About John
For forty years John Miller has been involved in our community. An award winning journalist, he spent 18 years at WVEC-TV reporting on the issues facing Hampton Roads. For six years he worked on the problems of Virginia and the nation in the United States Senate as a top aide to Senator Paul Trible. John was a key administrator at WHRO, public broadcasting in Hampton Roads and at Christopher Newport University. He is currently the Director of Development and Marketing at the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Peninsula. In 2007, John was elected to the Virginia State Senate from the 1st District. His election is widely credited as the race that gave control of the Senate to the Democrats.
John serves on four very important Senate Committees: Education and Health, Transportation, General Laws and Technology and Rehabilitation and Social Services. In addition, John has been appointed to several key commissions. He chairs the Virginia Council on the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children and is vice chair of the State Water Commission. John also serves on the panel studying the future of Ft. Monroe, the commission studying the future of the ports and the group examining the Hampton Roads Transportation Network. He serves on the Joint Commission on Technology and Science and was named to the National Conference of State Legislators Transportation Committee. These assignments give John a strong voice in many of the major issues facing the Commonwealth.
John believes that to govern effectively, you must reach across the aisle. Neither political party has a monopoly on good ideas. Virginians are interested in performance and not partisanship. In 2009, John formed the Commonwealth Caucus with 3 other freshmen senators. This bipartisan efforts puts Virginia above party affiliation on important issues facing the Commonwealth – redistricting, electing judges and protecting the Chesapeake Bay.
John and wife Sharron are both very active in our community. He currently is a member of the Marketing Committee of the Newport News Economic Development Authority and serves on People to People, an organization dedicated to improving race relations in Newport News. John is a volunteer umpire in the Warwick Little League, where he has been calling them like he sees them for two decades. He has also served on the board of Peninsula READS – the Literacy Council, The FoodBank of the Virginia Peninsula, the Newport News Youth Commission, Alternatives, the Newport News YMCA, the Junior League of Hampton Roads Community Advisory Board, Smart Beginnings of the Peninsula, the Downtown Hampton Child Development Center, the Newport News Alliance for Youth, Young Audiences and Hampton Bay Days.
Sharron, who was born and raised in Newport News, is a former pediatric administrator. She serves on the USS Newport News Liaison Committee and is the First Congressional District representative on the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She is an active member and past President of the Newport News Master Gardener's Association and served on the Newport News Public Works Citizen Advisory Committee and was a marshal for the LPGA tournament at Kingsmill. Sharron has also helped raise money for many charitable events, including the Red Cross “Dress Down Under.”
John and Sharron live in Newport News. They have a daughter, Jenny and a son-in-law Mark; a son, John, a daughter-in-law Mary Peyton and a grandson, Isaac.