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Dear Friends,
I'm writing to thank you one last time as a Virginia Delegate. From the bottom of my heart - Thank you for trusting me to serve you. Thank you for your prayers and support over the last decade.
While this year's elections didn't go as we had hoped, we can rest in the confidence that "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)
As we move past the Thanksgiving holiday and look forward to celebrating our Lord's birth in a few weeks, I am enjoying my new freedom.
While it has been an enormous honor to serve in the longest continually-meeting legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, the greater privilege has been all the wonderful people I've been honored to meet and serve over the last decade.
I look around and see our world moving away from the Truth and Light. Political efforts, no matter how well-placed, seem to only stall the decline if they have any effect at all.
The bright side is that nothing escapes the notice of the one true God of the universe who is looking out for us. As God’s word tells us in Matthew 10:26-33:
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“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
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Has our collective effort made a difference? Yes it has.
Due to your prayers and support, we, meaning you and I and my team, have accomplished much, despite some very challenging circumstances.
To encourage you, I am highlighting just a few things here:
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Our first year in Richmond, 2014, we passed legislation to protect property rights in proposed annexation into towns.
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The second year, 2015, we passed legislation to require cost-benefit analysis before funding transit projects in Northern Virginia, legislation to improve homeschool testing procedures, and a study of communications taxes to see if they could be more effectively used to expand broadband.
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Our third year, 2016, we passed legislation to help protect kids loading and unloading from school buses.
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The fourth year, 2017, we passed legislation to improve access to life-saving Naloxone, as well as a constitutional amendment to protect transportation funding (killed in the Senate in a later session), and Free Speech protections at colleges and universities.
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Our fifth year, 2018, we passed legislation to simplify local tax collections for residents of Loudoun County Towns, reduce cost of life-saving Naloxone for at-risk people, reduce fuel costs for local volunteer fire and rescue companies, and improve transparency of Transportation decision-making in Northern Virginia.
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The sixth year, 2019, we passed legislation to help with affordability and access to local day-care facilities, and legislation to ensure handicapped parking spaces weren't made useless by irresponsible parking violators.
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Our seventh and eighth sessions, 2020-2021, Democrats controlled both houses of the General Assembly, and killed all the good common-sense legislation we brought forward.
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The ninth year, 2022, we passed legislation to help VDOT traffic incident management vehicles get to crashes more efficiently, to get roads cleared and traffic moving again.
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Our tenth year, 2023, we passed two important bills through the House of Delegates, only to see them all killed by Democrat-controlled Senate committees. This included reigning in local gun-control ordinances, and Sage's Law, to protect at-risk children and their parents from secrete gender-transitioning in public schools. Sage's law contributed significantly to the national conversation on this important issue.
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We also passed bills to help local governments better meet needs, by revising the Lovettsville (twice) and Berryville Town Charters.
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We also had seven bills pass the General Assembly, only to be vetoed by Democrat Governors: prohibiting Common Core in our public schools (vetoed twice); Parental Choice Education Savings Accounts (vetoed twice); protecting 2nd amendment rights from local roadblocks; welfare reform to more efficiently remove ineligible/fraudulent recipients, and more efficient removal of non-citizens and other non-eligible people from voting rolls.
We've also helped residents cut through bureaucratic red tape with hundreds of constituent issues, from VDOT concerns to unemployment claims.
And we've made real progress on quality-of-life issues, including replacement of five traffic lights with interchanges to make Rt. 7 a freeway from Rt. 28 to Berryville, fully fund broadband access to all rural areas of Clarke, Frederick and Loudoun Counties (and Shenandoah and Warren as well) by 2025, fund critical improvements to I-81, and much, much more.
Less-public efforts have included countless hours working outside of the legislative process through filing lawsuits and amicus briefs, requesting attorney general opinions, and more to support progress on issues like life, the 2nd Amendment, parental rights, election integrity, religious liberty, medical freedom and much more.
Daniel Davies has been a full-time state employee assisting me in Richmond and serving the people of the 33rd House District at our home office for the past ten years. Daniel is a dedicated servant who operated mostly behind the scenes digesting huge amounts of information, solving problems, encouraging others and much more. Daniel and his family are now waiting for the Lord to guide them as He chooses. Please keep them in your prayers.
I am very blessed to have many children and grandchildren. I’ll share briefly that the passion Joanne and I have for protecting the unborn drove us to press on in public service, sacrificing time away from each other and our own family, going door to door on hot summer days and cold wet fall days. I’m glad to say that we are still working to change hearts, minds, and laws with the goal of having all children loved and cared for.
Joanne and I thank you again for your prayers and support. We pray that God will bless you and your families with a wonderful Christmas and 2024!
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P.S. Thanks again for the honor of serving you. I continue to serve the people of the 33rd House District as your elected representative until January 9th, 2024. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help you.
P.P.S. Just for fun, we included some throwback pictures at the top of this email, and more below....
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Contribute?
The purpose of this message is to say thanks, not to promote giving. Joanne and I have shifted considerable amounts from personal resources to fund campaigns and have no regrets. We are still paying campaign expenses. Any help with this is appreciated.
If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call or email my office at 540-751-8364 or info@VoteLaRock.us. You can also follow me on X/twitter @DaveLaRockForVA and my Facebook page to keep up to date. I'm also now on MeWe and Telegram.
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Get in touch and stay connected:
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info@voteLaRock.us
District Office: P.O. Box 29, Berryville, VA 22611 (540) 751-8364
Paid for and authorized by Dave LaRock for Virginia
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