Independent Bowers seeks to unseat Thornton in Fairfield

Independent candidate Delta Bowers wants to create wealth in the Fairfield District and ensure that the district is on par with the rest of Henrico County in terms of economics, education and infrastructure.

Bowers is seeking the seat in the Nov. 5 general election in a race against six-time incumbent Democrat Frank Thornton, who won a party primary in June.

Bowers’s background is multifaceted, in that she is a businesswoman, an educator and an advocate. In each role, she’s been a leader.

For more than 25 years, Bowers has been the president of the management consulting firm she founded, DRB & Associates. She also worked as a contractor for continuity of operations for the federal government, helping develop, test, train and exercise for crises that could impact the U.S.’s financial infrastructure, Bowers said.

The skills that go into that task, which involves establishing emergency relocation services, “uniquely [qualified her] to be positioned to deal with crises of any nature in the Fairfield District or at any level, frankly,” she said.

In 2010, she also completed her doctoral degree in organizational leadership at the University of Phoenix, something she pursued for “self-actualization,” she said.

But Bowers’s time in education does not stop at graduation. She has taught at Virginia Union University for six and a half years as a professor of marketing and management and served as interim dean of the college’s Sydney Lewis School of Business from January 2018 until recently. This fall, she said she will be returning to the classroom and teaching strategic management as well as running VUU’s recently established Ruth Coles Harris Leadership Institute.

When she’s not teaching or running her business, Bowers advocates for issues such as domestic violence, mental health and poverty as president of non-profit National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. Richmond Metropolitan Area Chapter, the chapter she founded in 2015.

Having moved to the Fairfield District full-time in 2010, Bowers said she is running for the Fairfield supervisor seat in order to get a seat at the table and affect change regarding the district’s issues, she said.

“I've been doing this as a volunteer for a long time with no pay, advocating for the Fairfield District with no money,” Bowers said. “So it's not about money. It is about making a difference and creating equality for the residents of Fairfield District compared to those in the western part of the county.”

Bowers aims to address issues in the district, such as lack of school accreditation and poverty within communities. She views the two issues as related, she said.

“I believe that when you have poverty in a home, it creates a lot of stress,” Bowers said. “And it creates a lot of stress not only for the parents, it creates stress for the child. And the children bring that stress to school and often times don't perform at a level that is congruent with accreditation standards.

“So let's look at what's happening in the home, see how we can resolve those issues, and create a pathway for the parents such that they create an environment and a culture within their home that the child can be successful when they go into schools.”

These pathways would be paved by incentives, such as policy and funding changes that would incentivize people to attend workforce training and pursue jobs rather than only collect government aid, Bowers said.

Speaking about economic equality in general, Bowers said she was open to implementing incentives to attract economic development and corporations to the district.

Bowers holds safety as her main priority and that she also wanted to address Fairfield’s infrastructure issues, namely its roads, sewage systems, water systems and sidewalks, she said.

Running as an independent, Bowers calls herself a “consensus builder,” one that would listen and find solutions for the district.

“I like creating plans and making them work,” Bowers said. “And I've got a plan for the Fairfield District that I intend to make work.”