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RICHMOND — Democrats flipped the Virginia House of Delegates and held on to the state Senate in elections Tuesday, dashing Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s hopes for curbing abortion rights in Virginia, the only Southern state that has not restricted or banned the procedure since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
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By giving control of those two chambers to Democrats, voters denied Youngkin (R) the political allies he needed to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. The governor also lost his chance for turning Virginia sharply to the right in other areas, including public education, tax policy, LGBTQ+ rights, criminal justice, the environment and voting access.
Youngkin still can expect Democrats to support some aspects of his agenda with bipartisan appeal, such as boosting economic development, K-12 funding and mental health services. And he could still look for ways to advance his conservative goals through executive orders and administrative actions.
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But any effort to muscle Youngkin’s hot-button goals through the Capitol will meet the Democrats’ freshly reinforced “brick wall,” as Democratic senators call themselves.
Democrats had at least 21 seats in the 40-seat Senate, according to unofficial results from the Associated Press, with the race between Sen. T. Montgomery “Monty” Mason (D) and Republican Danny Diggs in the Williamsburg area too close to call. The Associated Press projected that Democrats had won at least 51 seats in the 100-seat House, with seven races still undecided.
Sen. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria) seemed at once to twist the knife and extend a hand to Youngkin as results came in.
“After @GlennYoungkin was just served the biggest political rejection by Virginia voters of any governor in more than three decades,” Ebbin wrote on X, “VA Democrats remain ready to work across the aisle to find bipartisan solutions for the betterment of our Commonwealth.”
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At the same time, Democrats emerged from Election Day far from the two-thirds supermajority needed in both chambers to override a veto. That leaves them well-equipped to play defense but lacking the numbers to advance a liberal agenda past Youngkin’s desk.
“I think it was a good night for Virginia Democrats,” U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) said in an interview late Tuesday. “I work well with the governor. I appreciate how hard he worked. But I think Virginia wanted to vote for freedom — freedom from having politicians interfere with health-care choices, freedom from having their vote restricted. They didn’t want to roll back sensible gun rules. And I think that keeps Virginia moving forward.”
Here’s a more detailed look at key issues likely to remain caught in the Capitol’s stalemate.
Abortion
Virginia law permits abortion for any reason through the second trimester (about 26 weeks) and in the third only if three doctors agree that the procedure is necessary to preserve the mother’s life or health. That is unlikely to change now that Democrats have retained a foothold in the Capitol.
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Youngkin had called for a ban after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, describing that position as a “compromise” that could appeal to moderates in both parties.
The pitch didn’t appear to persuade voters. In Fredericksburg, women as young as 20 and as old as 72 said the debate over abortion drove them to the polls on Tuesday. Yvonne Hanson, who has lived in the city since 1963 and declined to specify who she voted for, said she was one of them.
“I don’t think abortion is right, but women should decide for themselves,” said Hanson, 72.
At a polling site in Virginia Beach, Elizabeth Jernigan, 57, said she had cast her first presidential vote for Ronald Reagan and voted Republican in every election until 2016. This year, however, she voted straight Democratic, to keep Republicans from gaining more power in the General Assembly.
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“I voted Democrat down the ballot to not give Governor Youngkin more power in the House and the Senate for restricting women’s rights,” she said.
For some voters, it wasn’t just about Virginia, either. Loudoun County voter Janet Van Pelt, 59, who works at a software company, said she voted to send a message about the presidential election, given politically purple Virginia’s influence in an off-off year.
“I think the Virginia legislative election will have national repercussions for next year,” she said, adding that recent national polling showing Trump ahead of Biden in many swing states has her “terrified.”
Van Pelt said she worries about the future of legal abortion in Virginia and the nation.
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“It is abortion in the context of: Do we live in a democracy, or do we live in a Christian nationalist society?” she said.
