Virginia Burdick (born December 3, 1947) is an American politician from the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, who served seven terms in the

Oregon State Senate The Oregon State Senate is the upper house of the State legislature (United States), statewide legislature for the US state of Oregon. Along with the lower chamber Oregon House of Representatives it makes up the Oregon Legislative Assembly. Ther ...

. She represented Tigard and Southwest Portland in Senate District 18.Biography
at Oregon Legislature website

Early life and education

Burdick is a native of Portland, where she graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from the

University of Puget Sound The University of Puget Sound is a private liberal arts college in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1888. The institution offers a variety of undergraduate degrees as well as five graduate programs in counseling, education, oc ...

in 1969 and her masters in journalism from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

in 1973.

Career

She was a member of the Land Conservation and Development Commission from 1987 to 1993. She ran against incumbent Portland City Commissioner Erik Sten in 2006. In the May 2006 primary election, she narrowly missed qualifying for a runoff election. Burdick is also a communications consultant, specializing in crisis communications.

Oregon Legislature

Burdick served as the Majority Leader of the Oregon Senate from 2015 to 2020. She also served five years as Senate President Pro Tempore. First elected to the Senate in 1996, Burdick has served as chair of the Judiciary Committee, the Rules Committee, the Finance and Revenue Committee, and co-chair of the Marijuana Legalization Committee. She currently chairs the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee. Burdick is one of the Legislature's leading advocates for gun control legislation. In the 2017 Legislative Session, she joined with Republican Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, to sponsor Oregon’s Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) law. Oregon's ERPO is a tool to help prevent suicide and other harmful behavior by removing dangerous weapons from people in crisis. Similar to Washington's Extreme Risk Protection Order – a ballot measure that passed statewide with about 70 percent of the vote in November 2016 – Oregon's ERPO allows a process for keeping deadly weapons away from a person found by the court finds to be at risk of suicide or being a danger to others. In the 2018 Legislative Session, Burdick supported the passage of House Bill 4145, which strengthened Oregon's gun control laws by aligning the definition of a domestic violence conviction under Oregon's Unlawful Possession of Firearms statute with the definitions of domestic violence found elsewhere in Oregon law, effectively closing the loophole for when there is a dating relationship. It also adds a stalking misdemeanor as a qualifying offense, subject to firearm dispossession.

Personal life

Burdick has two daughters.

Electoral history

References

External links

Official web page, Oregon State Senate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burdick, Ginny 1947 births 21st-century American women politicians Living people Democratic Party Oregon state senators 21st-century members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly Politicians from Portland, Oregon University of Oregon alumni University of Puget Sound alumni Women state legislators in Oregon