Blog Post

The Virginia Assembly approved Medicaid expansion for 400,000 Virginians as part of the Commonwealth budget last night.

Now, the legislation goes to Gov. Ralph Northam’s desk for his signature. This is historic, and I’m proud of the work that we did together to make this happen — block by block, community by community.

Last fall, we knocked on 52,377 doors and had 16,070 conversations with people in southwest Virginia about supporting candidates who would expand Medicaid. And we didn’t let up after the election. Together, hundreds of us reached out to our neighbors, called our assembly members and kept up the pressure.

This shows why voting matters. It shows why persistence matters. It shows that we can achieve great things when we work together.

Let’s savor this victory and keep pressing on. Let’s be honest, we’ve made a huge step forward, but there’s a lot more to be done.

In the last year alone, we’ve seen a federal tax bill signed into law that gave away billions of dollars to some of the wealthiest people and corporations in the world. We’ve seen attacks on affordable health care — all while some unscrupulous politicians attempt to sow division and hatred to distract and divide us.

We can build a fairer, stronger Virginia and a fairer, stronger America for all of us, but it takes work. It happens with many thousands of conversations at the door — listening to ordinary people’s aspirations for their families and their communities and mobilizing them to make a difference.

Many people and many organizations came together to make this victory on Medicaid expansion happen. I firmly believe that this can be just the first of many victories to come.