A D.C. Democratic group is pumping an additional six figures into the 2023 Virginia legislative elections, hoping to capitalize on Republican missteps in Congress, which is still at this writing operating, if you can call it that, without a House Speaker.
“Republican dysfunction has become a hallmark of national politics. Their refusal to do the basic requirements of government, including choosing a Speaker, shows us that this is all a game to them and they don’t care about the people they were elected to represent. If national Republicans continue to show they won’t govern, why would Virginia Republicans be any different?” said Abhi Rahman, the communications director for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which had already committed $2 million to the Virginia midterm legislative races.
The internal discord within the Republican Party has left the House without a Speaker for going on two full weeks now, meaning Congress as a whole hasn’t been able to make any progress toward passing an annual budget for fiscal year 2024, with another artificial government shutdown looming a month down the road.
No House Speaker also means Congress has not been able to consider emergency funding for Israel in its war with Hamas terrorists, who launched a series of coordinated attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.
Military counterattacks by Israeli forces in Gaza have killed more than 2,600 Palestinians as the conflict threatens to widen into a regional war.
And Congress is paralyzed, with House Republicans unable to come to an agreement with themselves on who their next leader should be.
The threat to Virginia is immediate. A government shutdown impacts more than 150,000 federal employees who live in the Commonwealth, and hundreds of thousands more who are employed by NGOs who do work for the federal government.
“The only thing Republicans agree on is imposing an abortion ban everywhere they possibly can,” Rahman said. “It’s time to elect Democrats who will do the job they were elected to do, safeguard our fundamental freedoms like access to an abortion, and put the needs of their constituents over petty, political games. It’s time to elect Democrats in Virginia to put a check on MAGA Republican extremism in the Commonwealth.”