Candi Mundon, class of 2004, was a bold and brave Norfolk State University student who once bounced into the NSU Office of the President with a strategy for increasing revenue from the Virginia General Assembly through an upcoming bond referendum. She left with an appointment—and two dedicated mentors: Dr. Marie V. McDemmond, NSU’s third President, and Karla Johnson, then-chief of staff and government liaison. Add to that list Professor Carol Pretlow, one of Mundon’s political science professors.
Mundon credits those women, her grandmother and the entire NSU experience for shaping her trajectory in government, business and public service. Today, Candi Mundon King has grown into a dedicated, confident, accomplished leader who remains bold, brave and determined. Those qualities, paired with a reputation for delivering results, led to her appointment in November 2025 as Virginia’s Secretary of the Commonwealth in Governor Abigail Spanberger’s administration.
She spent time as an intern in the President’s Office, who also helped get her involved as an intern for then-Senator Yvonne Miller and later then-Delegate Lionell Spruill. “Dr. McDemmond and Norfolk State University taught me how to show up professionally, think critically, ask questions and always challenge the status quo,” Mundon King said.
As Secretary of the Commonwealth, Mundon King leads a large team with a multimillion-dollar budget. Along with being the official keeper of the Great Seal of the Commonwealth, she oversees restoration of voting rights, manages pardons, appoints thousands of board members, commissions notaries, leads constituent engagement, and serves as the Commonwealth’s official representative to 11 tribal nations.
Mundon King’s journey began in the historic city of Portsmouth, Virginia. She describes her childhood community — a Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority property— as “the projects.”
“I was born and raised in Portsmouth and was blessed with the privilege to attend Norfolk State University on an E.L. Hamm Scholarship created for students living in PRHA communities,” she recalled. “However, my main interest in going to NSU at the time was to be part of the Spartan Legion Marching Band, ” she said lightheartedly.
A flag twirler who later became captain of the Silkettes Flag Squad, Mundon King calls her time in the band one of her most formative leadership experiences. “Honestly, that discipline, the work ethic—all of those things stayed with me.”
After graduating from NSU, her life accelerated quickly. She moved to Washington, D.C., where for five years she managed advocacy, government relations, and federal affairs for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. “I got married. I went from being single and living my best life to being married with three children—all in four years,” she jokingly says about marrying Joshua King on April 1, 2011.
With family life demanding flexibility, Mundon King launched a small business before eventually receiving a call to join the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where she worked in education policy and on the North American government relations team.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mundon King felt called to run for the Virginia House of Delegates. The decision required prayer and deep conversations with her husband and family. She began her service in January 2021 and served for five years.
“It was an amazing experience,” she said. While in the House, Mundon King emerged as a leader on Black maternal health and sickle cell advocacy—work rooted in a deeply personal loss. Her daughter, Candis, died at age 15 from complications of sickle cell disease.
“It was my Norfolk State family that held my entire family together,” Mundon King shared. “Candis was a light in our family. She did so much in her short life. We feel her loss deeply. We are grateful every day for the privilege of being her parents.”
Following Candis’s passing, her family received messages from others navigating the same disease. “I kept asking, ‘Why are people still dying? Why are families still losing their babies?’” She and her husband made a conscious decision to transform their pain into purpose.
They established a scholarship at Norfolk State University in Candis’s honor for students living with sickle cell disease and partnered with Governor Spanberger on landmark legislation: the Queen Candis Act, signed April 13 and taking effect July 1.
Comprised of 10 bills, the Queen Candis Act addresses how sickle cell disease is treated, advances education and awareness, improves caregiver training and access to care, and establishes the Sickle Cell Coordinated Access Network. “Together these bills form a promise and a legacy,” Mundon King said, “a promise and a legacy that no child will be overlooked, unheard or unsupported in their fight against sickle cell disease.”
Reflecting on her rise, Mundon King points first to family. “I am a firstgeneration college graduate. My grandmother had a third-grade education, and by the time she was eight or nine years old, she was sharecropping. She raised me to believe that education was the key to changing my life.”
Her family now watches her work with pride. “This was never in the realm of possibilities for us—not because we weren’t capable, but because we didn’t have the opportunity,” she said. “None of this would have been possible without my husband, who is my rock.”
Mundon King is precise about the lessons that shaped her path. One professor, she recalled, once gave her an “F” on an assignment—not out of cruelty, but conviction. “‘You’re fully capable of doing the work,’ he told me. ‘If you don’t do the work, you won’t accomplish anything.’” She carried that lesson directly into public office.
After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Speaker Don Scott appointed Mundon King to lead reproductive and maternal health policy for the House of Delegates. In that role, she convened the first-ever Black Maternal Health Legislative Conference, which gave rise to the MOMnibus.
“When I went into the legislature, I became known for doing the work,” she said. Despite being told that a mobile maternal health unit was unrealistic, Mundon King persisted. A meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris strengthened her resolve, particularly after hearing that in states banning abortion, Black mothers were two to three times more likely to die in childbirth.
“That outraged me,” Mundon King said. “I made it my mission to ensure that one—Virginia would not be a place that would criminalize women’s healthcare— and two to look beyond just reproductive health policy but also maternal health policy.”
Her research revealed stark racial disparities, fueling the MOMnibus—a bipartisan package of laws that has invested more than $10 million into maternal health and transformed care across the Commonwealth. “The more I learned, the more my heart started to break. This was the genesis for the MOMnibus. Through my education at Norfolk State, I did the work researching how we could do it, make it impactful, and work with other people where it has been successful.”
Beyond maternal health and sickle cell advocacy, Mundon King continues to champion education policy addressing medical bias, funding for HBCUs, teacher pay raises, protections for victims of human trafficking, paid sick leave for home healthcare workers, renter safeguards, and the founding of both the Sickle Cell Caucus and the Black Maternal Health Caucus.
“My approach to this work started at Norfolk State,” Mundon King concluded. “It’s a big job, but it’s a rewarding one.”