CNN – Virginia State Senator Augustus Benton (Ben) Chafin, Jr., 60, has died after contracting Covid-19, according to a statement from his office.
Chafin, a cattle farmer and attorney, served Virginia’s 38th District.
He was elected to the state’s House of Delegates in 2013 before moving to the Senate in 2014.
His office remembered him Friday as “a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, economic development and health care coverage for hundreds of thousands of low-income Virginians.”
“He advocated jobs in his district, particularly in the coalfields where the decline of coal has devastated local economies,” the statement said.
Gov. Ralph Northam ordered the state flag atop Virginia’s Capitol to fly at half-staff until the senator’s interment.
“I knew Ben as a lawmaker, an attorney, a banker, and a farmer raising beef cattle in Moccasin Valley, working the land just as generations of his family had done before him,” Northam said …
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Florida Rep.-elect Elvira Salazar tests positive for COVID-19
THE HILL – Rep.-elect Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) announced Thursday that she tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the latest in a growing list of current or incoming lawmakers who have contracted the virus.
Elvira Salazar said in a statement that she was admitted to Doctors Hospital on Dec. 23 with heart arrhythmia.
She was subsequently tested for the coronavirus and received a positive diagnosis.
The incoming lawmaker did not specify any symptoms she experienced but said in the statement that she was “getting better each day” and that she was released from the hospital once in “stable condition.”
She is currently isolating in her home for 14 days on the recommendation of her doctors.
“I am incredibly thankful to the tireless front-line medical workers in our community who help so many people combatting the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.
Elvira Salazar said her diagnosis means she will not be able to attend the congressional swearing-in ceremony on Sunday during which she was scheduled to formally assume her office … Read more.
