Andrew Payton is a candidate for the 34th district of the Virginia House of Delegates. He is running because he believes government can be a mechanism for meaningful change, that we deserve affordable healthcare and living wages, and that our planet is worth preserving.

Andrew lives in Harrisonburg with his wife Paulina and two children (6 and 4). Professionally, he is a Learning Designer, which means he designs curriculum and learning content for various academic clients.

As a community organizer, he has chaired the Climate Action Alliance of the Valley, the City of Harrisonburg’s Environmental Performance Standards Committee, and is currently the Treasurer of Renew Rocktown. These positions of leadership gave Andrew the opportunities to help guide community environmental goals and to collaborate with a number of community organizations to address energy poverty in the district.

Andrew grew up in Landover Hills, Maryland, an inner beltway suburb of Washington, DC. His parents came from working class families of Baltimore and southeastern Pennsylvania and met working for the federal government, where his father stayed for 45 years. Andrew and his wife have found an incredibly welcoming community in the central valley, and feel fortunate that deciding to settle and raise their children here.

Andrew studied film and electronic media at Towson University and then earned a MFA in creative writing from Iowa State University. He was a Fulbright scholar in Slovakia, has lived and traveled in Latin America, regularly publishes poetry, and has taught composition and writing courses at several different universities, including Eastern Mennonite University.