"I am passionate about preserving and enhancing the quality of life for the residents here.”
-Keith Hodges
About Keith Hodges
“Community service has been an important part of my life, and serving as Delegate is a continuation of that service.”
Keith Hodges, who owns the Gloucester Pharmacy and completed his education at the University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University and the Medical College of Virginia, strives to find solutions to the complex challenges residents and business owners on the Middle Peninsula continue to face in rural coastal Virginia.
“My roots run deep on the Middle Peninsula,” Hodges said. “I grew up here, as did my parents and grandparents. I spent my college summers working at the mill and enjoyed a childhood fishing, hunting and living the American dream in the heart of the 68th District.”
Hodges believes in "community service, and have tried to live a life that reflects the gratitude and appreciation I have for the opportunities I’ve been given,” he said. “Community service has been an important part of my life, and serving as Delegate is a continuation of that service.”
Hodges’ community service over the years has included serving on the Riverside Walter Reed Hospital Board, the BB&T Local Advisory Board, Relay for Life and the local area chambers of Commerce. Hodges is also a volunteer pharmacist at the Gloucester-Mathews Free Clinic and has coached parks and recreation and Little League T-ball teams.
As an elected leader in the region, Hodges orchestrated the region’s first Economic Development Summit, a Rural Coastal Summit, initiated the formation of the Middle Peninsula Alliance as a regional group charged with the economic development of the entire district, created the Middle Peninsula Opioid Task Force and the Rural Coastal Economic Enhancement Authority.
His legislation has worked to bring more opportunities to the Middle Peninsula and other rural coastal Virginia localities that allow them to compete more equally with other more urban areas for economic development opportunities while also still protecting the natural resources that make the region so unique.
“We’ve made incredible strides,” Hodges said. “In our region we have to mitigate the effect of water, the layers of government regulations that stand in between property owners and their ability to protect themselves, and then bring innovative solutions to address it.”
In Richmond, Hodges serves on the Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee, General Laws Committee, Chairing the Rappahannock River Basin Commission, Co-Chairing the Joint Commission on Coastal Flooding, Chairing the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund Advisory Committee, serving as Vice-Chair for the Rural Caucus, and as the legislative member of the Advisory Board for the Middle Peninsula Alliance, the regional economic development authority.
Hodges and his wife Shelley have been married 30 years and have two daughters, Chloe, 20, and Ella, 16.
They attend Urbanna United Methodist Church.
On The Issues
"When we create the jobs people need right here at home so they don’t have to move or commute elsewhere, we can start to build our tax base, provide more funding to our schools and really keep more families and communities together.” -Keith Hodges
Economic Development
Protect. Leverage. Create.
Keith Hodges' approach to economic development includes finding solutions amid a complex regulatory environment to PROTECT water quality, LEVERAGE natural resources, and CREATE meaningful, high-paying jobs.
Flooding
Finding solutions so that "a rising tide can lift all ships."
"When you reframe the way you approach water management, you can come at it from a more holistic economic perspective. You can create jobs. You can protect livelihoods."
Education
Creating opportunities for our future.
Economic development is closely tied to education needs for Keith Hodges. “When we create the jobs people need right here at home so they don’t have to move or commute elsewhere, we can start to build our tax base, provide more funding to our schools and really keep more families and communities together.”
Opioid Crisis
Stemming the tide of addiction.
The Middle Peninsula Opioid Addiction Task Force, spearheaded by Keith Hodges, includes a diverse group of health care professionals, law-enforcement officers, public officials and religious leaders to play a larger role in educating the public about the dangers of opioid addiction and options for treatment and recovery.
Transportation
Jobs and transportation are connected.
74% of the residents on the Middle Peninsula commute out of the region to work in nearby urban markets, taking tax dollars with them and forcing the small, rural communities to struggle year to year.
Lower Taxes. Less Government.
Foundational values of leadership.
As a small businessman with deep roots on the Middle Peninsula, Keith Hodges values the benefit of less taxes and less government to residents and businesses.
In the News
Delegate Keith Hodges and the 98th District in the News
2021年3月17日Want to help re-elect Keith Hodges to represent the 98th District? Download the Virginia Petition of Qualified Voters below (choose the one for your locality), sign it (and get some additional signatures), and send it in to use before Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Drop off at the pharmacy or...In an effort to help get medication that can help Virginians heal and recover faster from COVID-19, Delegate Keith Hodges introduced legislation this week (HB 5094) during the Virginia General Assembly’s Special Session aimed at health insurance carriers and prohibiting the requirement of prior...Delegate Keith Hodges, during Virginia’s Special General Assembly Session convened in August 2020, introduced legislation (HB 5095) requesting the Department of Health to develop criteria for assessing the long-term impact of distance learning on students and to collect, and make available, that...About the 68th District
Officially speaking, Virginia’s 68th District includes Essex, Gloucester, Mathews, Middlesex and parts of King & Queen and King William Counties. But there is so much more to this rural coastal Virginia region and the heritage that makes up its people.
The Middle Peninsula of Virginia is the second of three large peninsulas on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. Nestled between the Northern Neck and the Virginia Peninsula, it’s bounded by the Rappahannock River on the north and the York River on the south, with the Chesapeake Bay to the east. It encompasses six Virginia counties: Essex, Gloucester, King and Queen, King William, Mathews, and Middlesex.
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