She has campaigned successfully to let midwives manage births and to stop uranium mining in Virginia, and now Freeda Cathcart says she once again will seek to represent the 17th House of Delegates district in Richmond.

Cathcart, who is running as a Democrat, said she wants to boost public education, which she said is suffering from lagging state funding, arbitrary state grading systems and too many unfunded mandates.

“Today, teachers are frustrated by Richmond’s overreach into our classrooms,” she told a crowd of roughly 50 outside Burlington Elementary School in Roanoke County.

Recalling her grandmother’s participation in the struggle to win women the right to vote, Cathcart told the crowd she would also stand up for women’s rights.

She said she would make sure Southwest Virginia gets its fair share of state dollars for roads, bridges and other infrastructure if she were elected.

“We want to make sure our children have good job opportunities so they can raise their families in this place we love,” she said.

She’ll be challenging Del. Chris Head, R-Botetourt County , who said Thursday he will be seeking re-election.

“It’s nice that voters will have a choice,” Head said. “I look forward to a very spirited campaign.”

Cathcart ran for the seat in 2011, losing to Head by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. It was her first bid for elected office.

She was a middle school teacher, and then worked at Shenandoah Life Insurance Co., leaving that job to raise her children. In the early 1990s, when the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op was in financial trouble, she helped lead the effort that put it on better footing.

She also has worked as a parent educator for the Child Health Investment Partnership , helping families with newborn babies, and serves on the board of her church, Unity of Roanoke Valley .

Founder of Mothers United for Midwifery , she was part of a successful effort to persuade the state legislature to allow certified midwives to manage births. She also is the founder of Mothers United Against Uranium Mining and worked with a bipartisan coalition this winter to maintain the ban on uranium mining in Virginia.

Weather Journal

8 hours ago