Democrats take control of Virginia’s legislature

Democrats regained full control of the Virginia General Assembly, The Associated Press reported, handing defeat to Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who had poured millions of dollars and his personal political capital into increasing his party’s power in the House. legislature.

The Democratic Party not only maintained its tight grip on the Senate, but also won control of the House of Representatives, where Republicans have held a 48-46 majority since 2021.

The legislative races had drawn national attention — and millions of dollars in out-of-state contributions and independent expenditures — as a barometer of both Mr. Youngkin’s star power and national sentiment ahead of next year’s presidential election.

This year, all 140 legislative seats were on the ballot, and even longtime analysts found it difficult to predict who would win the race for a Legislature thrown into disarray by redrawn political maps and a wave of retirements.

With no contests for federal offices to attract voters to the polls, parliamentary election results depended on which party or candidate could best galvanize supporters.

In Virginia, as elsewhere, abortion seemed to be a defining issue, although not the only one.

The June 2022 Supreme Court decision restricting abortion rights has fueled the turnout of Democratic voters across the country. Virginia was seen as a test of Republicans’ ability to blunt the backlash against the ruling.

Abortion rights advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, spent free money on ads opposing Republican positions on the issue. But a political action committee against abortion, Women speak out in Virginiawas among the largest independent spending groups in legislative battles, spending more than $1 million across 17 races in an effort to dilute the Democratic message.

Mr. Youngkin delved into his political action committee, Spirit of Virginiafor a $1.4 million media campaign that portrayed his proposal to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy—rather than outright banning them—as a common-sense compromise.

By his own choice, Mr. Youngkin was the other big problem in the legislative races.

Not only is he considered a potential candidate for president in 2028, but he has also refused to rule out later entering the race for the 2024 Republican nomination. He rushed to field Republican legislative candidates this fall in the hope that a takeover of the Legislature would solidify his national position as a popular Republican in an increasingly Democratic state.

Last month alone, his political action committee donated at least $2.3 million to Republican candidates for House seats and another $2.35 million to the Republican Party.

But the national Democratic Party had poured $1.5 million into the legislative campaigns by early October, and likely more after that. A pro-democracy PAC, the States projectdonated another $4.5 million to the party’s candidates.

“Youngkin has campaigned like there is no tomorrow because this is so important to him and his national ambitions,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

In the end it wasn’t enough.