Democrats will take control of Virginia's House of Representatives after yesterday's vote, according to election returns trickling in through the night. Tuesday's blue wave rose on the Republican governor's plans to ban abortion, and paralleled a similar outcome in Ohio, where voters added abortion rights to the state constitution. With Dems holding the Senate, Virginia's legislature is now firmly in the party's hands and Gov. Glenn Youngkin little chance of getting his way—and none of challenging Donald Trump as a late-entry presidential candidate in the GOP primaries.
The possibility of curtailing access to abortion had become a galvanizing issue in Virginia, which is now the last remaining state in the US South without severe restrictions on the procedure. Virginia Democrats correctly predicted that voters' continued displeasure with the reversal of Roe v Wade would help them flip control of the house of delegates.
"[Republicans] called their plan to ban abortion in Virginia a plan to keep abortion legal in the state and claimed it was just a 'limit'," Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, said in a statement. "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."
With two Virginia House races still too close to call, as of 7 a.m, the tally stands at 51 seats to 47 for the Dems.
