ELECTION 2023: Bagby, Gooch seek Democratic nomination in 14th Virginia Senate District
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Democrats Lamont Bagby and Katie Gooch are vying for their party’s nomination in the newly redrawn 14th Virginia Senate District, a heavily Democratic region that includes about 132,000 registered voters in Richmond and just more than 35,000 in Henrico’s Northside, Near West End and East End. No Republican candidate has formally filed for the November general election.
Bagby, the incumbent Senator in the 9th District (which includes the same core area as the new district), has outraised Gooch by nearly a 4-to-1 margin in 2023 (about $380,000 to roughly $99,000), though more than $143,000 of Bagby’s total came from a transfer of funds from his Bagby for Delegate committee, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. He also received a $30,000 contribution for Torian for Delegate (52nd District Democrat Luke Torian’s campaign) and $15,000 apiece from Dominion Energy and the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, which he chairs.
Gooch, a political newcomer and director of the Pace Center for Campus and Community Ministry, has raised nearly $100,000 this year, with just more than half of it ($50,000) coming from donations from Robert Anthony and Nancy Anthony of Oklahoma, according to VPAP. Robert Anthony is the Republican director of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and the longest serving utility commissioner in the United States, and Nancy Anthony is his wife.
Lamont Bagby
Bagby, 46, has risen through the political ranks during his 15 years as an elected official, which began in 2008 when he took his seat as the Fairfield District representative on the Henrico School Board. After serving nearly two terms there, he won a special election in 2015 to replace Joe Morrissey as the 74th District representative in the General Assembly, a seat he held until this spring, when he won another special election to replace Jennifer McClellan as Virginia’s 9th Senate District representative, following McClellan’s election to the U.S. House of Representatives.
During his time in the House of Delegates, Bagby helped pass laws about affordable housing, gun safety and voting and abortion rights. He has vowed to make the latter his top priority in the Senate by working to codify the Roe v. Wade decision through an amendment to the state’s constitution, which would protect a woman’s right to have an abortion in the state. He also has expressed his desire to codify voting rights and marriage rights.
Bagby supports efforts to provide more funding for education and continues to support what he terms “common-sense” gun laws, like banning assault weapons. He also is advocating for paid family leave and universal child care options to help families who are struggling to afford one or both “not only get by but get ahead.”
Bagby has become arguably the most prominent Black legislator in the Virginia General Assembly and has served as the chairperson of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus (a Democratic group whose mission is to improve conditions for Black citizens and other underrepresented groups in the state) since 2018. In that role and as a delegate, he has advocated for a number of social justice advancements.
Bagby has vowed to fight against efforts by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to overturn some of the laws passed by the General Assembly under former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. He’s also advocated for more resources to address opioid addiction issues and related overdoses and deaths in the state.
In the House, Bagby sat on the education; labor and commerce; rules; and transportation committees.
He is a native of Henrico, a graduate of Norfolk State University and holds a graduate degree from VCU. He is married and has one child.
Katie Gooch
Gooch, 40 and a Richmond resident, is counting on her ties within the district and the communities it encompasses to overcome Bagby’s political experience representing the region.
She has identified 10 priority issues on which she has vowed to spend significant effort if elected. They include:
• working to keep abortion legal in Virginia
• advocating for expanded health care options for Virginians, including paid sick days and paid family leave time.;
• working for comprehensive gun control legislation;
• supporting new transportation infrastructure, including mass transportation and active transportation options, and keeping GRTC bus fares free;
• encouraging more affordable housing, especially in existing dense areas and through redevelopment of light-industrial corridors;
• advocating for more infant care and preschool options, higher teacher pay and a strong higher education system.
• working for campaign finance reform that would ban contributions from regulated monopoly utilities (such as Dominion Energy);
• advocating for the state’s transition to renewable energy sources as a way to lower utility bills;
• advocating for the LGBTQ+ community;
• opposing plans to build a casino in Richmond.
As an ordained United Methodist minister, Gooch has served as director of the Pace Center for Campus and Community Ministry (a group that works with VCU students, though it’s not affiliated with the university) for about seven years and was associate and then executive pastor at Reveille United Methodist Church in Richmond for about four years prior to that.
She’s also a member of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy board of directors and the Virginia Public Media Community Advisory Board, and she co-chairs the United Methodist Church Legislative Network’s board. Gooch also has held board or committee roles with Shalom Farms, Friends of the VCU Library and Swansboro Elementary School Community Partners. Gooch holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Duke University, where she also played field hockey. She and her husband live with their three children in Richmond’s Barton Heights community.
LEARN MORE
Lamont Bagby's campaign website
Katie Gooch's campaign website
Virginia Department of Elections – Citizen Portal
