A small business owner from Bristow seeks the Democratic nomination for Del headquarters. Lee Carter.
Michelle Maldonado, 52, files documents to challenge Carter, a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, for the nomination in the 50th House District, which covers the city of Manassas and nearby parts of Prince William County.
Carter is Seek the Democratic nomination for governor and like many candidates running for governor or lieutenant governor, he is running for a further two-year term in the House of Representatives at the same time. If he wins the governorship, there would be a special election for his seat in the House of Representatives.
Maldonado is from the city of Falmouth, Massachusetts, Cape Cod. She received a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and Spanish Literature and Language from Barnard College in New York before moving to Northern Virginia in 1993 to attend George Washington University Law School.
Maldonado said she was moved to make her first attempt at public office after breaking into a series of high profile murders of black people across the country in 2020, including George Floyd of the Minneapolis police and Breonna Taylor of the police, ” “Shaken to the Core” in Louisville, Kentucky, and Ahmaud Arbery by a group of white men in Georgia.
She said the racial war sparked by the January 6th killings and riot in the U.S. Capitol had pushed her into service.
“I couldn’t believe it happened,” she said of the uprising that killed five people and made hundreds of arrests. “At that moment I said I had to do something.”
Maldonado wants to restore “dignity and respect in politics” through its campaign.
Maldonado’s campaign focuses on investing in education and business. It supports more increases for teachers and more resources in classrooms.
Maldonado wants Virginia to raise its minimum wage to at least $ 15 an hour, which she called a “good start”.
“Nobody should work 40 hours a week and still be at, below, or near the poverty line,” she said.
As a small business owner, Maldonado said she understood the impact of increasing wages on businesses and said it had to include a graduated scale and be regularly adjusted for inflation.
Maldonado said improving the economy, wages and education were linked to the issues of justice and equality.
“We have to think about when we are developing these things, when we are growing these things, there are implications for different communities,” she said.
Carter won his first two-year term in 2017, knocking out six-year Republican incumbent and majority whip, Jackson Miller, by nearly nine points. Two years later, he withheld the challenges of two seated members of Manassas City Council, first beating Democrat Mark Wolfe in a primary and then defeating Republican Ian Lovejoy in the general election.
Maldonado will join Carter and Manassa’s activists Helen Zurita in the democratic primary school. Mike Allers Jr. and Dr. Steve Pleickhardt are aiming for the Republican nomination.
No independent or third-party candidates have announced plans to run in the district.
The party’s nominees will be selected in the primaries on June 8th.