With a split Legislature, a Republican governor who has all but staked his national ambitions on his ability to help the GOP control both chambers, and, of course, abortion politics, Virginia’s dozens of legislative primaries Tuesday night were always bound to offer clues into the political direction of the state.
They most certainly did — and then some.
The off-year, summertime races also provided a glimpse into how allegiance to former President Donald Trump appears to be a weakness in many parts of the country.
All of it is going to matter in the state — just one of two in the U.S. this year that has a split Legislature (the other is Pennsylvania) — where Republicans, who narrowly control the House of Delegates, and, Democrats, who narrowly hold the state Senate, are both vying for control of the capitol.
Every seat in both chambers is up for grabs in November — and because this is the first cycle to feature the state’s redrawn legislative maps, there were a number of competitive primaries Tuesday where veteran lawmakers of the same party ran against one another.
Here are four takeaways from the results of the Virginia primary elections:
Abortion rights remain a difference-maker
Happening just four days ahead of the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, Tuesday’s elections in Virginia featured several races in which the debate over abortion rights featured prominently.
In a Democratic primary for a Richmond-area state Senate seat, former Del. Lashrecse Aird, who made her pro-abortion stance the centerpiece of her campaign, defeated incumbent Sen. Joe Morrissey, a Democrat who opposed abortion rights, according to the Associated Press.
Morrissey had suggested he could support the 15-week abortion ban that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin had proposed during the 2023 legislative session. (Democrats in the Senate had blocked it from advancing).
Aird’s victory is yet another example — in a long and growing list of them — of how Democrats have been able to use their support of abortion rights as an incredibly effective tool to woo and turn out voters. Just a few months earlier, Democrat Aaron Rouse won a special election for a Virginia state Senate seat in a race that was widely viewed as a proxy fight over abortion.
The issue, however, is particularly poignant given that Virginia is the only state in the broader South that has not, in the year since federal abortion rights were overturned, narrowed access to abortion care.
Democratic infighting
In other races where Democrats faced off against each other, some candidates with similar records were forced to split hairs to differentiate themselves, often focusing on local issues.
In a heated race between state Sen. Louise Lucas, who also serves as president pro tempore of the chamber, and her fellow state Sen. Lionel Spruill, the two Democrats running for a Portsmouth-area seat, the two candidates hammered one another on issues like transportation, toll roads and state-funded student aid for college. Lucas won the race, according to the AP.
‘Trump in heels’ loses
Meanwhile, Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase, who represents a district not far from Richmond, lost to a conservative Republican challenger, former state Sen. Glen Sturtevant, according to the AP, putting on further display the enduring political challenges that acolytes of Trump continue to face.
Chase, who dubbed herself “Trump in heels,” attended the Jan. 6, 2021 rally in Washington, D.C., that preceded the storming of the U.S. Capitol. She soon after began calling the rioters “patriots,” prompting a 2021 censure from her state Senate colleagues.
Her loss is notable because it carries on the abysmal record that Trump-backed, election-denying candidates experienced in the 2022 midterms.
Youngkin’s influence matters
Youngkin, who hasn’t entirely ruled out a 2024 presidential bid, ultimately endorsed 66 candidates in the legislative primaries (46 candidates for the House of Delegates and 20 for the state Senate). However, only a small handful of races in which he inserted himself shaped up to be close primaries. But the candidates in a pair of races that had been expected to be tight that he endorsed prevailed, suggesting his political brand remains strong in the state.
In a state Senate primary for an open seat in the Fredericksburg-area between Del. Tara Durant and Matt Strickland, the Youngkin-backed Durant prevailed, according to the AP. And in another state Senate primary for a seat in the Hampton Roads area, Del. Emily Brewer, who was also backed by Youngkin, defeated Hermie Sadler, the AP projected.
The general elections in both of those districts are expected to be close, and could be the difference makers in Republicans’ attempts to win back control of the state Senate — a goal Youngkin has prioritized for the coming months ahead of a possible presidential bid.