Taxes
A divided General Assembly provided $5 billion in tax relief over the past two years under Youngkin, but not the more permanent cuts for corporations and high earners that the governor had sought. Even if the state’s financial position remains flush, it’s unlikely that Democrats will agree to the recurring cuts that Youngkin claims is needed to make the state more attractive to businesses and individuals.
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At the polls in Dumfries, Sandra Lemus, 33, said it was her first time voting. She showed up to vote with her 8-year-old daughter.
Lemus decided to cast a straight GOP ballot, she said, because she was concerned about high interest rates, the price of groceries and the rising taxes on her car. Republicans, she said, could improve that.
“I think that voting for Republicans is very important for me,” she said, adding that she voted “for change.” “I’m looking for new opportunities, especially for my daughter.”
Guns
Vocal on gun rights as he sought his party’s gubernatorial nomination in 2021, Youngkin has been mum on the issue as governor. But the issue continues to animate the GOP base, and Youngkin would have faced pressure, had Republicans pulled off a sweep on Tuesday, to roll back the gun-control measures that Democrats imposed when they had a trifecta in Richmond in 2020 and 2021.
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Those include a “red flag” law intended to take weapons away from people a judge deems a danger to themselves or others. Other laws restrict handgun purchases to one per month, require criminal background checks for all firearm sales and give local governments the power to ban guns from their government buildings, public parks and permitted events.
Those measures are expected to remain on the books now.
At the main library in Newport News, Elisa Finneran, 61, cited gun control as a major election issue, in addition to crime and abortion. “Pre-Trump, I always voted for the candidate and not the party. Since Trump has been in office, I have had on principle to go with the Democrats,” said Finneran, an adjunct college professor.
Voting
While Youngkin encouraged Republicans this year to take advantage of the 45-day, no-excuse early voting period approved under Democrats, Republicans were expected to resume their push to roll it back had they won control Tuesday. Senate Democrats were able to block House Republicans from slashing the voting period and eliminating the permanent absentee voter list this year. On Tuesday, Democrats won the votes to beat those efforts again.
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But the governor still has the power to shape the voting rolls in ways that the legislature has little control over, starting with the restoration of voting rights to people convicted of felonies.
Virginia is one of just a handful of states that permanently strips voting rights from anyone convicted of a felony — a policy enshrined in the state constitution during the Jim Crow era, with the explicit goal of reducing the influence of Black voters. Only the governor has the power to restore that right.
Youngkin’s three immediate predecessors — one Republican, two Democrats — took steps to restore rights automatically in at least some cases once their sentences were complete. Youngkin has reverted to a stricter policy, requiring each person to file an application that the administration considers on a case-by-case basis, with no publicly disclosed criteria.
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His Elections Department acknowledged last month that it kicked nearly 3,400 legal voters off the rolls in December, in what it called a mistake related to a pair of software glitches. Officials said they were working to alert local registrars to reinstate those voters by Election Day.
Tuesday’s elections did nothing to change how the governor restores voting rights or manages his Elections Department.
Environment
Democrats passed sweeping environmental legislation when they held all the levers of power, including a measure that requires Virginia to follow the car emissions standards set by California. Youngkin has called for reversing those policies, saying they will increase the cost of living and put Virginia at a competitive disadvantage as it tries to lure businesses to the state.
Now they’ll stay in place.
Sarah Holt, 20, came to a Fredericksburg polling place Tuesday from the nearby University of Mary Washington campus to cast her vote for Democrat Joel Griffin. Holt said she felt compelled to vote because the outcome of the state Senate race would affect Virginia’s policies on abortion access and environmental regulations for a long time.
Holt, an environmental sustainability minor, said she hoped her vote for Griffin would help advance efforts to cut back on the corporate emissions that studies say are driving climate change.
“I live in Virginia now and will probably live in Virginia for a while,” she said. “I want those policies to be in place.”
Jim Morrison in Virginia Beach, Katie Shepherd in Fredericksburg, Jenna Portnoy in Loudoun County and Ellie Silverman in Prince William contributed to this report.
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