55th District House candidates weigh in on policies

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Two Democrats are running in the primaries for the House of Delegates’ 55th District.

Amy Laufer and Kellen Squire agree on a lot of policies, but there is one area in which they differ.

“I would say experience,” Laufer said.

“I don’t know how many policies we differ on, I think that it’s probably just the perspective,” Squire said.

Squire says he would bring his experience as an ER nurse to the House: “If we don’t fix problems, they don’t get fixed, and so, again, it gives me an inside view on to what’s broken and how it’s broken, why people end up in the ER in the first place, and it’s a perspective that we don’t have in Richmond right now,” he said.

Laufer is leaning into her background in education: “I taught middle school math and science here, I was on a School Board. I’m also on the Social Services Board with the Albemarle County Public School, and I’m on the Foundation for our Mount County Public Schools, the Ark of the Piedmont. I’ve been doing this advocacy for almost 20 years,” she said,

They both support protecting women’s rights to abortion, and laws to curb gun violence.

“It’s really about women’s rights and bodily autonomy , and I believe we need a constitutional amendment to protect those rights, and I think it’s important now more than ever to have leaders that are unequivocally supportive of the right to choose,” Laufer said.

“The rash of gun violence here, we need to end the proliferation, the easy access to firearms for people that shouldn’t have them,” Squire said.

The first day of early voting is May 5.

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