All 100 seats of the Virginia House of Delegates are on the ballot this year, and candidates are talking about everything from environmental policy to immigration. One issue that has become important in districts with colleges and universities is higher ed.
The future of higher ed is on the ballot in Virginia, where members of the House of Delegates will make decisions about who serves on Boards of Visitors that oversee state colleges and universities. That’s increasingly become a hot-button issue after Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin tried to appoint former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and others to the board that oversees the University of Virginia. Here’s Republican House candidate Sean Steinway, who is in a battleground seat in Fredericksburg that’s also home to the University of Mary Washington.
"I mean, if Governor Youngkin was supporting this guy, I'm pretty sure he’s a good dude," Steinway says. "You know what I'm saying? But I would have to do my own research about it. I'm not a puppet, OK? I am me."
The candidate Steinway’s trying to beat is incumbent Delegate Joshua Cole, who says he knows who Cuccinelli is, and he would have voted against him.
"This is a person who was an author of Project 2025. And in that Project 2025, they specifically come after higher ed," Cole says. "And so, you have a person now who's being appointed to a Board of Visitors who is an enemy of public education, an enemy of higher education."
Cole is a member of the House Privileges and Elections Committee, which has an oversight role in appointments to boards that oversee higher ed in Virginia. Although he says he would have voted against Cuccinelli in committee, he didn't get that chance because the Senate already rejected him first.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
