Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is officially done politically, as Democrats swept to majorities in the State Senate and House of Delegates in the 2023 election cycle, in state legislative races decided on Tuesday.
Youngkin, who was staking a possible 11th-hour presidential campaign on his ability to take control of the Virginia General Assembly, raised and spent millions toward that effort, but Democrats were able to ride voter concerns over conservative initiatives to push an outright ban on abortion to victory.
“The GOP lied at every turn. They called their plan to ban abortion in Virginia a plan to keep abortion legal in the state and claimed it was just a ‘limit.’ Well, tonight, Virginians showed the GOP and Glenn Youngkin exactly what voters have to say about it: We don’t want abortion bans, and we don’t want leaders who do,” said Mini Timmaraju, the CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, which was among the groups that worked to push back against Youngkin.
Democrats came into the 2023 election cycle with a 22-18 partisan advantage in the State Senate, and Republicans had a 52-48 edge in the House of Delegates.
With Tuesday’s results, Democrats will maintain at least a 21-18 edge in the Senate, and flip the House with a 51-49 majority.
Chris Graham on the 2023 Virginia elections
“Today, Virginians made their voices heard at the polls and sent a clear message to Gov. Glenn Youngkin and MAGA Republicans that we will not follow other Southern states who turned back the clock on progress. Virginians have voted to reject extreme abortion bans and have once again chosen a vision of a Virginia that is more open, welcoming, and prosperous,” said Eileen Filler-Corn, the former Speaker of the House of Delegates, in a statement issued Tuesday night.
“This election sends a message to any politician who wants to get between patients and their healthcare provider: a ban is a ban is a ban,” said Jennifer McClellan, the Democratic congressman from the Fourth District, and long-time state delegate and state senator. “Voters do not want their reproductive rights restricted or politicians interfering in their healthcare decisions, and we will stand up to stop any politician who tries to do so.”
Among the things this does: Youngkin’s effort to enact, at the least, 15-week abortion ban, is done.
The Republican had indicated that he would sign whatever bill a Republican General Assembly would send to him regarding abortion rights, signaling that he would be willing to sign a total ban, as a number of other Southern states have done since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year.
Now Youngkin has a fully Democrat-majority General Assembly for the final two years of his term-limited four years in office.
Good luck with all that.
And: there’s the reality for Youngkin, politically, that Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, are Democrats, and are popular with Virginia voters.
Warner was re-elected in 2020, so he’s up again in 2026, with an election 18 months after Youngkin’s term as governor ends.
Kaine is up for re-election in November 2024.
Youngkin, after tonight’s embarrassment, might not want to think about 2024.
Or 2026, or any other election cycles.
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