Jennifer Carroll Foy

Virginia House of Delegates

In February 2017, Carroll Foy entered the race for the Second District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.^[6] In her 2017 campaign, Carroll Foy ran on expanding Medicaid, raising the minimum wage, increasing teacher pay, and criminal justice reform.^[7] In November 2017, Carroll Foy beat Republican Mike Makee, and became delegate of Virginia's Second district.^[8]

In the House of Delegates, Carroll Foy sat on the Courts of Justice, Finance, and Public Safety Committees.^[9]

2021 gubernatorial campaign

In 2020, Carroll Foy filed paperwork to seek the Democratic nomination in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election.^[10][2] On December 8, 2020, she announced plans to resign from the House of Delegates in order to focus full-time on her gubernatorial campaign.^[11] Her resignation came into effect on December 12, 2020.^[12] She, like fellow candidate Jennifer McClellan, would've been the first female governor of Virginia, the second African-American governor after Douglas Wilder, and first African-American female governor of the United States if elected.^[13] However, former governor Terry McAuliffe won the Democratic primary.^{[14][11][15][16]}

Virginia State Senate

In 2023, she was elected to the Virginia Senate, defeating former delegate Hala Ayala in the Democratic primary with 62.85% and Republican candidate Michael Van Meter with nearly 63% of the vote in the general election.^[17]

Healthcare

Carroll Foy voted to pass Medicaid expansion in the General Assembly in March 2018, expanding health insurance coverage for 400,000 Virginians.^[18]

Women's rights

Carroll Foy proposed and passed the Equal Rights Amendment, making Virginia the 38th state to ratify the constitutional amendment.^[19]

Criminal justice

A public defender, Carroll Foy has advocated for the reform of cash bail, criticizing what she called Virginia's "justice-for-profit system".^[20]

Carroll Foy initially abstained from voting on a 2020 proposal to reduce prison sentences, bringing Virginia's "earned sentence credit" program in line with other states.^[21] She eventually voted in favor of a significantly more conservative version of the bills.^[21][22]

Redistricting

Carroll Foy supports third-party, commission-drawn legislative maps but opposed the amendment to the state constitution as proposed in 2020, saying she felt it was wrong to inscribe a “substandard” proposal in the constitution.^[20]

Labor

Carroll Foy has been an advocate for paid family and medical leave for all workers.^[1] In December 2025, Carroll Foy filed a bill to repeal the right-to-work law in Virginia.^[23]

Infrastructure

Carroll Foy supports efforts to expand broadband access, particularly to southwest Virginia.^[3]

Environment and climate change

Carroll Foy was a chief co-patron of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which aims to shift Virginia's energy reliance to solely renewable sources over the next few decades^[24][25]