Tuesday’s general election in Virginia has every single state delegate and senator on ballots around the state, given that is the case, the election here is considered a bellwether nationally on what issues matter most to voters going into the 2024 presidential election year. Here, there is no doubt that the issue of abortion and of the rights of women to determine what happens to their own bodies is being seen by Democrats as mattering most in almost every race.
With Democrats holding a razor thin lead in the State Senate and just barely down in the House, they are counting on the abortion issue and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s backwardness on the issue to tip the balance in their favor.
State Del. Marcus Simon, who represents Falls Church in the Richmond legislature, faces only nominal opposition in his race, and he’s been helping other Democrats in the wider region with their efforts. He appeared with a large contingent of his fellow Democratic lawmakers and some challengers hopeful of winning seats at a rally at a home in Alexandria earlier this week that was keynoted by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
On the other side, the main news has been the influx of millions of dollars from Republicans nationwide to help out GOP candidates.
Buttigieg told supporters that this Virginia election is being seen as a “canary in the coal mine” nationally, in terms of being an early tipoff of what can be expected to move voters in the coming year.
He quipped that in Virginia Republicans are “trying to block, not build,” referring to ongoing efforts to take voters off the rolls.
On that score, on Monday Virginia’s Democratic Congressional delegation sent a follow-up letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the Youngkin Administration’s improper removal of nearly 3,400 eligible voters from the rolls. The letter was signed by U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (Both D-VA), and Representatives Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03), Gerry Connolly (VA-11), Donald Beyer (VA-08), Abigail Spanberger (VA-07), Jennifer Wexton (VA-10) and Jennifer McClellan (VA-04).
“Earlier this month, the Virginia Department of Elections (the Department) first announced that it had improperly removed about 270 voters whose rights were restored after felony convictions,” the letter read. “News reports from late last week indicated that the Department had actually improperly removed 3,400 qualified voters. This is over 10 times more voters than initially announced, and the information comes less than two weeks before Election Day and more than a month after the start of early voting. The Department has indicated those affected voters’ records have been sent – and updated – to the local registrars who have then notified these voters via mail; however, it is not clear that these voters will receive the information they are reinstated in a timely manner. Further, the Department noted that 100 of the voters who were wrongly removed have yet to be reinstated and may not be notified of their reinstatement with sufficient time to cast a ballot in next month’s election.”
This follows a previous letter sent on October 6th demanding the DOJ investigate whether these actions violate the Voting Rights Act or other federal laws.
“We reiterate our request that DOJ take immediate action to investigate how these removals happened and what is being done to ensure that those whose names were illegally removed from the voting rolls are informed in a timely and effective manner so that they are able to cast a vote in the November 7, 2023, Virginia election,” the letter states.
Buttigieg, whose career as a potential future presidential candidate is still very alive but not being talked about this election cycle, also contrasted state Democrats to their opponents by contending that Democrats are passionate about building bridges while their opponents are fixated on banning books, said in sum that the races “are about politics, but also about values.”
