Summary

About

Source: Campaign page

David Zilles lives in Lynchburg, in the 23rd District of Virginia, where he is raising his two young children and working as a thermal fluids engineer.

David grew up in a tight-knit military family in a small town in Ohio where David and his three siblings were surrounded by extended family.After graduating from The Ohio State University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering, David began his career and in 2012 moved to Lynchburg.

David was compelled to action in February 2018 after one of the largest mass school shootings in U.S. history occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Today, David is running for a better commonwealth for us all – focusing on affordable healthcare, investing in education for our children’s future, and sensible gun reform.

Web

Campaign Site, Facebook

Politics

Source: none

Issues

Source: Campaign page

A safe commonwealth that works for everyone.
We need a Commonwealth where all families and communities are safe, taken care of and can prosper. I believe these can be accomplished by implementing sensible measures to address the issues we have with gun violence in our communities, providing affordable and accessible healthcare, funding education and workforce development, ensuring we have clean air and water and preserving our public lands, and providing businesses of all sizes the opportunities to be successful. If elected, I will work hard to accomplish these goals to achieve a Commonwealth that works for everyone.

Provide Affordable and Accessible Healthcare
Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. And as a right, it should be affordable and accessible. For too many in the Commonwealth, this is not the case. I support significantly decreasing healthcare premiums through cost-sharing programs with a public healthcare option. I support eventually moving to an all public healthcare system which has been estimated to cost less than our current system. I will work to ensure that high-quality health healthcare is accessible, particularly in rural areas. I will also support better and more accessible mental health services. We also need to significantly lower prescription drug prices that have skyrocketed due to the profit-driven big pharma companies. I will also work to address the opioid and heroin epidemic, which kills an average of two people in the Commonwealth every day.
 
Advance Public Education & Workforce Development
Education is a fundamental and critical investment in our children who are the future for what we hold dear to us, maintaining what we value and what we want to accomplish. I support increasing the state’s share of funding for public schools, particularly in rural areas. I also support giving appropriate pay raises for teachers and increased school safety measures. By increasing their salaries we can attract better teachers which will benefit our children and the Commonwealth overall. I will work to ensure we invest in workforce development to train people in a broad spectrum of job markets such as technology and innovation, green energy, public services, construction, and manufacturing.
 
Sensible Gun Reform
I support the Second Amendment, the right of our citizens to bear arms.

Unfortunately, we have very lax gun laws with loopholes and gaps that have enabled individuals who should not have access, the ability to purchase guns and inflict harm to themselves and others. Sensible gun reform measures such as background checks for all private sales, Red Flag laws, and appropriate Child Access Prevention laws can help end gun violence without infringing in any way on our Second Amendment rights. Studies have proven that where these laws have been in place, there are reductions in gun homicide, suicide, and trafficking rates. I will work hard to create and support legislation that implements these sensible gun reform measures to help make our families and communities safe.
 
Promote a Clean Environment with Renewable Energy Jobs
Addressing environmental issues is now more critical than ever before. I support measures that help protect our air and water and public lands that we all appreciate and enjoy having and experiencing, including a clean and renewable energy portfolio. Virginia has many opportunities to invest in green energy technologies such as wind and solar. I support funding and investing in these opportunities which can significantly increase the number of jobs for the Commonwealth. Virginia has also failed to take advantage of these opportunities by implementing arbitrary and restrictive regulations on these green technologies like net metering. Through net metering, Virginia puts a cap of 1% on net metering of green energy that can be provided to the grid thus shutting out other green energy customers. I support legislation that will significantly raise this cap – or abolish it altogether.
 
Equality for All
I support policies that will help to dismantle systemic racism: universal pre-k, eliminating cash bails, expanding voting rights, eliminating gerrymandering, and ending mass incarceration. I support the Whole Woman’s Health Act. I also support ratification of a federal Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) when reintroduced in 2020. I support equal rights for everyone regardless of sexual orientation. I will reject any legislation that does not support equal rights including laws that make it more difficult for same-sex couples to marry or develop a family.
 
Ethics in Government
I support bringing ethics back into the governance of the Commonwealth. This would include banning public service utilities from making contributions to campaigns, as well as to the Representatives that are responsible for regulating them.