Jennifer McClellan

Jennifer McClellan was born in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1972.[1] She earned a B.A. in English and political science from the University of Richmond in 1994 and a J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1997. McClellan's career experience includes working as assistant general counsel with Verizon and an associate with Hunton & Williams.[2][3] McClellan previously served in the Virginia State Senate, representing District 9 from 2017 to 2023. She served in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing District 71 from 2006 to 2017.

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Campaign website

McClellan's campaign website stated the following:

Revitalizing the Economy

Jenn’s Perspective

Jenn McClellan comes from a long line of educators, small business owners, domestic workers, and laborers. Jenn’s family experienced the bold economic recovery plans of Reconstruction and the New Deal but through the lens of the economic inequity of Jim Crow. As other workers gained economic benefits, many of Jenn’s relatives were denied basic protections – leaving them struggling to earn enough money to care for their family.

Virginia families and businesses are facing the ongoing economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and inflation. In Congress, Jenn will fight for economic opportunity for all Virginia communities, ensuring that families can afford what they need and that businesses have the opportunities to grow and thrive. Jenn will advocate for a strong, inclusive, affordable and resilient economy that gives everyone an opportunity for prosperity while meeting the changing demands of technology and the marketplace and protecting workers’ rights.

Jenn’s Record

Jenn has been a legislative leader for a stronger, more inclusive economy and:

Led the passage of the Virginia Clean Economy Act to make Virginia a national leader in the clean energy sector – creating 13,000 clean energy jobs per year in the Commonwealth, and prioritizing low-income and historically economically-disadvantaged communities in the development of energy and job training programs and the placement of renewable facilities

Expanded worker protections through the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act, the Virginia Values Act

Cosponsored a bill to expand collective bargaining to public employees, bills to provide paid sick leave, and paid family and medical leave to Virginia workers

Passed laws to stimulate new industries, including creating benefit corporations to make Virginia a hub of social entrepreneurship, removing red tape for local craft breweries – fostering job creation, and enabling the technology sector to work with transportation network companies to allow passengers to make reservations in advance and request specific designated drivers

Repeatedly supported and patroned laws to raise the minimum wage to $15, and eliminate minimum wage exemptions for workers over 65, individuals with disabilities, various jobs historically held by African-Americans, and domestic workers

Climate Action and Environmental Justice

Jenn’s Perspective

As the mother of two young kids, Jenn has been a leader in Virginia’s effort to address climate change today and for generations to come. Jenn wants to leave an inhabitable planet for her children, and all of our children, to inherit. Jenn’s faith also teaches her that we must be stewards of this planet. Jenn recognizes that climate change is an environmental issue, an economic issue, a health issue and a racial justice issue that we must take action to address.

Jenn understands how Black and Brown communities are disproportionately impacted by historic environmental policy, climate change and pollution. That’s why any plan to address climate change and preserve our natural resources must include environmental justice.

Jenn knows we are at a critical point in the fight against climate change. In Congress, she will build on the tremendous environmental legacy of Rep. McEachin, ensuring that all Virginia communities can benefit from historic climate investments in the Inflation Reduction Act. She will work to ensure that federal climate funding puts environmental justice front-and-center, and that it supports Virginia’s progress under the Virginia Clean Economy Act.

Jenn’s Record

In the legislature, Jenn has been a leader in conserving Virginia’s natural resources, protecting the environment, and addressing climate change.

Led the Senate passage of the landmark Virginia Clean Economy Act—the most significant climate bill in Virginia history—to make Virginia the first Southern state with a 100% Clean Energy Standard, and create 13,000 clean energy jobs annually

Passed the Solar Freedom Act, which democratizes solar energy and removes barriers on local governments, residents, and businesses to harness solar power for their own use

Wrote and passed a bill to protect Virginia waterways from interstate pipeline projects

Chief-cosponsored the bill to create clean vehicle standards in Virginia and passed legislation expanding charging station infrastructure

Passed legislation to increase electric vehicle charging stations in Virginia

Introduced an Environmental Justice bill to require applicants for certain individual environmental permits to engage in community outreach

Cosponsored and passed legislation creating the New River Valley Passenger Rail Station Authority

Equity, Inclusivity and Racial Justice

Jenn’s Perspective

For 16 legislative sessions, Jenn has walked past the statue of former senator and segregationist Harry Byrd in Richmond’s Capitol Square knowing that she is his worst nightmare: A Black woman, a descendent of enslaved people, and the daughter of parents who endured Jim Crow, working to eradicate the very inequity and oppression that Harry Byrd worked to create and maintain. Jenn has spent her career dismantling the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow that still impacts communities today.

