Democrats will retain control of the Virginia state Senate and flipped the state House of Delegates from Republicans, according to Associated Press projections, despite GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s attempts to win total GOP control of the state legislature.
The AP projects at least 21 Democrats have been elected to the state Senate and 51 Democrats have been elected to the state House of Delegates. It’s unclear how strong the Democratic majority will be in each chamber.
Virginia’s legislative elections grabbed outsized national attention, with both Democrats and Republicans spending millions on the races, which were viewed in political circles as a key barometer ahead of the 2024 elections for president and control of Congress.
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Republicans in Virgnia won elections for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general two years ago – their first statewide victories in a dozen years – and they flipped the House. The victories in a state that had trended blue over the previous decade energized Republicans nationwide.
Strategists from both parties are looking closely at the results in Virginia’s northern suburbs of Washington, D.C., and around Richmond, for signs that Republicans were able to make any inroads with suburban voters – and especially women – who fled the GOP in recent election cycles. But there’s scant evidence.
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Virginia’s elections were also a major testing ground for Republicans on the divisive issue of abortion.
The blockbuster move last year by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to overturn the landmark nearly half-century-old Roe v. Wade ruling, which had allowed for legalized abortions nationwide, moved the divisive issue back to the states.
And it’s forced Republicans to play plenty of defense in elections across the country. A party that’s nearly entirely “pro-life” has had to deal with an electorate where a majority of Americans support at least some form of abortion access.
National and state Democrats made abortion a crucial centerpiece in their push to get out the vote in Virginia.
While some Republicans shied away from focusing on abortion, Youngkin leaned into the issue and pushed a proposed 15-week abortion ban, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
“I just wanted us to be very clear about what we were going to do,” he told Fox News last week. And he argued that “the other side is really good about spreading non-truths. And, of course, what they want to do is make abortion available all the way up through and including birth, paid for with taxpayer money.”
Democrats successfully aimed to keep in place the state’s current restrictions, which allow abortions through the second trimester. And they noted that Virginia is the only southern state that doesn’t ban abortion.
While Youngkin wasn’t on the ballot, he had plenty riding on Tuesday’s election results, after investing plenty of political capital on behalf of Republican legislative candidates. The results mean Youngkin won’t have a free hand during his final two years in office to push through a conservative agenda, and are seen as political setback for a governor with a reputation as a rising star in the GOP, whom some top Republican donors were urging to make a late in the game entry into the 2024 White House race.
After holding the state Senate and recapturing the state House, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee’s national communications director Abhi Rahman told Fox News that they and their allies “stopped Glenn Youngkin, protected fundamental freedoms in Virginia, and ensured that Youngkin will never be President. Virginians proved that Republicans’ message to voters is not resonating.”
Virginia was far from the only state where abortion was front and center.
Voters in the red state of Ohio convincingly approved a ballot measure to protect abortion rights in the state constitution.
In heavily red-state Kentucky, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear won re-election in part by criticizing opposition to abortion by his Republican challenger, state Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
And in a closely watched state Supreme Court race in battleground Pennsylvania, a Democrat won an open seat after campaigning on a pledge to uphold abortion rights.
Longtime GOP strategist David Kochel noted that abortions remains “a terrible problem” for Republicans. “They’re out of step with where the country is” on the issue.
Kochel, a veteran of numerous presidential and statewide campaigns, acknowledged that Republicans are “not going to win on abortion” and urged GOP candidates to “fight where they can win – on the economy, foreign policy, competence.”
Veteran strategist Democratic National Committee member Maria Cardona pointed to last year’s midterms, where the Democrats over performed, and told Fox News that the 2023 results “were similar to what happened in 2022 when everybody was predicting a red wave.”
Looking ahead to next year’s contests, Cardona predicted that abortion “is going to continue to be an incredibly mobilizing issue.”