LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — Election season is heating up. Early voting is underway and people are heading to the polls to cast their ballots.
Two candidates are vying for the 52nd District House of Delegates seat in Richmond. Incumbent Delegate Wendell Walker, a Republican, has held the seat for the past five years, but some think there’s still work to be done. His opponent, Democrat Risë Hayes, said she will bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to Lynchburg.
ABC 13’s Allison Mullet asked Hayes what she would do differently from Walker.
“I think his philosophy is very business-focused, and I don’t think it’s necessarily bad to improve businesses because we need them to employ people in order to afford housing and food and all of those things,” Hayes said. “But when a business is your priority instead of people, you’re leaving things open for these businesses to take advantage of their workers, to take advantage of consumers.”
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Mullet asked Walker for his response to Hayes.
“Businesses are very important, and I think that’s where you need to have good common-sense individuals who are serving an elected area. Because one of my opponent’s issues is she wants to do away with right-to-work, that is very, very important to Virginians and to the businesses,” Walker said. “That’s the reason our economy is doing well.”
Hayes says she wants to work to remove right-to-work laws because she believes unions are the backbone of working people. She said there are many ways that unions keep workers safe and treated fairly. If Hayes is elected, she also plans to advocate for the removal of at-will-firing laws, the improvement of tenants’ rights, and changing school funding from faculty-based funding to population-based funding.
Walker said he believes that capitalism is the best way to approach government, and he will continue with that mindset if he is sent back to Richmond.
