Katie will fight to keep abortion safe and legal in Virginia.

Now more than ever, Virginia needs State Senators who personally understand what it means to protect reproductive rights. As a pastor, Katie has counseled women on individual reproductive decisions, including abortion care. Virginia is now the bulwark against further infringement of reproductive rights in the South, and is the last Southern state to have these freedoms protected in law.

As an advocate for the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Katie has fought to expand health options for women and all Virginians for close to a decade. As the Director of a nonprofit, Katie provides full health care coverage for all of her full time employees. As the Board Chair of a nonprofit daycare, Katie implemented paid sick days and paid family leave for teachers and staff. As an Executive Committee member of Virginia’s United Methodist Church pensions and benefits board, Katie knows how to bring coverage to over 3,000 people and their families in managed care plans.

As a State Senator, Katie will bring this experience to advocate for paid sick days, paid family leave, and expanded health options for all Virginians. As someone who has brought this level of care to the people who rely on her, Katie can advocate effectively to change the mind of those who might think this level of health care is impossible.

Katie is committed to passing comprehensive gun control and violence prevention legislation to make our communities safer. As a State Senator, Katie’s priority legislation will be to finally close the gun show loophole, require the safe storage of firearms in homes where children are present, ban the sale of assault rifles, and limit firearm magazine sizes.

As a pastor and community organizer, Katie has led students and community members as they grieve the impacts of gun violence, including self-inflicted gun violence tragedies. Katie will work with family members of victims and community members to make sure gun violence prevention advocates have a seat at the table and that their insights and reforms are listened to.

Katie’s Perspective:

Katie believes that high-quality education is an essential part of thriving communities and democracies.

Pre-education starts at birth:

As a working mom of three and the Board Chair of her children’s daycare, Katie knows access to high-quality infant care and early childhood education is an essential first building block for our education system. These programs prepare children socially, emotionally, and developmentally for a Kindergarten environment of learning and growing with their peers.

Unfortunately, Virginia currently ranks 41st in the nation for childcare affordability. The childcare crisis in Richmond is one of the most common topics Katie hears about when knocking on doors. As a mother, Katie is intimately aware of the struggles families go through to find care. As the Board Chair of a local daycare, Katie also knows the hurdles daycare providers have in providing safe and reliable childcare access.

As a State Senator, Katie will work with organizations to promote access to infant and early childhood education for children of all backgrounds.

Strong communities. Strong schools:

Katie’s mother, sister, and aunt all served as educators. Katie has supported Richmond Public Schools through her partnerships in the Swansboro community in Southside Richmond City. In her role as a community organizer bringing together different neighborhoods to improve public education, Katie worked alongside families, teachers, the school principal, and community partners to provide stronger community support for Swansboro Elementary School.

As a State Senator, Katie will continue to work with families, teachers, school administrators, and the larger community to strengthen schools. Specifically for Richmond City, Katie will fight to readjust the state-funding formula for local education compensation. Legacy schools need to receive essential resources so Richmond children can learn inside of buildings that are as safe and modern as those of suburban schools.

Higher Education matters:

Katie works with VCU students every day as the Director of the Pace Center. The Pace Center is a diverse community of more than 1,000 students from multiple faiths and cultures at Virginia Commonwealth University. In her role as Director, Katie teaches students servant leadership principles and civic engagement. Through the programs at the Pace Center, VCU students go on to develop supportive communities and take on leadership roles in the community. Katie knows first hand the importance of a strong education system in preparing citizens to become engaged members of the community. The Pace Center’s programming has won numerous awards including Duke University’s Traditioned Innovation Award.

As Director of the Pace Center, Katie supports VCU students from all backgrounds to learn how to build community with each other and engage in the Richmond community. VCU has a large LGBTQ community (around 27% of the student body) and close to 40% of the students Katie mentors identify as Queer.

