2023 Virginia Elections: Questions for Republican primary candidates in Senate District 19

Ed. — The following are responses to questions posed by The Independent News to candidates in the Tuesday, June 20, primary election for the Republican nomination for the District 19 seat in the Senate of Virginia. Answers to our questions generally are not edited, aside from obvious punctuation issues, spacing and formatting, or for clarity. The print edition containing our full primary voter guide is now on stands. 

• Please reach John Doucette, the editor, with any questions or concerns via email.
• Find the main page for the complete 2023 primary guide at this link.

CHRISTIE NEW CRAIG

Residence: Chesapeake

Age: 56

Occupation: Chief of Staff for Virginia state Sen. John Cosgrove and former Chesapeake School Board Member

Education: 1995 graduate of the Chesapeake Police Academy and 2006 graduate of the Sorenson Political Leaders Program through UVA

Endorsements: Former U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, state Sen. John Cosgrove and Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer

Website: christienewcraig.com

Email: info@christienewcraig.com

Social Media: @christienewcraigforsenate on Facebook

What are your specific qualifications for this office? I was born and raised in Chesapeake, I’m engaged in communities throughout Hampton Roads, and I care deeply about its residents. I’ve served in the General Assembly as Senator John Cosgrove’s Chief of Staff for over 20 years. I have played an integral role in authoring, lobbying, and passing conservative legislation alongside Senator Cosgrove. For more than a decade, I served the students and parents of Chesapeake as a member of their school board. I fought government overreach and empowered parents to make critical decisions about their children’s education. 

I am proud to have led the fight to unmask our kids and reopen our schools. Before all of this, however, I had the privilege of serving as one of the few female Chesapeake Sheriff’s Deputies for 15 years where I learned the sacrifices made by the brave men and women of law enforcement. My experience uniquely qualifies me to get to work on day one for our community.

What are your three main legislative priorities for the General Assembly? 

• First and foremost, I will stand up for the rights of parents and children in our Commonwealth. I will propose and pass legislation that codifies parents’ rights and control in their children’s education and give teachers control of their classrooms again. 
• Secondly, I will cut overbearing government regulations that inhibit our small businesses from succeeding, and usher in an era of economic freedom and prosperity. By reducing the individual income tax, we allow Virginians to keep more of their hard-earned money and reinvest it into our communities. 
• Finally, I will fight to defend our Second Amendment rights. The Second Amendment is non-negotiable. I will work to repeal red-flag gun laws and other unconstitutional infringements on our right to bear arms.

How will you be an advocate for state support to local public education? As a former school board member and board Chair, I understand the issues facing our schools. Our schools should not be taking orders from unelected bureaucrats in Richmond. We need school choice so the dollars follow the student in our public school systems. I will make sure that any state funding our schools receive is used at the discretion of local officials who know the needs of their community. I will also stand up and fight against politicized curriculum in our schools and make sure kids across the Commonwealth are taught how to think, not what to think.

What priorities do you have that will help support the agriculture community? As a tree farmer, agricultural policies are something that affects me, and thousands of other Virginians, every day. Like our businesses, we need to get the government off the backs of farmers. We also need to make sure foreign entities are prohibited from meddling in Virginia’s agricultural sphere. In the Senate, I helped Senator Cosgrove advocate for farmers across Virginia and will continue to do so during my tenure as State Senator.

Do you support access to reproductive health care for women? Why or why not? Investing in quality healthcare is important for our communities. We should be encouraging more healthcare providers in our state to create healthy competition and better quality. There are limitations to the definition of healthcare and I do not believe that abortion falls under that category. Other reproductive healthcare measures are important and access should be made available for women throughout Virginia.

How will you work to help coastal communities address issues such as sea level rise or recurrent flooding? Our community is vulnerable to flooding from hurricanes and storm surges. I have worked tirelessly with Delegates and Senators for more than two decades preparing Tidewater for the effects we get from major storms, hurricanes, and other types of flooding. We need to continue to invest in drainage infrastructure to make sure our coastal community is able to mitigate flooding damage. We also need to support beachfront restoration and dune upkeep along the oceanfront to provide a first line of defense against major storms and flooding.

JEFF BRUZZESI

Residence: Sandbridge in Virginia Beach

Age: 63 

Occupation: Owner, Closet Factory 

Education: Bachelors- Business Administration, Old Dominion University 

Endorsements: Don Horsley, Bonney Bright and Joan Davis 

Website: jeffbruzzesi.com

Phone: (757) 354-2174

Email: contact@jeffbruzzesi.com

Social Media: Jeff Bruzzesi for State Senate on Facebook

What are your specific qualifications for this office? For the last twenty years, I have owned and operated the Closet Factory, Virginia Beach. I have over 40 full time employees; I know the struggles working Virginians are facing amidst record high inflation. I believe I have the experience needed to ease the squeeze on working Virginians and those on fixed income. Our state has become non-competitive, losing residents and businesses to neighboring states like North Carolina. As a business owner, I know what we have to do in order to get businesses and investors back in Virginia to supercharge our economy. We cannot afford to send someone to Richmond who lacks business experience. Virginians have had great success sending political outsiders to Richmond like Governor Glenn Youngkin, and I am the candidate who will best support his agenda. Unlike the other candidates, I believe that I will best serve Virginia taxpayers because I do not serve special interests or lobbyists. While I am a political outsider, I have lived in this district my whole life; I built my house myself. I did not move here to run for this seat. 

