden, the first Biden campaign. And she calls, she's doing the calls and we start talking. We had so much in common. And we've been hanging out ever since. So she ran for three positions and I helped her with those campaigns.
WMRA: What were those positions?
Rec: She did a [run for] supervisor, county supervisor, the delegate, and the state Senate. So she did those three. And of course, being a Democrat, she did good. She went in Winchester to the Senate. So she…you know, it's hard. This is a very, very hard area to campaign in. How come? Well, people will vote for anything if it's got an R next to its name. They don't seem to look at that person or what their background is. It's got an ‘R,’ and that's all they care about. So I've been knocking on doors. I don't really say that I'm one or the other. I'm both, as far as I'm concerned. I work for the people. And that is the reason why I started this, because I actually got really angry at the loss of our constitutional rights. We're just, they're just dwindling away. So I had a little bit of anger pushing me, but I'm really not. I'm not a I'm not out in the streets yelling. I'm really a pretty nice person.
WMRA: Well, the fact that you started out here with that you're doing this for your friends, paraphrasing, but I mean, I'm thinking about that in the larger sense of like community, because interesting thing, I mean, with the legislative seats in Richmond, in the House of Delegates, is that I feel like above the county level of governance or above the city level, it's about the closest thing that you can get in the larger, beyond the regional spectrum to something hyper-local.
Rec: Exactly, because One of the things that I have in my campaign is that I'm here to work for this area. The District 33 hasn't been represented. Well, there's nothing been done here in the last 19 years. There's been no improvements.
WMRA: Could you elaborate on that a little more?
Rec: Well, we need better education. That's black and white right there. That's the top point. You get better education. But one of the main problems with the area, all the counties, I represent two full counties and two parts, when the children graduate from high school, they have to leave. There's no place for them to work, especially in the Shenandoah/Page area. And for someone to drive up here, it's kind of inconvenient. Example, I have a grandson that's still, I can't afford to get him a car, and he, so we have a little bus system in Shenandoah County that they could run up and down. If they had a school to go to on Route 11, they could just jump on the bus and go to school. It's not a big deal. But there's no, once you're out of high school, you're on your own. A lot of people, especially in this area, we need technical jobs. We need electricians and plumbers and Farmers, the farmers, the children, you don't just walk onto a farm and you know what you're doing. Even though we're mostly agricultural, if you're not raised on that farm, but you do want to do farm work, you need to go figure, you need to go be educated as to how. It's just not something that falls in your lap. Now back down into the counties that I represent, I don't represent any cities at all. Everything is agricultural in country. I've got little towns, but I don't have any cities. So I have to think about, like I said, education and then bringing in infrastructure. One of the problems we will have if we keep our children home after they've graduated is where are they going to live. So housing is very, very important. And right now, going on in the last nine months, we're losing our medical.
WMRA: I would like to definitely talk a little more about that because I know that access or protecting access to Medicare and Medicaid or care, like what it is in Virginia now. I know that's been a high priority in this campaign. Yeah, could you explain a little more about that?
Rec: Well, outside of our area, Augusta, they've closed clinics.
WMRA: That's right.
Rec: So, and Shenandoah Memorial Hospital has, I've been watching it over the years, slowly closed down. departments. You can't have a baby in Shenandoah County. You have to go somewhere else. And even if, Medicaid does provide a lot of funding to these clinics and hospitals. Now, people are going to go, well, I don't have Medicaid and I don't need this. You know, I can afford it. I can do this and I can do it. Well, not everybody can. And guess what? When your hospital's closed down, it doesn't matter how much money you have. If you can't get to a hospital quickly, you're going to be in trouble. So you have to think outside your own box. You have to think of other people and what other people are going through because what happens to them trickles down to you.
WMRA: Yeah. And I just wanted to kind of rewind to something that you mentioned earlier, you know, the fact that for the better part of the last two days, decades, and I'd seen this, elsewhere where you've discussed your campaign and all that, the district, it seems like, has been, from what it sounds like, in your view, very underserved for the last two decades. What exactly, I mean, now that there is an opportunity for new representation, I mean, that's what we've been touching on this entire time, but I also want to know, like, What have you been hearing specifically, from your constituents? have they have they told you any personal stories, anything about how they just need to see some kind of change economically in education and health care, anything in the area?
Rec: Exactly. They need help. That's the first thing they say. I go to a small business or to a farm and the first thing they say is we need help here. Well, we're losing our outside help. And it's true, if you grow up in the city, you're not going to want to work on a farm. But the farm is extraordinarily important to survival for everybody. So we have to keep those going. I don't really want to see our farms being bought up by large corporations. We need to keep our farms here and for us. I don't want to turn us into Northern Virginia. I want us to stay agricultural. I want us to stay historical. And I want us to stay a good place for tourists to come and enjoy themselves. And there's so much that they could do here. But on the other hand, I first moved here 28 years ago, and there wasn't anything here for women to do. I mean, you could cut hair or clean houses, and that was about it. I was already a technician at that point. So it took me a lot of time to get my own business and work and I work and I fix things. Yeah, that's another campaign issue. I fix stuff.
WMRA: I got the impression that's a mindset that you're carrying into this campaign.
Rec: That's exactly what I'm carrying into this campaign. I find a problem, I figure out how to get it corrected, and then I go in there and I don't stop until it's fixed. I just don't, unless it's totally out of my hands. if it gets to the point where, okay, I have to give it, but I will work on something until I see that it's corrected. So I also am not making any huge campaign problem. I'll fix this. I want people to tell me what they need. You tell me what you need. Your issue is my issue. You give me your needs and I will go in there and I will figure out how to get it done.
WMRA: I know it's kind of early to tell, but are there any, at this point, potential future bills that you have in mind that you've maybe considered if you are elected?
Rec: Well, the main thing I want to do is keep the rights we already have as Virginians. I don't want to tear up our Constitution. I am, Virginia Constitution, US Constitution, those are very strong points for me. Let's not mess with them. And I want to do what people need done as long as you're not mean to other people. And so no, I don't have a particular bill at this moment that I'm looking at, but I do know that the, those of us who are, there's, you know, 27 new people running for very red districts. and we are all very familiar with each other. We've done things together, and we know that we can go in and support each other to help all of Virginia. I'm A Virginia first person. If America's not going to help us as a whole, we've got to take care of ourselves as Virginia for Virginians.
WMRA: Just to clarify, when you say America, you mean at the federal level?
Rec: Yeah, at the federal level, exactly.
WMRA: Just to continue on that point, in spite of anything that's happening at the federal level right now, or could potentially happen, ideally, what do you see as the responsibility from Richmond at the state level to ensure that Virginians do still have, maintain some quality of life? I guess it's probably the best way to put it.
Rec: We have to work together - all of the delegates have to work together - because whatever we do in one area is going to affect everybody else. So, we have to maintain our rights that we already have that have already been put in place and not allow somebody to come in and say, okay, we're going to change it now. We have to have the votes. We have to be able to support the governor. We have to be able to support each other. And on top of it, if there is something in the minority party that does need to be done, I will work with the minority party. I will work across the aisle. I will see, again, I will see that whatever we do benefits either my district or all of Virginia. I don't even want to talk about issues that aren't going to benefit everybody.
WMRA: Is there anything else on your mind that I didn't think to ask that while I have you on the mic here?
Rec: I will do the best I can through Virginia's legislation to keep our PBS and our NPR stations on the air, especially the ones in the rural areas.
WMRA: Cool. We appreciate that. Kathy, thank you so much.
Rec: You're so welcome.
Editors Note: We’ve also reached out to Rec’s opponent, Republican Justin Pence, but have not yet heard back.
