Protect What Sustains Us: Good Jobs, and Dignity

Sisterhood isn’t just a word we throw around; it’s how we show up.

For generations, Black women have carried Virginia on our backs—teaching in classrooms, caring for families, keeping hospitals, offices, and communities running—while too many people in power smiled for photos and left us holding the bag. That story ends here.

Black women have always been the fixers, the organizers, the ones who hold it together even when the system doesn’t. Showing up shouldn’t mean getting stepped over.

We’re not asking for thank-yous. We’re demanding results. Representation without action isn’t progress. It is performance.

Across Virginia, working families are doing everything right and still falling behind. Prices for groceries, rent, and child care keep going up while paychecks stay the same. Families are one car repair or hospital bill away from crisis. More than one in five Virginians—nearly two million people—get healthcare through Medicaid, including new mothers, people with disabilities, and older Virginians who depend on it for daily care. Nine percent rely on SNAP to put food on the table and keep local grocery stores in business. These programs aren’t handouts; they’re lifelines to families and communities. When leaders talk about “cutting costs,” that’s often code for cutting care, cutting meals, and cutting stability for the people who do the work.

Meanwhile, most Virginians agree: our economy should work for everyone who works. Working people need the tools to succeed: fair pay, affordable childcare, and the right to speak up on the job. When workers can bargain for fair pay and safer conditions, communities grow stronger. That’s progress rooted in respect.

That’s why we’re standing with Abigail Spanberger. Because she stands with us. We want leaders who show up, listen, and get results. She has shown she can be that kind of leader. She’s fought to lower prescription drug costs, protect healthcare for working families, and make childcare more affordable. She supports workers’ right to unionize, funding for public schools, and strengthening Virginia’s fair housing protections. Her leadership is grounded in respect, not rhetoric.

This election isn’t about personalities; it’s about priorities. It’s about whether we want a Virginia that invests in the people who make it work or one that keeps asking working families to do more with less. It’s about respect—for our labor, our families, and our future.

To our sisters across Virginia: we see you, we’ve got you, and we’re not backing down. This November, let’s choose dignity over division, let’s choose to build a Virginia that finally works for all of us. Let’s choose Abigail Spanberger.

Signed,

April Verrett, President, SEIU

LaNoral Thomas, President, SEIU Virginia 512

Minyon Moore, CO-Convenor Power Rising

Shavon Arline-Bradley, REACH Beyond Solutions

Donna L Brazile, Brazile and Associates, LLC

Rhonda Briggins