Government | Politics 2023: MAMIE E. LOCKE

SENATOR, SENATE OF VIRGINIA, HAMPTON

Published August 30, 2023 by Virginia Business

Locke was the Atlanta Historical Society’s archivist in 1981, when she was asked to interview for a political science teaching position at Hampton University, where 42 years later she is a professor emeritus. She served as vice mayor and mayor of Hampton before her election to the state Senate in 2004.

As many of her peers have retired this year and she is unopposed for reelection, Locke, who chairs the Senate Democratic Caucus, will become one of the Senate’s more senior members in 2024. She chairs the influential Senate Rules Committee and the powerful Finance and Appropriations Committee, as well as the Education and Health Committee.

Locke, a former chair and now vice chair of the Virginia Housing Commission, is known as a champion of affordable housing. In May, Gov. Glenn Youngkin removed her from the Southern Regional Advisory Board, which focuses on public education.

MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: A photo of my father in his World War II Army uniform. He died when I was 6 months old.

IF I HAD A TIME MACHINE, I’D MEET: Harriet Tubman. She was tenacious and fearless, even in the face of personal danger.

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