Key Facts
Background
Nicholas Olenik was born and raised in Virginia Beach and has lived in the city his entire life. After graduating from Tallwood High School, Olenik attended Tidewater Community College. Olenik is retired and previously described himself as an “independent business owner.” Olenik has suffered from depression relating to the deaths of his close family members [1, 7].
Olenik began his journey in politics after being cited for having livestock in an area where livestock was not allowed in Virginia Beach due to having an emu for emotional support to help him through his depression. This inspired him to run for office and change the laws regarding his own animals himself [1, 7].
Key Issues
Economy
Olenik wants to shrink the size of the government and describes himself as a fiscal conservative. He is pro-crypto currency and wants to use tax money from marijuana sales and casino revenue to stimulate the economy. He wants to reform the fiscal tax code [1].
Education
Olenik believes school board members and superintendents must have a child in the school system to be elected. He believes education should be non-partisan and that students should be provided with a strong K-12 education [1, 2, 3].
Mental Health
Olenik wants alternative therapies, medications, and tools to be available as solutions to addressing mental health. He wants to focus on the mental health of both veterans and civilians. He describes this as the most important issue facing Virginia [1, 2, 3, 7].
Term Limits
Olenik describes placing term limits on all elected officials in Virginia as his top priority. He wants elected officials in Virginia to be held to the same standard of two terms that applies to the U.S. President [1, 2, 3].
Endorsements
No endorsements could be found.
Sources
1 Olenik for Independence
2 The Virginian Pilot
3 WAVY News
4 LinkedIn
5 VPAP
6 Ballotpedia
7 AP News