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Greetings! 
 
I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas season and I wish you a prosperous and healthy 2024! My family and I had a wonderful Christmas season with all of us being together to celebrate my favorite time of year. 
 
It’s hard to believe that the 2024 Virginia General Assembly Session is almost here. On Wednesday, January 10th we will ring in the new 2024 session for an expected 60-day session. This year will be one to keep a sharp eye on. With the new redistricting, 18 new Senators and 35 new House of Delegate members have been elected to the Virginia General Assembly. With over 300 years of institutional knowledge retiring or not returning, this session will be very interesting. 

SENIORITY IN THE SENATE OF VIRGINIA
There are 40 Senators and 100 House of Delegate Members in the General Assembly. As you recall, I was elected in March of 2021 and was 40^th in seniority in the Senate. In my 3 years of service in the Senate of Virginia, I climbed to 38^th in seniority. With the recent election I will go into the 2024 Session at 20^th in seniority. This is a wonderful opportunity for me to be able to help our 5^th district and SWVA. Seniority matters on committee assignments, institutional knowledge, and fundraising. 
 
BI-PARTISAN RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
I have worked hard to build relationships on both sides of the political aisle to find shared interests and common goals that benefit all Virginians. I recently hosted the new Speaker of the House Designee Don Scott, a Democrat from Portsmouth, at my home for a couple of days and showed him and his lovely wife Mellanda some of the gems of SWVA. It was an amazing trip that I believe will benefit SWVA and the Commonwealth by educating and showcasing some of the challenges and opportunities we have here in SWVA. He was impressed and his words were, “I will be back!”. 

ADVOCATING FOR SWVA IN RICHMOND
Although as Republicans we are down by one seat in both the Senate and the House of Delegates, I will continue to promote our conservative, common sense, God-given freedoms we all hold near and dear to our hearts. You elected me to be your voice in Richmond; a voice that would be loud and clear about our needs here in the 5th District. I plan on submitting bills that will continue to clean up our environment from the waste coal and keep VCHEC operating. I have also submitted bills that will help the energy crisis we have in the Commonwealth and help us become energy independent from other states and nations. I plan to introduce legislation to help alleviate our nursing shortage, our shortage of large animal veterinarians, and help with the burdensome regulations that affect our veterinarians.  Additionally, I plan on introducing an income state tax deduction for those individuals that live in double distressed counties that have lost more than 8% of their population in the last census data to help stem the exodus from those areas and stimulate job growth and talent attraction. We have other legislation we are reviewing but these are the highlights. 
 
We ask you to pray for us for wisdom and guidance in the next 60 days. We also encourage you to come to Richmond and see your government at work. Our office is located in the General Assembly building, located at 201 N 9^th Street, Richmond, VA. Our office number is 512, located on the 5^th floor. During Session, you can reach us at our email [email protected] or call 804-698-7505. We will be sending out weekly newsletters to keep you informed of what is going on in Richmond. To get up-to-date information, please follow us on our Facebook page, Senator Travis Hackworth. Stay tuned, stay sharp, and help us make our corner of the world a better place to live, work and raise a family! 

Until next week,

Senator Travis Hackworth
Virginia State Senator, District 5