Democrats concede the House of Delegates

Weekend update on Virginia politics.

Nov 06, 2021

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Filler-Corn concedes the Democratic majority in the House

Democratic Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn conceded the House of Delegates Friday night after mail-in ballots showed that a number of closely contested races were not going to change. Barring any new developments, Republicans flipped seven Democratic seats on Tuesday, which will give them a 52-48 majority in the 2022 legislative session.

“Unfortunately, the headwinds were too strong, and the maps drawn by the previous majority presented a challenge that was too great to overcome,” Filler-Corn said in a statement Friday. “We will dearly miss our colleagues who will not be with us the next term, but we will ensure their legacies are preserved.”

Republicans have vowed to focus on education and the other issues that they ran on during the campaign cycle. A lot of their time on the trail was spent talking about Democratic overreach during the last two years and their desire to reverse it.

While some of the legislation that Republicans want to reverse is obvious, like the law that no longer requires schools to report crimes to police, the distance that Republicans want to try and overturn new laws is still unclear.

Filler-Corn says that while in the majority, Democrats will continue to fight to protect the new laws. “We will hold them accountable if and when they attempt to reverse the progress we have made and move our Commonwealth backward,” Filler-Corn said. “Our fight is far from over, and House Democrats will continue to work hard to build a better Virginia for our constituents and for everyone who calls our Commonwealth home.”

More coverage from the House this week:

Democratic Party chair responds with a statement after Tuesday’s loss

Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA) Chair Susan Swecker oversaw the party as they flipped 21 House seats, won several statewide races, and flipped the state Senate to Democratic control. But even so, Democrats lost in a race Tuesday that they mostly expected to win even with polling showing a dead heat and the national party struggling for any momentum. Now she is facing the first major Democratic losses in Virginia during her time as chair.

Democrats across Virginia are looking for someone to blame for the losses their party endured earlier this week. Republicans took back the House of Delegates as well as the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general offices. For a lot of people, that blame is being placed on the Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe and the state party apparatus.

Swecker released a statement Friday reflecting on Tuesday’s loss.

“I want to thank Terry McAuliffe, Hala Ayala, Mark Herring, and Democrats down the ballot — we are grateful for their unwavering commitment to public service, Democratic ideals, and to the people of the Commonwealth,” Swecker said. “I also want to send my deepest thanks and gratitude to the many wonderful volunteers and campaign staff who poured their hearts and souls into Virginia every day on the trail over the past year.”

One complaint heard from Democrats across the state is that Democrats focused too heavily on tying Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin to Donald Trump. “We need to rethink the way we campaign in Virginia,” said state Del. Sam Rasoul (D-Roanoke) on Friday. “We spend entirely too much time talking about Donald Trump.”

Swecker in her statement Friday, however, said that Democrats ran a campaign focused on improving lives.

“Virginia Democrats ran hard-fought, laser-focused campaigns centered around improving the lives of Virginians by raising the minimum wage, investing in education, and providing paid family leave for all working families.”

In theory, that is correct because they were running against Republicans who vowed to overturn the new laws Democrats passed in 2020 and 2021. However, for the most part, Democrats invoked Trump at every turn on the trail and hardly mentioned anything related to helping Virginians. McAuliffe had 20 plans for moving Virginia forward — but instead of constantly reminding voters of the details in those plans, he reminded them that Trump endorsed Youngkin.

POOLHOUSE, the media consultant for Youngkin’s campaign, released a post-election analysis on ads in the race. In their report, they note that in statewide ads, McAuliffe mentioned Trump 35% of the time.

“We should articulate not only our vision for the future but spend time genuinely connecting with people and with their needs,” Rasoul said.

Caitlin Bennett, the chair of the Fredericksburg Democratic Committee released a long statement breaking down the race from her viewpoint.

“The McAuliffe messaging was largely focused on tying Youngkin with Trump while the Democratic voter base was tired of Trump’s existence in their lives,” Bennett said Wednesday in a postmortem of the race. “Meanwhile parents dealing with the anxieties faced with the consequences of COVID on their children’s education were able to be manipulated by the anti-public education movement who has taken up the mantle of this faux anti CRT movement.”

Youngkin himself kept Trump at an arm’s length, never mentioning the former president once he earned the nomination in May. Instead, he focused more on kitchen-table issues like lowering taxes and gas prices.

He ran 40 TV ads across the state telling people about those kitchen-table issues as well.

“Glenn created a movement and our job was to articulate and amplify that message with creative, emotional, and compelling advertising; bold enough to cut through the noise,” said Tim O’Toole, the Chief Creative Officer of POOLHOUSE.

Banning Critical Race Theory, the anti-racist education concept, from public schools on day one was spoken at every campaign stop and received a standing ovation for Youngkin. Officials in Virginia have said that CRT is not being taught to students.

But even with the loss at the top of the ticket, Democrats also suffered down-ballot by losing seven House seats. Bennett puts at least part of the blame on a lack of a coordinated campaign from the party.

“The coordinated campaign failed to materialize until sometime in September – exactly when as Chair of a local committee – I’m sorry to say I am not exactly sure,” Bennett said Wednesday. “Typically a coordinated campaign is organized by late June/early July. We had one organizer for our region. I have no idea if anyone else came.”

Swecker has served as chair since 2015, the longest term of any DPVA party chair since Joseph Fitzpatrick served from 1972-1979.

The process for electing a party chair takes place in the coming months after local committees restructure and appoint members to their respective congressional district Democratic committees. The members of the congressional district Democratic committees then come together to form the state central committee, which is responsible for electing the party chair.

It’s hard to know right now how much these results come from a national movement opposing the current government in Washington D.C. New Jersey is historically an easy Democratic win, but the race on Tuesday to elect their next Governor came down to the wire with the Democratic incumbent Phil Murphy squeezing out a win.

In her statement Friday, Swecker encouraged Democrats to look towards the future and continue fighting.

“We are proud of the progress we have built,” Swecker said Friday. “Now, the fight for Virginia’s future begins, and the DPVA will be right there leading the way to keep our Commonwealth moving forward.”

Virginia Gov.-elect Youngkin’s underaged son tried to vote in Tuesday’s election, elections officials said - Washington Post

by Antonio Olivo

The 17-year-old son of Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin (R) tried to cast a ballot in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election twice despite being too young to vote, Fairfax County officials said in a statement released Friday.

The statement, which identified the teen as Youngkin’s 17-year-old son, emphasized that he did not end up voting and stated that he did not violate any state election laws. The Washington Post is not including the teen’s first name because he is a juvenile and has not been charged with a crime.

A spokesperson for Gov.-elect Youngkin released the following statement in response to the news articles about his underaged son. “It’s unfortunate that while Glenn attempts to unite the Commonwealth around his positive message of better schools, safer streets, a lower cost of living, and more jobs, his political opponents—mad that they suffered historic losses this year—are pitching opposition research on a 17-year old kid who honestly misunderstood Virginia election law and simply asked polling officials if he was eligible to vote; when informed he was not, he went to school.”

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