What are your three main legislative priorities for the General Assembly? As your Senator, I will work tirelessly to lower taxes while growing our economy, standing up to the woke agenda, and protecting agriculture in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. 

• Homeowners are getting crushed with increased assessment taxes. I will lead on this issue to provide tax relief on homesteads like the state of Florida has done since the 1990’s. Businesses are leaving because of burdensome taxes. I will work with Governor Youngkin to lower our corporate tax rate from 6% to  2.5% annually to remain competitive with states like North Carolina. 
• I believe in faith, family and freedom. Our traditional American values are under assault. We have to keep men out of women’ sports and keep Critical Race Theory out of our classrooms. Our schools should not be testing grounds for leftist brainwashing, but places where we teach Virginia’s next generation the skills needed to succeed. 
• Finally, we need someone who will advocate to uphold Virginia Beach’s Green Line and protect our treasured agricultural industry. There must be “common sense development” while still preserving the integrity of our rural communities. 

How will you be an advocate for state support to local public education? Our public schools need strong leadership to address the serious problems they face. With Critical Race Theory in our classrooms, to men pretending to be women and unfairly competing in women’s sports; it’s clear there’s a major systemic problem and that is why I will advocate for school choice. We have great teachers facing challenges making a living wage while losing academic discipline. Safety of our schools must be made a top priority, we must have an increase in school resource officers and other enhanced security measures. 

What priorities do you have that will help support the agriculture community? Across Virginia and the nation as a whole, the purchase of farmland  by Chinese Communist shell companies and flimsy fronts is clearly a major security concern. We must take decisive action and continue to crack down on the sale of land to entities with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Locally, we must stand up and preserve our agricultural industry and rural communities by advocating for the Green Line and slow out of control development. Additionally, we must pass farmer friendly legislation, rolling back the burdensome regulations they are saddled with from climate alarmists. High fuel prices and the steep regulations on agriculture are crushing our farmers.

Do you support access to reproductive health care for women? Why or why not? I am a person of faith and Pro Life. It was not long ago that radical proposals by Virginia Democrat Kathy Tran introduced legislation to the General Assembly that allowed mothers to abort infants up until the moment of birth. We have to stand up for the rights of the unborn while also allowing for exceptions in the cases of rape, incest, and life of the mother. I fully support reasonable compromises such as Governor Youngkin’s 15 week proposal. 

How will you work to help coastal communities address issues such as sea level rise or recurrent flooding? I have lived in Sandbridge for over 30 years. My community knows the effects of mother nature first hand. It’s critical that we protect our environment without following radical liberal solutions that would break our economy. We cannot allow vague green energy projects like the offshore windmills destroy the natural beauty of our natural landscapes. Aside from being extremely cost ineffective, they have dubious effects on our endangered whale and bird species. Environmental protections should not come in the form of Green-New-Deal grifts and scams that cost taxpayers billions and provide little to no environmental impact. 

TIM ANDERSON

Residence: Virginia Beach 

Age: 48

Occupation: Attorney

Education: Degree in economics from the University of Tampa and law degree from Regent University

Endorsements: VCDL PAC , Virginia Beach Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson and Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Colin Stolle 

Website: timforva.com

Phone: (757) 572-4427

Email: tim@timforva.com 

Social Media: @timandersonvirginia on Facebook

What are your specific qualifications for this office? I have been previously elected to the house of delegates for the City of Virginia Beach. I am an attorney and have lived in both Virginia Beach or Chesapeake since 1996. 

What are your three main legislative priorities for the General Assembly? Eliminate the car tax, pass constitutional carry for firearm owners, end menhaden harvesting in the Chesapeake Bay. 

How will you be an advocate for state support to local public education? Public education is a mess. We need to decentralize public education and return all power to local levels. 

Bureaucrats in Washington in Richmond have no business dictating how our community decides to run its schools.  

What priorities do you have that will help support the agriculture community? We must remove restrictions that require farming to be artificially more expensive. 

We have policies that promote farmers produce in less than optimal crops simply because of subsidies and government intervention.  

Do you support access to reproductive health care for women? Why or why not? Virginia law allows women to obtain elective abortion up to 26 weeks. I believe this is barbaric. I support moving the line of when a woman can obtain an elective abortion to 15 weeks. 

How will you work to help coastal communities address issues such as sea level rise or recurrent flooding? Many of the problems with flooding deal with the over development of our community. We must make sure that when we are developing residential and commercial property that there is sufficient ability to handle strong storms built into drainage plans which is not taking place as well as it should be.

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