Incumbent Republican lawmaker Amanda Chase (left) will face Democrat Amanda Pohl in the 11th Senate District. (Photos courtesy the candidates)
In Virginia's 11th Senate District, the so-called "Battle of the Amandas" pits Democratic nominee Amanda Pohl against Sen. Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield County), a conservative lawmaker who has courted controversy since she was elected in 2015.
Although the two candidates share a first name, they both say that they hold very different visions for Virginia's future.
Pohl says years of grassroots advocacy work and a career as a hospital chaplain exposed her to the difficulties that people faced without expanded Medicaid access. That experience, paired with her own encounter with Virginia's abortion laws after a miscarriage, influenced her decision to run for public office. If elected, her priorities would include expanding access to affordable health care, ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, and protecting LGBTQ+ individuals from employment and housing discrimination — issues she says Chase has disregarded while in office.
Chase has been a vocal advocate for gun rights and limited government during her first term in office. In an interview, she touted her track record as a lawmaker, citing legislation she introduced to impose term limits for General Assembly members and require health care providers to supply patients with estimates of the cost of their services.
This election season, she's also garnered headlines because of a spat with the Chesterfield County Republican Committee that resulted in her membership being revoked, though she's quick to point out that the move doesn't mean that she's been kicked out of the party.
"I guess I'm compared to [President Donald] Trump because I'm very independent and I'm not a party puppet," she says. "I do what I feel is best for the citizens that have asked me to represent them, and I'm not one that's going to back down. That's what I'm known for."
Pohl also has been in the spotlight after her appearance with actor Alec Baldwin, who joined her for a news conference and door-knocking event in Chase's Midlothian neighborhood last month. Baldwin, who is a board member of liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, campaigned with Pohl and other Virginia candidates endorsed by the organization's Next Up Victory Fund.
In response, Chase has made posts both on her personal and campaign Facebook pages highlighting Baldwin's own brushes with controversy, including a recording of an angry voicemail message he left for his then-11-year-old daughter from 2007. In one post, she noted, "My socialist opponent, Amanda Pohl, meeting constituents with Alec Baldwin, who berates young women!"
Chase also has been a vocal opponent of the Medicaid expansion bill that passed through the General Assembly last year in a victory for Virginia Democrats. She called the expansion of Medicaid a "Trojan horse," and says that the program's popularity will lead to a deficit and increased taxes.
"There are more people that are signing up for that program than they originally budgeted, and the amount of expense per person is more than they budgeted, and so we're going to end up with a deficit," she says. "The constituents that I talk to, they don't want the government dictating their health care."
Pohl, however, says that Medicaid expansion brought health care coverage within reach for Virginians who otherwise would have faced insurmountable medical costs. If elected, she says, she will continue to fight to expand access to affordable health care and reduce insurance premiums.
"I don't want us to go backwards, and knowing that we could, nothing's ever a done deal," Pohl says. "Yes, we moved forward with that after the 2017 elections, but there is always a chance for moving backwards. I want to make sure that we maintain that and continue to get our tax dollars back in Virginia through Medicaid expansion."
Gun control has been another high-profile issue in Virginia after this summer's General Assembly special session on the issue, which was adjourned after just 90 minutes without passing any new laws. Pohl says that she would support state-mandated background checks and continued research into gun violence prevention, and she would look for ways to enable law enforcement to temporarily take the guns of people who pose a danger to themselves or others.
"I think that folks who need to have guns and should have guns can have guns, but we also need to make sure that people who shouldn't have access to guns don't have them," she says. "That means we need to address this issue."
At the other end of the spectrum is Chase, a proud gun owner who calls gun rights women's rights and appeared on the Senate floor earlier this year with her handgun visibly holstered on her hip. She says that if reelected, she plans to introduce legislation to allow firearms in schools and other gun-free zones across the state.
"We're creating vulnerabilities for our citizens, we're disarming citizens, and we're forcing them to be in situations where they're not protected," she says.
The traditionally Republican-leaning 11th District voted for Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton by 11 percentage points in 2016, but favored Republican Ed Gillespie over Democrat Ralph Northam by a smaller margin of 7 percentage points in the 2017 gubernatorial election, and contributed to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine's reelection in 2018, voting 50% for him, 49% for Republican challenger Corey Stewart and 2% for Libertarian Matt Waters, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. More than 86% of the district's voters are in Chesterfield County, with small amounts in Colonial Heights and Amelia County.
All 140 seats on the General Assembly are on the ballot on Election Day (Tuesday, Nov. 5), along with key local races. For more information and to check your voter registration status, visit vote.elections.virginia.gov.