Jenn’s career is one of many “firsts.” In 2010, Jenn became the first member of the House of Delegates to serve the Commonwealth while pregnant. She was asked: “Are you retiring?” while an expecting father also serving office with her was not. This moment served as a reminder of the gender-based bias and inequities that continue to exist in our workplaces and lives. As the Vice Chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and Chair of Virginia’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, Jenn has led efforts to tell the complete and accurate story of Virginia’s past while working to achieve Dr. King’s vision of the “Beloved Community” through her community conversations, legislative, and policy efforts.

Jenn would be the first Black woman elected to Congress in Virginia history, and would use the opportunity to lift other Virginians up and ensure that all Virginians have a seat at the table for making policy.

Jenn’s Record

As a legislator, Jenn:

Led and passed the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, the first state-level voting rights act in the South

Introduced and passed the Senate resolution to make Virginia the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment

Spearheaded legislation repealing Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage and was a chief copatron of the Virginia Values Act, making Virginia the first state in the South to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity

Patroned a 2021 criminal justice reform bill allowing people with intellectual/developmental disabilities and mental illness to provide evidence of their conditions at trial

Patroned The Pregnant Worker Fairness Act which extended protections against discrimination for pregnant and nursing workers and new mothers

Passed the bill to reform outdated and ineffective 1980s-era laws that criminalized HIV

Led a Senate bill to strengthen protections from workplace sexual harassment

Championed protections for immigrants and new Americans – fighting to ensure their access to voting rights and economic opportunity through legislation to increase interpretation and translation services to access state resources, improve health care options for undocumented children and pregnant people, and enable undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses

Passed legislation that added specialized personnel to schools to give support to serve special education students

Passed legislation to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately criminalizes students of color and students with disabilities

Passed a bill that required the state to publish data that showed Black and Brown students, and students with disabilities were being disproportionately suspended

Advocated for Indigenous communities, working closely with the Chickahominy Tribe in her Senate district to establish the *Virginia Indigenous People’s Trust Fund – which will disburse a portion of the Commonwealth’s gaming revenues to Virginia’s six recognized Tribes

Was integral in the Senate passing the legislation to ban the gay/trans-panic defense

Protected LGBTQ+ youth by cosponsoring the bill that made Virginia the first state in the South to ban conversion therapy for minors, and introduced and passed the bill to define and address bullying in schools

Pushed to increase funding for supported employment to ensure workers with disabilities were paid competitive wages

Successfully repealed vestiges of Jim Crow in Virginia law – repealing segregation laws, such as exemptions to worker protections through the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights

Reformed the criminal justice system by passing legislation to raise the felony larceny threshold, end mandatory minimums for suspended drivers licenses, and expand parole eligibility for hundreds of incarcerated Virginians trapped in a legal loophole

Co-sponsored legislation to increase state employment with individuals with disabilities

Passed a law to expand eligibility through the Virginia Historical African American Cemeteries and Graves Fund, enabling Woodland Cemetery in Henrico County and other cemeteries established from 1900 to 1948 to receive support for maintenance and preservation.”

Gun Violence

Jenn’s Perspective

Jenn has seen the devastating impact of gun violence across the Commonwealth. As the mom of two school-age kids, Jenn supports enacting comprehensive gun reform to protect our families and make our communities safer. All of Virginia’s 1,000 annual gun deaths are preventable. As a member of Congress, Jenn will work to close loopholes and protect Virginians from gun violence.

Jenn’s Record

As a legislator, Jenn took on the NRA and fought for common-sense solutions to reduce gun violence. Jenn led the fight in the Senate to pass a bill in 2020 that requires the reporting of lost or stolen firearms, patroning bills on lost or stolen firearms since 2012. She cosponsored new laws to reinstate Virginia’s “one-gun-a-month rule” and to implement universal background checks. Jenn has also cosponsored legislation that allowed localities to prohibit guns in certain public spaces. McClellan led on a Senate bill that would establish a Center for Firearm Violence Intervention and Prevention to work across public safety and public health sectors to collect data and publish reports on violence caused by firearms, including suicide.

Health Care and Abortion Access

Jenn’s Perspective

Jenn also knows that access to quality health care is out of reach for too many Virginians. As a legislator, Jenn has fought to expand access to high quality, affordable health care, including preventative, reproductive, and mental health care. She passed the law that created a state exchange under Obamacare. And she passed landmark legislation that repealed unnecessary restrictions on abortion access, and made Virginia the first state in the South to proactively expand abortion access.

