Ben Chafin, a Republican state senator from Virginia, died of complications from Covid-19, confirmed the Republican Caucus of the State Senate on Friday night. He had been receiving treatment at VCU Medical Center in Richmond for two weeks, his family said in a statement.
Mr. Chafin, 60, was first elected to the Virginia Senate in 2014. Prior to his time as a senator, he served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. He was also the owner and operator of a cattle ranch in the Mocassim Valley, in the southwest of the state.
“Ben was deeply and wholeheartedly committed to the community, and especially to the people of southwest Virginia,” said Thomas K. Norment Jr., the Republican leader of the State Senate.
In 2018, Chafin was one of four Republicans who successfully supported the expansion of Medicaid in Virginia when his party controlled the Senate.
“Doing nothing about medical conditions, the state of health care in my district, was simply not the answer anymore,” he said on the Senate floor.
That same year, he sponsored a bill to allow weapons in churches in response to a mass shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in which more than two dozen people were killed. The bill has stalled in the House.
Chafin grew up working on his family’s farm and had a part-time job at a local slaughterhouse while in high school, according to the Senate website. He and his sister became the first family members to graduate from college, and he graduated in law from the University of Richmond School of Law.
Governor Ralph Northam offered his condolences to Chafin’s family on Friday, saying in a statement that he “will always be grateful” for Chafin’s “courageous vote to expand health care for people in need”.
“It is sad news to start a new year with the loss of a kind and gracious man,” said Northam. “May we all be able to commit again to taking extra steps to take care of each other.”
Local media reported that Chafin’s family will not have a formal funeral service. At their request, they said, the family is asking for donations from the food bank “instead of flowers and other acts of kindness”.