Blaizen Buckshot Bloom

My name is Blaizen Buckshot Bloom, named after the NASCAR drivers Blaise Alexander and Buckshot Jones. If elected, I’ll be the youngest Democrat ever elected to the General Assembly at 22. My name might be unconventional, my youth might surprise some, and my background might not fit the mold of a typical politician—but that’s exactly why I’m running. I believe our General Assembly needs leaders with recent memories of what it’s like to struggle, to fight for change, and to believe in the power of community. That’s why I’m asking to be our next representative for HD89.

An honest day’s work deserves an honest wage. Virginians are dedicated, hardworking people who deserve to share in the wealth that their work generates. We should raise the minimum wage to $17/hr, indexed to inflation & productivity increases, at the very least. Per the MIT Wage Calculator, that is the minimum amount a person in Hampton Roads can live on.

We can eliminate the Grocery Tax, aka the Flat Sales Tax, which makes essential living more expensive, and replace it with a graduated tax on Luxury Goods. This will make life more affordable without gutting revenue. We should curb Private Equity ownership of single-family homes. Private equity firms could still construct, remodel, and sell, but we would disallow their buying up and holding houses to create artificial shortages in our housing supply and drive up prices. Individuals’ ability to hold investment properties would be unimpacted.

Unions built the middle class, and the attack on unions has been the primary driver of middle class erosion. When a workplace becomes unionized, incomes rise, working conditions improve, and the quality of the work improves.

Whether it’s a medical crisis, a sudden loss of employment, or a fire, unexpected crises can hit us all. Having a government that can step in to help ride out these proverbial storms doesn’t just help those people who need a little help getting through a rough patch. It gives all of us the piece of mind that, God forbid, we would have a hand up if bad luck came for us.

Universal education regardless of family wealth is one of the greatest American achievements, and we must protect and build on this legacy. It is our ladder to opportunity, but it is about more than building employment skills – it is about molding and empowering the citizens of tomorrow. Unfortunately, schools in Chesapeake and Suffolk have been going in the wrong direction for a while. Considering that, once elected, I will have the General Assembly’s only memory of being a Virginia public school student during Covid, it should come as no surprise that I have a lot of knowledge on what needs to be done.

When service members have had America’s back, America should have theirs. Between Langley and Naval Station Norfolk, Hampton Roads has more than its share of American heroes. The VMSDEP (Virginia Military Survivors & Dependents Education Program) is a fantastic program that has unfortunately come under attack. In essence, it helps with education costs for family members of disabled or killed in action service members. This program must be protected. Examining the costs is fine, cutting the program is not.

The 89th is a remarkable place to live because of our unique composition. Large swaths of our district are family farms and untouched forests that are easily accessible for our suburban and urban neighborhoods. It’s a makeup unlike anything else in this state. We can preserve this beloved balance while developing smartly so both the rural and the urban thrive beside each other.

Governing a commonwealth the size of Virginia is a complex process. As with any intricate machine, it requires regular maintenance and updates to function smoothly. We, the voters, who are both the bosses and operators of government, require full transparency into the systems in place so that we may diagnose and repair the inevitable malfunctions that arise.