Katie has the privilege of walking alongside many LGBTQ students and is proud of the ways Pace has nurtured a space where these students can safely share their identity. Katie will fight to protect LGBTQ rights from the current trend of increasingly outspoken discrimination, particularly against LGBTQ young people and students. Katie will bring her unique experiences working directly with LGBTQ young people to the State Senate, and will likely be the only Senate legislator whose job experience involves direct advocacy with LGBTQ young adults.

In her work with the most vulnerable in our community, Katie knows first hand the impact of rising utility rates and the struggle to balance housing, health care, and rising utility bills. Katie knows that Virginia can and must transition to clean renewable energy sources without burdening ratepayers with higher costs and utility bills. Renewable energy plans implemented in a conservation-focused way lower utility bills, not raise them.

As an advocate with Virginia Interfaith Power and Light Katie connected utility ratepayers, low income communities, environmental advocates, and legislators to address these issues thoughtfully at the General Assembly. Katie is committed to leading the challenging but necessary effort to make these goals a reality.

Katie is committed to connecting people to jobs and life through reliable mass transit and new transportation infrastructure. She will advocate for funds to upgrade our transportation system to make it easier for everyone to get to work, shop, pick up their kids, and visit the many parks and public facilities in our region.

Katie is committed to reducing traffic congestion and improving road conditions, improving transit accessibility throughout Richmond and Henrico, keeping GRTC bus fares free, and adding cycling infrastructure and pedestrian access like safe crossings and sidewalks to encourage car-free ways to get around our region.

Richmond has a housing affordability crisis. This is one of the issues that voters speak with Katie about most often. Katie knows it is essential to develop more affordable housing while keeping communities intact. We need to build more housing in our region in order to keep Richmond a city that is diverse in income and a place where people can enjoy the quality of living that comes with living near where they work.

Simply put, solving this crisis means building more housing, period. More single-family homes, more apartments, more condos, more townhouses, more affordable-designated housing and more market-rate housing, which keeps down costs by increasing supply.

There are many models for development that can lead to more housing construction without encroachment and displacement of existing communities. For example, Richmond and Henrico increased density along the Broad Street corridor. In addition, redevelopment of legacy light-industrial sites such as in Manchester, Scott’s Addition, the Staples Mill Corridor, and the Chamberlayne Avenue zones (near Katie’s neighborhood) can add more housing, expand access along transit lines to reduce traffic congestion, and add density without displacing existing residents.

Katie believes that if we want Richmond to remain an economically diverse region, where families can begin and homeownership is achievable, where children can grow up and live close to home, and where people can retire economically, we need to address our housing affordability crisis.

In Katie’s work to fight for social and environmental justice, the same challenge appears over and over - how do you overcome the power of money in Virginia’s General Assembly?

Here’s an excerpt from an interview Katie had on campaign finance reform:

"In the Virginia General Assembly, there is a saying: 'Peace in the Valley.' It implies that all sides are content, but what it really means is that all special interests who have a seat at the table are content.

"Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached, 'True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.’ Virginia is ranked 46th in the national S.W.A.M.P. index, which tracks the strength of a state’s anti-corruption laws. Virginia’s outdated campaign finance laws and unrestricted campaign contributions give lobbyists and special interests outsized influence on decision and stifle justice and true peace. I want all Virginians, not only to have a voice – but a seat at the table.” - Katie Gooch

Katie does not accept corporate contributions in her campaign for State Senate, and has signed the Activate Virginia Pledge to not accept donations from regulated monopoly utilities.

Katie supports a ban on contributions from regulated monopoly utilities, limits on donations from individuals and PACs, increased oversight of campaign finance reporting, and giving the Ethics Advisory Council the power of enforcement and punishment for campaign finance violations.

Katie opposed the last casino referendum and opposes the second casino referendum.

Katie believes that casinos projects are a symptom of cities in decline, and she does not believe that Richmond is a city in decline. Furthermore, Katie believes that the will of the voters in the first failed casino referendum should be respected, and that it is hypocritical for the city of Richmond to continue to push for a casino referendum every cycle until it could possibly pass. Katie suspects the City of Richmond would not call for a second casino referendum if the measure did pass, just to make sure residents were okay with the idea.