Will King
Green Party/Independent
Age: 46 Personal information:
Married, lives in Bealeton
Why are you running for delegate:
After serving my country for 25 years, I wanted to be more involved in my community. Being a veteran and a police officer, once you’ve served people it’s hard to stop.
The heroin epidemic has been detrimental to our community, what legislation can be passed to help combat the epidemic?
Instead of introducing new legislation, I’ll use the existing legislation to fund county sheriffs and police departments to give them the tools and the manpower to fight drug epidemic.
Healthcare has been a major topic of discussion for years now, should Virginia opt into Medicaid and if they don’t are they losing out on federal dollars?
Access to healthcare should be a right of citizenship. Medical treatment should not be limited to the privileged. One out of every seven people in the 18th district has no health insurance. The under-insured and those with unaffordable coverage is staggering. We must come together, across party lines with solutions. The expansion of Medicaid as it presently stands is both a good business decision as well as a moral one. Virginians have this money withdrawn from their paychecks to pay for it, and have been for years. Even at the 10% liability to the state, the increased revenues and job creation will add more to the state budget than the cost. This is certainly not the long-term solution for healthcare, but rather an immediate stop gap that would benefit 2,600 district residents and should be done. “Obamacare” was not the answer, and the proposed “Trumpcare” is even worse. If the Congress is not willing, or able, to address this crisis then we, as Virginians must. I am prepared to lead the way on this, looking at what other states are doing.
What can be done to drive more industry to the area and what is the best use of economic development dollars in District 18?
Enacting agricultural, environmental conservation programs with the emphasis on small business and job creation. Let’s take solar power, the 18th District does not have its own solar power company. Going into solar, for every one person that works on a solar panel that creates three or four jobs. So just imagine if we can bring something like that in Fauquier County. If you have a strong environmental platform, people are going to vote for you regardless of what party you belong to. We oppose all pipelines, all fracking, all coal ash and uranium mining. We can strengthen and expand our community college system to include more vocational training and post-high school certification while assisting other students to begin their academic journey before advancing to four-year institutions. Tax incentives for developers and localities who are willing to invest in diversified farms, agricultural activities, to promote more agrihoods, productive conservation, community-supported agriculture and community food co-operatives. Schools, correctional facilities, hospitals and long-term care homes funded by state should have support sourcing from local farms and be encouraged to engage in public-private partnerships to increase distribution to these facilities. School budgets, healthcare and correctional workers should allow for compensation to include reimbursement for participating in community-supported agriculture.
Following the incidents in Charlottesville earlier this summer, there has been much discussion about rising tensions in our nation? Should the state and localities remove Confederate statues to help alleviate the issue?
All humans are entitled to rights that are inalienable to all of us regardless of nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. All of humanity is entitled to these basic human rights without discrimination. The following are examples of these rights and are interrelated, interdependent and indivisible:
The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
The right to live your life free of discrimination
The right to grow old with dignity
The right to a fair trial and due process of the law
The right to be free from slavery
The right to freedom of speech.
What makes you the best option for delegate?
We’re the rational alternative.The big parties are pointing figures at each other. What I represent is a swing vote. I’m there for the people, nobody is going to tell me how to vote.
Look at Delegate Webert’s record, tell me what stands out. It’s nothing personal against him, but when you look at him you look at an established bought and paid for legislator. People are always going to lean a certain way, when you are able to talk to a person at a ground level and find out what’s important to them, and explain how you’re going to help them, they are more than happy to listen to it.