Beating Trump next year starts by winning Virginia this year
Virginia Republicans are just two seats away from passing an abortion ban.
That may seem hard to believe, given just how blue the state has become over the last two decades, but it's the harsh reality. Thanks to a rough election in 2021, Democrats lost control of the governorship and the state House—and if the state Senate had been up that year too, Republicans would have already passed a ban by now. We know that because Gov. Glenn Youngkin has been pushing a ban ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
But as it is, we're clinging to just a 22-18 majority in the Senate, and this November, every seat in both chambers of the legislature will go before voters. And the GOP only needs to flip two districts to gain total control of Virginia's government because the state's far-right lieutenant governor can break ties in the Senate.
But there's good news, too: We have a slate of very strong candidates running under the Democratic banner this fall, and we only need to flip three seats to take back the House and drive a stake into the Republican dream of restricting abortion rights in Virginia.