Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin was handed a stunning defeat in Tuesday’s General Assembly elections, with Democrats flipping the House of Delegates and retaining the state Senate.
While Republican donors have been urging for Youngkin to make a late entry into the 2024 presidential race, the first-term governor said he was all-in on the GOP gaining full control of the state legislature.
Youngkin vowed to supporters to push through at 15-week abortion ban with exceptions should Republicans flip control of the state Senate.
Before midnight Tuesday, CNN projected that Democrats would hold onto at least 21 Senate seats, giving them the majority in the 40-seat upper chamber.
A little after midnight the Associated Press predicted Democrats would flip the House of Delegates too.
Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin was handed a stunning defeat in Tuesday’s General Assembly elections, with Democrats projected to keep control of the state Senate
All 100 House of Delegates seats were up for election, as were the state’s 40 Senate seats.
Democrats previously had a 22-17 majority in the state Senate, while Republicans had a 48 to 46 majority in the House of Delegates, with six vacancies.
Among those elected Tuesday to the Senate was Danica Roem, a member of the House of Delegates, who won in a competitive district to represent the D.C. suburbs.
Roem, a former journalist, made history in 2017, when she became the first trans person to be elected to Virginia’s General Assembly.
Additionally, former CIA agent Russet Perry, a Democrat, found success in District 31, beating Youngkin’s pick, Republican Juan Pablo Segura, who co-founded the D.C.-based District Doughnut and the app Babyscripts.
After the Senate was called, networks said that Democrats had captured the House of Delegates too, with at least 51 seats heading in their favor.
One dissapointment for Democrats was that so-called ‘porn Dem,’ Susanna Gibson, lost her House of Delegates race to Republican businessman David Owen.
Danice Roem (second from left) won her state Senate district to represent suburban Washington, D.C. She became the first trans person to win election to the Virginia General Assembly in 2017
One dissapointment for Democrats was the so-called ‘porn Dem,’ Susanna Gibson, losing her House of Delegates race to Republican businessman David Owen.
Gibson’s race was one of the most watched during Tuesday’s off-off-year elections after she became embroiled in an eyebrow-raising scandal involving livestreaming sex acts with her husband for tips.
Owen bested Gibson by less than 1,000 votes, final results showed.
In September, The Washington Post reported that Gibson, a 40-year-old nurse practitioner, and her husband, attorney John David Gibson, performed livestreamed sex acts on the site Chaturbate, a portmanteau for chatting while masturbating.
In a statement, Gibson called the exposure ‘an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me and my family.’
Gibson used her healthcare background to center the race around abortion rights – the issue that likely swung the General Assembly to the Democrats.
However, in the run-up to Election Day, Virginia Republicans sent out mailers to district voters reminding them of Gibson’s X-rated scandal, labeling them, ‘Warning: explicit material enclosed’ and ‘Do not open if you are under the age of 18.’