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       RICHMOND — State Sen. Jennifer B. Boysko (D-Fairfax) is joining the race to succeed Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.), who will not seek reelection in the state’s 10th Congressional District next year because of health problems.

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       Boysko, who easily won reelection to the Virginia Senate in Tuesday’s General Assembly elections, intends to announce her bid for Congress on Thursday, according to plans her campaign shared with The Washington Post.

       “What we’re seeing in Washington, D.C., is, frankly, quite troubling,” Boysko, 57, said in an interview this week. She expressed a desire to ban assault rifles, foster “an economy that works for everyone,” and protect abortion rights in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court ruling that gave states the right to outlaw the procedure.

       “As a mom of two daughters, that’s just unacceptable,” she said of the abortion ruling, “and I would like to see it protected at the national level.”

       Rep. Jennifer Wexton will not seek reelection as diagnosis changes

       Boysko will be the second Virginia Democrat to seek the party’s nomination for the competitive Northern Virginia district since Wexton announced in September that she would not seek reelection. Former Virginia House speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) jumped into the race in October.

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       Mike Clancy, a Republican, has announced a bid for his party’s nomination.

       Wexton first won the district in 2018, defeating Republican incumbent Barbara Comstock and ending 40 years of GOP control of the seat. She won a third term last year. But the district, which primarily covers Loudoun and part of Prince William counties, remains competitive — especially with an open seat.

       Wexton had been coping with what she initially thought was Parkinson’s disease but decided not to run again after the medical outlook worsened with a more recent diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy.

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       Several other Democrats have been mentioned as possible contenders, including delegates Dan Helmer (Fairfax) and David A. Reid (Loudoun).

       Boysko has been in the Senate since 2019 and served in the House of Delegates from 2016 to 2019. She has made abortion access and LGBTQ rights a priority along with kitchen-table issues such as broadband expansion and school funding.

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       She worked across the aisle with a fellow animal lover, Sen. Bill Stanley (R-Franklin), on legislation signed into law last year that saved more than 4,000 beagles being bred for research — the largest animal welfare seizure in the Humane Society’s history.

       Profit, pain and puppies: Inside the rescue of nearly 4,000 beagles

       Born in Arkansas and raised for much of her childhood by a single mother who had escaped an abusive marriage, Boysko came to Virginia for college at Hollins University in Roanoke, where she became an activist for reproductive rights.

       She went on to be a community organizer in Herndon and in the larger Fairfax and Loudoun areas, where she helped address mental health, wellness, and drug and alcohol abuse through the local parent-teacher-student organization, she said.

       Boysko became personally involved in the fight for paid family leave 26 years ago when she gave birth to her younger daughter, Sophie Claire, who was two months premature. As her baby fought for survival in the NICU, Boysko said, the family’s insurance company pelted them with letters every week saying that the next seven days’ care would cost more than $70,000 — and that it would decide in another week’s time if its coverage would continue.

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       “Jennifer believes that no family should have to face challenges like that when having a new child or caring for a sick family member and has spent years fighting for comprehensive paid family leave at the state level and will continue that fight in Congress,” a written statement from her campaign said.

       In the Senate, Boysko has proposed a paid family leave program that would provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave, funded by contributions from employers and workers.

       “If you make $60,000, your cost would be about the cost of a Starbucks coffee twice a month,” she said. “We are the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t have a formal family leave policy that provides that guarantee and financial security. I’ve been working on this for five years in the Virginia Senate. We really need a national solution.”

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