Robert Creigh Deeds (/ˈkriː/; born January 4, 1958) is an American lawyer and politician serving as a member of the Senate of Virginia representing the 25th district since 2001.

They divorced in February 2010, with an article in The Washington Post describing the marriage as "a casualty of a nearly 20-year pursuit of a lifelong ambition that kept [Deeds] away from home".

[6] On November 19, 2013, Deeds was stabbed multiple times at his home in Bath County, Virginia by his 24-year-old son, Gus, who then died by suicide.

Deeds won a special state senate election in 2001 to succeed Emily Couric, who had died of pancreatic cancer.

[20] In the general election campaign, running against Republican nominee Bob McDonnell, Deeds ran on his record as a moderate Democrat who supported gun rights, strong punishment for criminals, and the death penalty.

Deeds' stance on gun control included supporting a ban on semi-automatic firearms, but that did not prevent him from earning the endorsement of the NRA, which cited his patronage of a state constitutional amendment that guaranteed the right to hunt.

[28] At the end of a close three-way race against former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe and former State Delegate Brian Moran, Deeds won by a large margin, taking about 50 percent of the vote in the June 9, 2009, Democratic Primary.

[32] He has stated that he will not make a no-tax-increase pledge and wrote in The Washington Post that he would support a new gas tax to fund transportation.

[34][35][36] In 2008, Deeds voted for a bill in the State Senate which would raise the Virginia gas tax $0.06 per gallon over the next 6 years.

[38] Deeds supports removing the "trigger-man" clause, which restricts the death penalty to those who physically committed the action, in Virginia capital punishment law.

[39] In 2005, Deeds said that he disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling in Roper v. Simmons, which made it unconstitutional to execute juveniles.

[41] In 2006, Deeds was part of the unanimous Democratic coalition that voted to oppose an amendment to the Virginia State Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage.

[45] Deeds supports a state ban on civilian ownership of assault weapons and signed a pledge to repeal the law restricting citizens from buying more than one handgun a month.

[46] The law was repealed by his opponent, Bob McDonnell in February 2012 [47][48] He voted against the Castle Doctrine (Senate Bill 876) multiple times and previously proposed a measure that would eliminate private sales at gun shows.