As a member of Congress, Jenn will continue to make access to a high-quality, affordable, comprehensive health care system available to everyone – from our newborn Virginians to those 50 and older- while also protecting the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship from undue government interference. Jenn will work to ensure that access to mental health and reproductive health resources are part of a comprehensive health care system.

Jenn’s Record

As the first member of the House of Delegates to be pregnant while in office, Jenn has been a fierce advocate for protecting access to reproductive care and supports for new mothers. Jenn:

Led the passage of the Reproductive Health Protection Act, the first proactive expansion of abortion rights in Virginia history, which eliminated mandatory ultrasounds, 24-hour waiting periods, and TRAP laws

Received the 2020 Planned Parenthood Votes South Atlantic’s Legislative Leadership & Courage Award, and the 2020 NARAL of Virginia’s Legislator of the Year Award for her work advancing access to reproductive care

Expanded access to birth control

Carried the bill to make Virginia the first state in the South to remove the ban on abortion coverage for health insurance plans offered through the health benefits exchange

Expanded nursing protections and supported Medicaid access for new mothers for the first full year after birth, and funding for home visiting programs for pregnant and postpartum care

In the General Assembly, Jenn has worked tirelessly to address health care disparities and expand access to care and coverage for Virginians. Jenn has:

Worked to expand access to and lower the cost of prescription drugs and expand access to preventative, reproductive, behavioral, and long-term care for all Virginians while making the health care system easier to understand and navigate

Created the Virginia Health Benefits Exchange under the Affordable Care Act, which will provide more affordable health insurance for approximately 300,000 Virginians

Led the fight for years to successfully expand Medicaid coverage to over 400,000 Virginians and has worked to expand services and reimbursement rates for providers

Cosponsored legislation to improve health insurance coverage for families whose children have been diagnosed with autism

Over the course of her legislative career, Jenn has emphasized the need for increased investment, destigmatization and decriminalization of mental health. In the General Assembly, Jenn:

Supported the creation, implementation, and $5.3 million dollars in funding for the STEP- VA program designed to improve the quality of community behavioral services in 2017; and an additional $30.2 million for fiscal year 2022 for STEP-VA, to address Accountability, Access, Quality, and Consistency across all Community Services Boards (CSBs) and to enable CSBs statewide to deliver, at a minimum, nine standard services plus care

Patroned a landmark justice reform bill that will make the criminal justice system more equitable for individuals with mental illness, autism, or developmental/intellectual disabilities by allowing evidence of their conditions to be presented during hearings

Patroned legislation directing the Board of Education to review and update the Standards of Learning for students to include mental health

Supported $1.6 million in funding to establish the Behavioral Health Loan Repayment Program to help increase behavioral health providers by coordinated efforts to recruit and retain providers in the Commonwealth

Voting Rights

Jenn’s Perspective

In 1901, Jennifer McClellan’s great-grandfather, Henry Davidson, went to his local registrar’s office in Alabama to register to vote. He was subjected to a difficult literacy test and then was told to find three white men to vouch for his character. Over forty years later, Jenn’s own father had to pay a poll tax to vote.

Jenn knows voting is the most precious right and fundamental act in our democracy. Yet throughout our country’s history, powerful forces have worked to silence voices and deny the franchise to many. In Congress, she will be a champion for voting rights, and will support legislation that guarantees easier access to the ballot.

Jenn’s Record

In the legislature, Jenn has always fought to ensure every Virginia voter can have equal and fair ballot access. Jenn’s first bill passed in the General Assembly expanded absentee voting in Virginia. This year, Jenn passed the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, making Virginia the first state in the South to pass a voting rights act. The Virginia Voting Rights Act is modeled after the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and will protect voters in the Commonwealth from suppression, discrimination, and intimidation and expand language access to voters for whom English is a second language.

Jenn has fought against Republican attempts to impose unnecessary barriers to voting such as voter ID requirements. Jenn also cosponsored newly passed laws that remove restrictive voter ID requirements, and allow no-excuse absentee voting. She was also the Senate sponsor of a law that bans prison gerrymandering and stops gerrymandering based on racial or political data.

Justice Reform

Jenn’s Perspective

While serving in the General Assembly, Jenn has seen the impacts of the justice system on her constituents. Virginia’s justice system has disproportionately affected communities of color and individuals with disabilities, criminalized childhood behavior, poverty and mental health conditions, and failed to provide all defendants with fair trials. The justice system has focused more on punishment and incarceration than prevention and rehabilitation and doled out punishments that are disproportionate to crimes. That’s why Jenn is committed to transforming justice throughout the Commonwealth to create a generational cycle of restoration and re-entry rather than one of inequity.

