A cascade of special elections following last year’s promotion of a state senator to Congress led JJ Singh to take over a House of Delegates seat in Loudoun County.
Singh says he’s the first person in the country’s history to wear a turban in a state legislature. A practicing Sikh, he’s proud of that title and as the newest member of the oldest continuous lawmaking body in the New World.
Singh said his background and the diversity of his district is a testament to overcoming Virginia’s Civil War and Jim Crow history,
“It’s not in spite of living in the south, in spite of living in Virginia, that I was successful in this election; it’s because I live in Virginia that I was successful in this election,” Singh said as we rode up an elevator up to his office at the General Assembly building.
I spoke with Singh after a news conference announcing the success of his bill that will require parental notification if a student has a drug overdose in school. It’s a controversial issue that has animated a raucous conservative base in his Loudoun County district.
He won his race by 25 points just over a month earlier.
His first venture into public service was with The Peace Corp out of college. After grad school, he worked in the White House in President Barack Obama’s budget office, then as a Senate staffer. Now, he’s president of a chain of resorts and hotels and has two daughters, ages six and four.
“I’m concerned about their future. Gun violence is the number one cause of death. They have fewer rights than my wife did a few years ago. And college tuition costs have skyrocketed," he tells me. "So those are the reasons I ran.”
He’s noticed a few big changes in Richmond compared to his D.C. days. There’s less time, more bills and more votes. But he said the process is less opaque than what he saw in Washington.
“I actually think the way Virginia does it is fairly impressive,” he said.
In the legislative session he’s notched a few wins; beyond the overdose notification bill, he has an effort to expand the number of retailers that can sell tax credit earning gun safes and a bill that asks for better guidance for security at places of worship.
Whether or not that success holds out as he faces another election in November remains to be seen.
