Meet Jennifer

Jennifer Carroll Foy was born and raised in Petersburg, Virginia — a community with heart that also fell on hard times.

Petersburg has one of the highest poverty rates and one of the highest rates of unaccredited schools. The city was named one of the most dangerous places to live per capita in all of Virginia. Jennifer was raised by her grandmother, Mary Lee Carroll — a powerhouse and a leader in the community.

Her grandmother would say, “Jenn, if you have it, you have to give it.”

Jennifer saw her grandmother give all she had — even when she didn’t have much to give. She watched her grandmother go to work every day as a health aide in Petersburg. And when she came home at night, she usually came home to a house full of people from church who fell on hard times and needed a helping hand.

When Jennifer was a young woman, her grandmother suffered a stroke that made her a quadriplegic. Suddenly the strongest woman Jennifer knew needed to be taken care of herself. Hard choices followed, as they do for so many Virginia families. Jennifer and her aunt had to make the difficult decision to cut Mary Lee’s lifesaving prescription drugs in half some months so they could afford both the medication and their mortgage.

This experience, and growing up in a community where people worked multiple jobs to barely make ends meet, her friends were victims of gun violence, and students didn’t have books to take home, led Jennifer to commit herself to a life of service.

In high school, she joined the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC). And upon watching the Supreme Court make the landmark decision to open the door for women to attend Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Jennifer knew she had to attend. Jennifer was one of the first women to graduate from VMI. Having spent four years at Virginia Military Institute, Jennifer learned to address problems head-on and never back down from a fight — and she deepened her commitment to put service above self.

After graduation, Jennifer went on to receive a master’s degree from Virginia State University and a law degree from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Jennifer started her career as a magistrate judge. But she quickly saw how people in her courtroom were being treated differently based on their race, economic status, or zip code. Jennifer became a public defender to help give a voice to the voiceless — children, people suffering from addiction, those experiencing houselessness, those with mental illness, and the poor.

In 2017, she took her commitment to service to the Virginia House of Delegates.

She ran for office while pregnant with her twin boys and flipped a historically red district blue. In the House of Delegates, she led the charge to clean up toxic coal ash ponds across the Commonwealth and was a part of the successful push to expand Medicaid to over 500,000 Virginians. During the 2020 General Assembly, Jennifer advanced a pro-woman, pro-labor, and pro-environment agenda, and led the charge to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in Virginia as the bill’s chief sponsor.

During the COVID-19 crisis, Jennifer assisted her constituents with navigating the unemployment claim process, hosted rountables with teachers, health experts, faith leaders, and small business owners to hear their concerns and experiences in light of the pandemic, and escalated their issues during session and to the highest levels of government. She called for swift action to guarantee paid sick leave for hourly workers, raise unemployment caps, address disparities in COVID-19 infections and mortality rates, and institute an all vote-by-mail system with some in-person options.

Jennifer is running for Governor because there’s so much more to do.

Her vision of a Virginia that works for all of us — regardless of age, gender, orientation, race, or zip code — is possible, and it’s within reach. And it’s more important now than ever. COVID-19 exposed what is already just beneath the surface — something she knew all along growing up in Petersburg: too many Virginians can’t earn a decent paycheck, afford their medical bills, or get ahead.

Jennifer understands the challenges that everyday Virginians face, because she lived them — juggling multiple jobs, living life as a working mom, and suffering her own life-threatening complications with her pregnancy. And she has a plan to solve them.

Jennifer is laser focused on bringing even more good jobs to the Commonwealth, helping people get back on their feet post-COVID-19, making sure Virginians have equal rights, and fighting against corruption in Richmond.

Jennifer met her husband Jeff on their second day at Virginia Military Institute. They became best friends and, years later, married. Jennifer and Jeff, and their twins, toddlers Alex and Xander, live in Woodbridge, Virginia.