Jenn’s Record

In the legislature, Jenn has been a leading and consistent champion of reforming the justice system to be truly just.

Over the past 15 years, Jenn:

Passed bills to break the school-to-prison pipeline

Cosponsored and helped to pass a sweeping police reform bill to require de-escalation attempts before use of force, require reporting of use of force incidents, and ban chokeholds, strangleholds and no-knock warrants

Served as a key member of the Caucus subcommittee that ushered in legislation to end “no knock” warrants, ban chokeholds, and require more accountability from law enforcement officers and agencies

Cosponsored the bill that abolished the death penalty in Virginia

Patroned and cosponsored bills to reduce the criminalization of low-level offenses, including increasing the felony larceny threshold; repealing the Habitual Offender Act; and decriminalizing HIV status

Passed legislation to make hundreds of Virginians eligible for parole

Passed a resolution to examine the impacts of Virginia’s marijuana laws, which paved the way for enacting just marijuana policy. Introduced the amendment to move the timeline for marijuana legalization from 2024 to July 1, 2021

Passed a landmark justice reform bill that will make the criminal justice system more equitable for individuals with mental illness, autism, or developmental/intellectual disabilities by allowing evidence of their conditions to be presented during hearings

Cosponsored legislation reforming Virginia’s bail and sentencing laws

Passed a law to strengthen Virginia’s Delinquency Prevention and Youth Development Act (DPYDA), providing prevention services for at-risk youth before they enter the juvenile justice system.

Serving Virginia’s Veterans and Active Duty Military Personnel

Jenn’s Prospective

Virginia is a Commonwealth rich in military history, which proudly houses some of our nation’s key military facilities. Jenn believes it is essential to protect and support those Virginians who have defended our freedom by serving in our military. One in 12 Virginians is a veteran and the Commonwealth has the greatest number of veterans in the workforce per capita. But many veterans experience difficulties readjusting to civilian life. Jenn knows many military families face the same problems that affect all Virginians including food insecurity, difficulty finding affordable and reliable childcare, and financial hardship. Military families also deal with unique challenges including constant stress that comes from deployments, separation, and the emotional and physical toll that accompanies military service.

Jenn’s Record

Throughout her time in the General Assembly, Jenn has supported measures that honor our active duty military and veterans. Jenn has:

Supported legislation that formed the Virginia Values Veterans (V3) program that assists veterans with employment and post-service job training opportunities.

Supported legislation that created the Military Medics and Corpsmen (MMAC) program, the first in the nation to specifically assist military medical personnel with medical employment opportunities following their service.

Supported implementation of the Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act, which expanded voting rights for active duty servicepeople.

Supported legislation that created Women Veterans Week.

Transportation

Jenn’s Perspective

As a member of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority Board and Senate Transportation Committee, Jenn has been a leader on key transportation decisions in both the Richmond area and across the Commonwealth. She understands that Virginia must make significant investments in transportation infrastructure, including improving roads and bridges, investing in public transportation, and providing infrastructure for a transition to electric vehicles.

In Congress, Jenn will support a multimodal transportation system that provides for the most efficient, accessible travel options for people and products while also protecting and preserving the environment. She will advocate for public transportation funding and to provide electrification infrastructure that reduces emissions from Virginia’s transportation sector.

Jenn’s Record

Jenn has worked to improve Virginia’s transportation infrastructure. As state Senator, she:

Cosponsored a new law that modernizes Virginia’s transportation system this year with the Clean Car Standard to curb vehicle emissions and transition Virginia to an all-electric vehicle fleet

Passed legislation to increase electric vehicle charging stations in Virginia

Supported an electric vehicle rebate to help make electric vehicles more affordable in Virginia

Initiated a study to create an east-west Commonwealth Corridor passenger rail service which would connect Hampton Roads, Richmond, and the New River Valley

Supported the 2020 transportation bill that streamlined transportation funding allocation and secured sustainable revenues for WMATA and VRE

Cosponsored a bill to create a regional passenger rail station authority for the New River Valley

Education and Child Care

Jenn’s Perspective

Jenn’s mom was the 12th of 14 children and the first member of her family to go beyond the 8th grade and graduate college. She went on to become an early childhood educator and college counselor. Jenn’s dad was a third-generation educator. Jenn’s parents taught her that a good education is the key to economic opportunity, thriving communities, and a healthy democracy. As a graduate of Chesterfield Public Schools and the mother of children in Richmond Public Schools, Jenn has a long record of fighting to increase education investment and improve our schools to build Virginia’s future.

