5 minute read
The Gentle Lady From Upperville Knows It’s Time To Move On
The Gentle Lady From Upperville Knows It’s Time To Move On
By Leonard Shapiro
Jill Vogel tried never to forget the wise words of her friend, the late, long-time Winchester legislator Russ Potts, the man she replaced as the senator from the old 27th District when he retired and she was elected to the Virginia General Assembly 16 years ago.
“Know when to say when, he told me,” Sen. Vogel said in a recent interview with Country ZEST. “Never lose perspective, understand it’s a tough job, and no matter what, it’s not about you.”
For Sen. Vogel, now 53, it’s time to say when.
She announced in January, 2023 she would not run again in 2024. She said she stuck to a mission of maintaining perspective, rejecting partisan pressure, and making it about public service. “It was an incredible gift to do this job and it was worth every minute.”
Her days of often daily commuting back and forth from her Upperville home down to Richmond are over for now, and likely forever she said when asked about the possibility of her running again for public office.
She was hardly alone in departing. Seventeen of her 40 senate colleagues will not be back for the next session. Five lost primaries. Two were defeated in the general election. And ten, including Jill Vogel, decided to retire.
A graduate of Central High School in Woodstock, Virginia and the College of William and Mary, she earned a law degree at DePaul University in Chicago and heads a thriving Washington law firm. She’s married to attorney and lobbyist Alex Vogel and is the mother of Olivia 11, Tas 15, Jack 18, Will 20, Alex 23 and Peyton 25.
With Tas, she made Commonwealth history as the first woman to have a baby while serving in the General Assembly, actually drawing surprise from some at the time.
“It was a very different culture and climate,” Sen. Vogel said. “It was a source of scorn from some during my first election that I was even running for senate with young children. The sentiment from some was ‘you should be home with your children.’ But I was like many women. I had a job, I was raising kids, and I believed my experience was one that should also be represented in a legislative body.”
Sen. Vogel’s 27th District included Clarke, Frederick and Fauquier counties, the city of Winchester and parts of Culpeper, Loudoun and Stafford counties. It’s been re-districted starting this year, with northern Fauquier County, where she and her family live, becoming part of a new 31st District.
Her experience over four terms and 16 years in the senate involved sponsoring and supporting countless bills, and not always along party lines. Some of her Republican colleagues, for example, were not especially happy with her for voting for Medicaid expansion, a bill she believed became critical for Virginia’s budget and for many of her constituents.
Her admiration for the Virginia General Assembly has much to do with its ability get things done, often on a non-partisan basis.
“Virginia is relatively fiscally conservative and socially moderate,” she said. “It does not function at the extremes. Democrats and Republicans are not that far apart in the process. The more extreme element is just louder. Disputes are usually regional—Northern Virginia needs this, South Central Virginia needs that. There’s a lot of give and take. But we work together with efficiency and economy, and we want to make sure the public is heard. I hope we never leave that tradition aside.”
So why is she leaving?
“It’s all consuming,” she said. “You think about your life, you’re going 100 miles an hour, you miss out on so much, you are stretched so thin. You’re consumed by the next obligation, the next meeting, the next piece of legislation… When you get to the point where you’re starting to wear out, you shouldn’t do it anymore. It’s a great opportunity for someone else, and I have great confidence in my successor.”
Of course, she knows she’ll miss it, particularly all the friends she’s made on both sides of the aisle. And she will forever cherish being called on in the senate as “the Gentle Lady from Fauquier.”
“It’s hard to leave, definitely,” she said. “A lot of people who were also leaving gave speeches thanking their colleagues and reflecting on their experiences. I couldn’t begin to do it and say goodbye. I would have sobbed. I am leaving behind great teachers, great legislators, and my closest friends in the world. They made me a better legislator and a better person.
“I’m excited for the new people to have the same chance and to have that same experience. My feeling has always been that no matter what the problem is, the reason you are there is to help people. It’s never about what you think. It’s about them.”
And for Sen. Jill Vogel, it’s also about knowing when to say when, because it definitely was all worth it, for her, and her constituents as well.
