Tara Durant running for Virginia State Senate District 27 seat

Tara Durant is seeking the Virginia Senate seat for District 27, which includes southern Stafford County, Spotsylvania County, and Fredericksburg.

Durant, 50, is a one-term House of Delegates member who won her 2021 election and was part of a red wave of Republican candidates who won a slim majority in the House of Delegates, as well as Glenn Youngkin, Virginia’s first Republican Governor since Bob McDonnell won in 2009.

Durant garnered national media attention in 2020, in the wake of the death of George Floyd, when she and her child called 911 for help after rioters surrounded their vehicle on a Fredericksburg street and prevented them from leaving. A 911 operator told her police would not be able to help her by order of city leaders.

Durant is a school librarian at Holy Cross Academy in Stafford County, where she has also taught. She is married to her husband of 25 years. The couple shares three children, ages 15 to 25.

Durant faces Matt Strickland in the GOP Primary on June 20, 2023. VPAP lists the district as “leans Republican.” Find your polling place.

You can see the full interview with Durant here and my interview with her challenger here.

Where do you stand on school choice?

“I strongly support school choice, and that’s why right after I was elected, I was asked to attend a conference in Florida, which is really the tip of the spear. They’ve been champions…There are a lot of different ways that school choice can be broken down into and offered as an option for families who are trying to find the best fit for their child… But like many of the legislative challenges, we have a brick wall that’s controlled by the Virginia Senate that is really blocking a lot of the priorities that govern what we were elected to do two years ago, a priority for this administration, a priority for the Republicans that are in the General Assembly.”

“And so that’s a challenge that we still continue to face. And that’s one of the key reasons why I’m running for Senate, is so that we can tear down that brick wall and be able to deliver exactly on the promises that we made when they elected us two years ago.”

“This can be done in Virginia, and it should be done at Virginia… If we are able to tear down that role, and when we do, and we have a general assembly that the governor can work with, then you’ll see that coming up in the next General Assembly. I believe it continues to be a priority, and you will see it again this upcoming year. And there are a lot of different ways, again, that school choices can be charter schools, it can be lab schools. Those are public school options. And really, that’s what other states have been successfully realizing, is that this can be a benefit for all involved.”

In the wake of rising crime rates, police continue to struggle with recruiting and retention, mental health cases, etc. Offenses like having a broken headlight are now secondary and not enough of a reason to stop someone. How do we better serve the law enforcement officers who want to protect and serve our communities?

“With the former primary offenses, now to secondary offenses: I’ve heard from law enforcement this is a key priority for them. It’s really handcuffing them, and no pun intended, to be able to do their jobs, they need to be able to pull them over. If there’s unsafe equipment, they have a broken taillight and if their muffler is too loud, or it’s just a whole myriad of things. And so it’s very frustrating. That was a bill that I carried this year at the request of the administration. And it’s a partisan issue. It’s really unfortunate.

“I go back to thinking about when I was a teacher in second grade. One of the first units you do in elementary is you cover community helpers. And we have always kept our community helpers, our law enforcement, our nurses, our teachers’ hero status. And I’m determined as long as I’m in office that I will do everything I can to restore the dignity and respect that professional law enforcement deserves. It’s really infuriating to me, and it’s personal. But another component of the challenges they’re facing in law enforcement right now is on mental health. And it’s absolutely unsustainable.”

Where do you stand on CRT / social-emotional learning in schools?

This goes back to listening to people from the district starting even two years ago. They’re very concerned. I hear it all the time about what’s happening with our children and in schools right now. They want their kids to be able to get the education they need. They want them to be focused on learning the core subjects that they have. Instead of focusing on the learning loss that we saw, particularly as a result of COVID, we have. Instead, our conversations have been diverted over to these other more really divisive concepts as they are with CRT.”

“And we did see legislation that came through last year on that very subject. And at the end of the day, we must tear down this Senate, this Democrat brick wall that’s controlled by the Senate, so that we can really focus on exactly what people care about in this district and in the commonwealth, which is ensuring that our children are learning what they’re supposed to learn in school and really tackle learning loss instead of having these other just diversions that are really instruction as to how we’re supposed to be functioning as a commonwealth.”

You’ve outraised your opponent, who has criticized your funding sources, and your co-campaigning with Gov. Glen Youngkin. Others say if he wins the Primary Election, he’s too “MAGA” and won’t appeal to middle-of-the-road voters in the General Election. What do you make of these criticisms?

“I go back to think about the very beginning when I got into politics, and it was a grassroots effort that we started really from ground zero on building it all up. And that takes all resources. And I will never apologize for raising what you need to do in a race like this and in a very competitive seat. I am the northernmost delegate in the Commonwealth holding line right now, and I’ll never apologize for raising what it takes to be able to be successful.”

“And that’s exactly what I did two years ago, and we’ll continue to do so. When I ran two years ago, I spent a lot of time knocking on doors and connecting with people, my friends, my neighbors, and making even new friends, too. And it’s really important that you connect with people who are independent, who are swing voters, who listen to what matters most to them. And it was really kitchen table issues. It was jobs in the economy; it was education. It was public safety. Those were, what I heard over and over again, and those continue at the first and front most of what is on people’s minds as we move forward in this race.

“And when I ran two years ago, and I won the delegate seat, I had the most significant shift in the entire state when blue flipped it by eight points. And that’s not insignificant at all. It’s critical to be able to do so because that’s exactly what this region is like. And so I am now, with two years under my belt, with some experience in the General Assembly and a job that I truly, generally, really love.”