Ed. — The following are responses to questions posed by The Independent News to the candidate in the election for the new State House District 98 seat. Answers to our questions in this series generally are not edited, aside from obvious punctuation issues, spacing and formatting, or for clarity. Remaining copies of the Sunday, Sept. 24, print edition containing the complete guide may still be available on some of our secondary racks through Sunday, Oct. 22.
- Please reach John Doucette, the editor, with any questions or concerns via email.
BARRY D. KNIGHT [R]
- Residence: Back Bay, Virginia Beach
- Age: 69
- Occupation: Farmer
- Military Service/Education: High school education
- Endorsements: Virginia Farm Bureau AgPac, Virginia Beach Police Benevolent Association Local 34 and Gov. Glenn Youngkin
- Phone: (757) 426-6387
- Website: barrydknight.com
- Email: info@barrydknight.com
- Social Media: @barrydknight on Facebook
What are your specific qualifications to serve in the General Assembly? After representing my neighbors and friends in the 81st District for 15 years, I am now a candidate to represent my neighbors and friends in the new 98th district, which includes many more Virginia Beach neighborhoods than the previous district. I am honored to serve as the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and was the lead negotiator in the biennial budget last year and the newly passed amended budget which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
I am very responsive to my constituents and work to address their issues. I lived here all my life and am blessed with a wonderful family, with my beautiful wife, Paula. We raised three sons, have three grandsons and one granddaughter.
What, to you, is the most important issue facing your district and how will you address it in office? Flooding will continue to be an important issue in the coming years and I have worked to establish the state-level funding to gain progress. Our district has major impacts from southerly winds pushing water on low-lying areas and roads. I was successful in securing $10 million for the City of Virginia Beach for a major flood mitigation project and $7 million for maintenance and clearing ditches throughout our district, as well as $10 million for Nimmo Parkway to Sandbridge that was blocked in the past by a previous governor. I support the planting of grasses in Back Bay to slow incoming floodwaters and partnering with the City of Virginia Beach to elevate some roads and address flooding concerns.
What are your three main legislative priorities?
- My top three legislative priorities include education. As Appropriations Chair, I secured significant pay raises for teachers to retain our best teachers but also attract good teachers from outside Virginia. I also secured significant funding and grants to address learning loss during the pandemic to make sure students who were kept from school don’t fall behind. We also included increased funding for school security.
- That dovetails with another main priority, and that is public safety. I am a staunch supporter of our Law Enforcement and First Responders. I have championed pay raises for public safety and have fought against extreme policies that would make their jobs more dangerous and difficult. These men and women are heroes and deserve our respect for doing a tough job. We don’t need policies that put criminals ahead of victims and make police recruitment impossible.
- I am also concerned about the impact of inflation on families in our district. The budgets I have authored for the past two years have delivered $5 billion in tax relief while still making record investments in core government functions.
How will you help ensure job creation and economic vitality? Virginia is experiencing record low unemployment and has recovered nicely from the pandemic’s economic difficulties. I worked to make sure Virginia Beach industries got relief from federal shutdowns and we helped businesses survive and now thrive. I secured $200 million for site development so companies coming to Virginia have locations that are ready to go.
We must keep in place the things that have made Virginia so attractive for business – low taxes, a business-friendly regulatory environment, our right-to-work status, and elected officials with the business experience to understand the importance of these things.
How will you support local efforts to address sea level rise and recurrent flooding? I took the lead in this in terms of budget support as most of our state is not by the ocean, and not all legislators understood the urgency. We must address recurrent flooding for our residents, but also for the future viability of Hampton Roads businesses, the port and the military. Our recent amended budget includes $100 million in funding for the Resilient Virginia Revolving Loan Fund to assist localities and homeowners impacted by flooding.
How will you support public education? We’ve provided record funding levels for education including major raises for teachers totaling 12% over two years. I believe that parents matter and parents should direct the education of their children.
My voting record shows I support transparency in education and putting families ahead of government. As Appropriations Chairman, I led the way to record funding for public schools that not only will address learning loss during Covid but help prepare young people for future careers.
Do you support access to sexual and reproductive health care for women, including birth control and legal abortion access in Virginia? I support access to health care and worked in a bipartisan manner to increase access, including expanded coverage for contraception and to decrease infant mortality.
I agree with most Virginians that we all would rather see fewer abortions, not more, and a reasonable standard would be to limit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy when the baby can feel pain and when you can determine whether the baby is a boy or girl.
Virginia Beach plans to ask the General Assembly to support a new district voting system, either by charter change or general law change. Will you work with the delegation and across party lines to support this? I will engage with my constituents and represent their views in Richmond. I’d like to hear from citizens before committing to any charter change.
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