The path to success in school and life begins at birth and is shaped before kindergarten- 90 percent of a child’s brain develops before age 5. The foundation for an equitable and high-quality education starts with infant care and early childhood education.

As a working mother of two young kids, Jenn also knows how hard it is to find affordable, quality child care. As a legislator, Jenn has seen firsthand the child care crisis in Virginia. Even before the pandemic, Virginia was ranked 41st in the country in child care affordability, putting a major strain on Virginia families and our economy. The pandemic has worsened the child care crisis. More than 40% of Virginia’s child care facilities closed, and it has sent a ripple effect through Virginia’s economy – including women dropping out of the workforce at record rates. The crisis has disproportionately impacted women and Black and Brown communities in Virginia.

In Congress, Jenn will support major federal investments to improve access to child care, including supporting bills similar to Sen. Tim Kaine and Sen. Patty Murray’s 2022 proposal on child care funding. She will also make funding K-12 education and supporting Virginia’s educators and parents a top priority.

Jenn’s Record

In the legislature, Jenn has laid the groundwork to stabilize and invest in the child care industry.

Championed the passage of the Child Care Stabilization and Quality Care Act, which provided greater financial stability for child care and early childhood education providers by launching a new two-year pilot program creating flexibility in how federal subsidy dollars are used, and allowed for portable background checks to address workforce shortages. Jenn’s bill made Virginia “a leader in moving down the path of providing flexibility and stability to the child care sector,” according to Voices for Virginia Children

Cosponsored legislation that created a statewide unified system for early childhood care and education

Supported a bill that strengthened background checks for child care providers

As a legislator, Jenn has led the fight to fully fund Virginia’s K-12 public schools and address inequities in the education system.

Led the passage of a 2021 bill that invests $50 million in hiring more school support staff, such as social workers, nurses, and mental health professionals

Spearheaded legislation that created the Commission on School Construction and Modernization, which will make funding recommendations to fix crumbling schools across the Commonwealth

For two years in a row, chief sponsored a bill to increase Virginia public school funding by $2 billion by fully funding the Virginia Board of Education’s recommended Standards of Quality, including addressing educational inequity

Passed two bills to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline, which had led to increased racial disparities in Virginia’s education system

Fought for higher educator pay and increased support staffing, including a 2020 amendment to give teachers a 5% raise, and a 2019 amendment to hire more administrators and school staff

Received the Virginia Education Association “Legislator of the Year” award in 2021, and numerous Virginia Education Association Legislative Champion awards for her work to improve school funding

Created the School Construction Fund and Program to provide grants to Virginia K-12 schools that need support for construction and modernization. Fought for budget amendments that provided $1.2 billion for school construction in the 2022 budget.

Passed a law requiring that every Virginia elementary school have a full-time principal and providing funding for hiring needed principals.

Jenn has also been fighting for equity and affordability in higher education.

Supported legislation that will require more transparency from higher education governing boards

Cosponsored the bill which will make tuition-free community college available to low- and middle-income students who pursue jobs in high-demand fields

Cosponsored legislation that allows DACA Dreamers to qualify for in-state tuition[14]

—Jennifer McClellan's campaign website (2022)[15]

Jennifer McClellan did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2021 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

McClellan's campaign website stated the following:

Jenn's Vision for Virginia's Future

As the daughter of educators and community leaders who were born and raised during the Depression in the segregated South, Senator Jennifer McClellan has spent 15 years in the state legislature representing the Greater Richmond region, working to break down barriers and open doors of opportunity for the people of Virginia.

Jenn has been a driving force for delivering progressive change in Virginia – especially for women, children, and families. She is the only legislator in America who has led the passage of a state Voting Rights Act, a 100% clean energy standard, and a law proactively expanding reproductive rights. Jenn also led Virginia’s generational progress on education funding, criminal justice reform, the Equal Rights Amendment, protections for pregnant and domestic workers, and expanding health care access by creating the Virginia Health Benefit Exchange under the Affordable Care Act.

But even with all the progress Virginia has made, too many of our communities, our experiences, and our voices have been left behind. The coronavirus crisis has brought dramatic changes and challenges to the lives of millions of Virginians, exposed the depth of the inequity in our Commonwealth, and made it worse.

Now, Jenn is running for Governor to tackle those challenges and build a better future for millions of families across Virginia. As governor, Jenn will bring her perspective and experience to rebuild Virginia from the pandemic, by breaking down barriers and opening doors of opportunity in the economy, health care, education, and justice systems — in a way that includes all Virginians.

Jenn learned from her parents that government could be a force of oppression or it could be a force for change and solving people’s problems. That inspired her to bring about change, throu