Summary

About

Source: Facebook

Dustin W. Evans was born in Danville, Virginia on December 13, 1988. He spent the first twenty years of his life living in many different states and countries while his father served in the United States Air Force. Returning back to Pittsylvania County in 2011. 

Dustin spent much of his early twenties working in factories before deciding to attend college with the dream of becoming and attorney. In 2015 Dustin enrolled at Danville Community College for a degree in Social Science. Here he would be invited into Phi Theta Kappa honor society, serve on student council and eventually become the student body president. After graduating from Danville Community College in 2017, Dustin enrolled at Averett University for a bachelors in History and Political Science. While at Averett, Dustin married his childhood friend Michelle Kemp. It was during Dustin’s last semester at Averett he became frustrated with his House of Delegate representatives voting record. While still finishing up his final semester, Dustin decided to put law school on hold to launch a political campaign. While juggling a young family, a political campaign, and college classes Dustin graduated in the spring of 2019 with a GPA of 3.99 for the final semester. 

Dustin is currently working for Cherrystone Outdoors, writing a book on his experience of running his first political campaign, and working on multiple podcasts.

Politics

Source: none

Issues

Source: Other

My vision for southside Virginia is to create an economy that works for EVERYONE. I have met so many people who worry about jobs, education for their children, and healthcare for their family. Our district and our people have been overlooked for years. This is something I aim to fix. 

Agriculture

For years our home was the most productive tobacco land in the world. However, tobacco is on it’s way out and there is nothing anyone can do to fix that. Hemp cultivation is our chance to create a boom in agriculture once again. For us to do that we need to repeal the red tape that makes it difficult for farmers. I want to shift the conversation from helping local agriculture survive, to how do we make it a successful career once again. We can do that by expanding the Land Use Tax statewide, Protecting the Right to Farm act, outlawing Imminent Domain, and repealing regulations that make it difficult to become a small farmer.

Healthcare

According to research the two hospitals in our area are considered in the worst 6% in the country. My opponent has been silent on the matter, but I will not be. One of the main reasons they are so horrible, is because they do not have any competition. In Virginia, we have a law known as Certificate of Public Need ( C.O.P.N.) this prohibits another hospital from opening within so many miles of an established medical facility. This law is solely based off of a loss of potential funds. This law ensures established hospitals are protected from any competition. While hospitals executives count their money, we are forced to deal with sub-par services.

Education

Special needs education in our district leaves a lot to be desired. It is not the teachers fault, they do not have the resources to provide what is needed. However, I have met the parents, family members, and friends of children who are special needs. One of the most common concerns I hears, is that children with Autism are not receiving the education they deserve. My solution is to allow for school choice for special needs students. This would allow them attend a school that has better programs geared toward them. I also propose cutting funding by 10% to publicly funded universities, and allocating those funds to be used by the Virginia Board of Education to hire experts in the field to create a program that will work for special needs kids in public schools. 

Jobs

Our area was once an industrial powerhouse. Sadly, our area has lost many of the opportunities it once had. One only has to look at Hurt, Martinsville, or Danville. We can build that back up. Our district has the workforce, it has the resources, but there isn’t much here. I want to seek out companies who are looking to relocate and show them what our area has. I want to lower state taxes so we can attract more business to our great state. I want to bring in more manufacturing and tech jobs so our diverse array of citizens will always be able to find jobs. 

I want to make our home a great one with great opportunities.No matter your wealth, race, or gender our district will be one that works for you and your family. Lets create a district, that we want to invest in.