Michael Van Meter is trading his political microphone for the real deal.
The Republican who lives in Springfield is mounting a run for the newly-created District 33 State Senate Seat. The district, created in December 2021 by the Virginia State Supreme Court as part of the redistricting process, has no incumbent.
Democrat Hyla Ayala, who ran for Lt. Governor in 2021, and Democrat Jennifer Carroll Foy, who stepped down from her seat in the General Assembly in 2020 to mount a campaign for governor in 2021, are also running for the seat.
Van Meter is a retired FBI agent and addiction counselor. Since May 2020, Van Meter has been talking politics under his radio name, Mark Vines, where he’s given hot takes on national news, leadership, and the efforts to reform the nation’s police departments in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In June 2022, he began using his real name in anticipation of his political run.
Sober for 10 years, Van Meter developed a class at the FBI Academy at Quantico to help law enforcement officers who are suffering from addiction brought on by workplace stress. Van Meter also produces a second podcast about addiction recovery, which began about a year before his political show.
“I talk about how addiction is such a big issue nationwide. In fact, I argue that it’s the top healthcare issue in the country, but, yet, no one knows that because the leaders are not speaking out about this,” Van Meter told PLN.
A year into his retirement from the FBI and subsequently from teaching at the academy, leaders at law enforcement agencies across the U.S. continued to call on Van Meter and ask for advice and help with officer addiction. He credits his wife of 33 years, who told him to start a podcast to help others through their addiction and to show them recovery is possible.
In recent years, the Virginia General Assembly, with Democrats in charge, has moved to decriminalize the possession of marijuana and is closer to legalization. On July 1, possession of up to one ounce of pot with no intent to distribute will become legal for adults 21 and older. Adults will also be allowed to grow up to four marijuana plants per household. Experts say it will be years before a legal marketplace to buy the drug is set up.
Van Meter says the common arguments politicians use to discuss marijuana, like increasing the tax base and continually ignoring the effects it and drugs like it, including alcohol, have on users and their families. During a panel discussion on fentanyl in Woodbridge in May, Van Meter asked attendees to raise their hands if they did not know someone whose life had been affected by drug or alcohol use.
No one raised a hand.
“All the poeple who talk about legalizing marijuana don’t know what they’re talking about,” said Van Meter. “They’re pushing it as another way for the government to make money without harming people, and I don’t think that’s the business that the government should be in at all now.”
Van Meter encouraged voters to challenge their elected representatives’ positions on drug legalization. Republicans, who re-took the House of Delegates this year from Democrats, have done little to reverse recent years of new laws relaxing the state’s once strict stance on marijuana.
Van Meter also supports school choice, allowing parents with children at underperforming schools to use government money to send their children to better-performing private schools. Since taking office in January, Gov. Glenn Youngkin set aside $150 million of taxpayer “start-up” funds to create new university-affiliated lab schools for kindergarten through 12th-grade students.
The newly carved out District 33 includes a portion of southern Fairfax County, where Van Meter lives, and some of eastern Prince William County, the majority of the district. According to VPAP, 63% of the district voters chose Democrat Terry McAuliffe over Gov. Glenn Young king in the November 2021 General Election.
It’s been a reliably-blue district since at least 2016, when voters here chose Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Talk of a coming red wave in November 2022 that could wash out Democrats in Congress, could be a harbinger of good news for Van Meter, who aims to be on the November 2023 ballot.
“The policies we’re talking about are not just Republican policies. These policies are the best interest in the United States and the best interest of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” said Van Meter.
In addition to his wife, Van Meter has two adult children, ages 24 and 21. In August, Van Meter will complete his work at the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies and then aims to become an addiction counselor.
“I don’t need to be here. I don’t need to put myself through what I know is coming. But I’m doing it because I’m very concerned about our community, and I’m very concerned about the direction of the state and, on a larger scale, the direction of the country,” said Van Meter.
