Nikki Rattray Baldwin seeks GOP nomination for 29th Senate District

Nikki Rattray Baldwin is running in a GOP Primary Election for the Virginia Senate 29th District seat, which includes portions of central and eastern Prince William County and a portion of North Stafford.

Baldwin is a Navy veteran, a wife of a U.S. Marine of 13 years, and the mother of a 9-year-old boy. In the Navy, Baldwin worked as an EMT, disaster search and rescue, and as a protocol officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree focusing on psychology and a Master’s Degree in public administration.

Baldwin said she decided to run for office after watching a WJLA-TV news report showing Delegate Elizabeth Guzman, a Democrat also vying for the seat in a Democrat-Party Primary Election on June 20, said she would introduce legislation criminalizing parents for not affirming their child’s chosen gender.

So I got into this because, actually, really, I never had any intention of running for office. My husband ran for delegate back in 2021 against Elizabeth Guzman.

Baldwin is running against Maria Martin, who has unsuccessfully sought state office since 2019. The 29th district leans toward Democrats. Jeremy McPike (D) has represented the district since 2016.

You find your polling place here. You can watch and listen to our full interview here.

Where do you stand on school choice? Should the money follow the student, or should it go to a particular school building?

“So the funny thing is, my platform I’m running on to protect our future…school choice is the perfect example of how we can do this, because, let’s face it, families don’t need like rich families don’t need school choice because they already have their education paid for. Now, all that means is that because of the misconceptions that you were talking about, this is it. It just means that a percentage of that money follows the student to the new school, and most of the money will remain at that old school district.”

“[If] you have $100 that is allocated to that student in that school. Well, if that parent decides to take that child somewhere else instead of taking that full $100, let’s say they only take 25% of it. So you have $25 of that $100 going with that student to that new school.

“Well, you have $75 left at that old school. So my son has 30 kids in his classroom. So if five students left their school because they chose school choice and did something else, but now we have 25 students in that class, and we have more money than the students that the teachers and the school board and everyone can work with. And for me, I see that as a win.”

Where do you stand on the possibility of a new Washington Commanders stadium built in Woodbridge, in the 29th Senate District?

“I have so many questions, and the biggest thing for me is I question, what don’t I know? So if the goal is to help all of our constituents, traffic sucks. Everyone knows that traffic sucks. Let’s just get that out of the way. So does this mean expanding the express lanes on [Interstate] 95 to make them go in two directions? Are we talking about recognizing that the I-95 Corridor from Washington to Richmond is the most critical corridor for interstate commerce in the Mid-Atlantic region? I mean, freight rail can’t cover everything that’s needed to be transported. So having an expansive, efficient method of interstate highway transportation is essential to helping to reduce the cost. So bringing in the stadium, I can see the positives, but I can also see the negatives. And we really have to go at the root cause and say, hey, how can this help us if this is what they’re going to do or this is what we’re going to do?

What are your transportation priorities?

“Transportation goes hand in hand with economic growth, which means it has a direct impact on revenue that the commonwealth collects. I would promote incentives for employees to have more of their employees work remotely because that will cut down on some of the traffic. The money saved [on commuting] can be then recaptured by local restaurants, businesses, service companies, which service companies here in Prince William County as well as Stafford…Instead of giving [Washington D.C.] our tax revenue.”

Violent crime is up 70% in Prince William County. Police officers are contumely asked to deal with more challenging situations, especially when it comes to helping those suffering mental-health breakdowns. What more could you do as a legislator to make sure that the law enforcement officers who want to serve and protect the community may continue to do so?

“I’ve spoken to the police association like I’ve spoken to a lot of police officers. First and foremost, thank you for what you do because I was in the military for a decade and it’s nothing compared. Yes, I protected my country, but you protect us every single day. And I will make sure that not only our police officers are taken care of…I’m going to promote legislation that’s going to provide them better access, better help to help serve our community. But the problem is, I grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood, and we had a major distrust for police officers. But for me, I feel that if we have better community relations with our police officers and we get our HOAs and our community involved and say, ‘Hey, we need to do this together and work together, I think the relations will be a lot better, and we can grow more, and we can give them more what they need.”