Republicans are focusing their efforts in the upcoming elections on winning back control of Virginia’s state House of Delegates, which was taken in 2019 by Democrats, many of whom won by slim margins.
The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), which is in charge of helping to elect Republicans to state legislatures, published a list of 13 Virginia districts that they will try to win back in the November 2021 elections.
“Here’s what we get with Democrats controlling Washington: Rising inflation and higher taxes, unions running our schools, crime rates spiking, while liberals call to defund the police,“ the narrator says. ”Democrat-controlled Richmond is no different. They hiked taxes and weakened our small businesses. They kept our children locked out of the classroom. And their failures have made Virginia communities less safe.”
Meanwhile, Democrat state House leadership says their party has improved the lives of Virginians by passing gun control measures, abolishing the death penalty, legalizing recreational marijuana, restoring the political rights of felons, and creating the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, which allows voters to sue state officials for “voter suppression.” Republicans opposed the measure, saying it could lead to endless lawsuits over routine changes to election laws.
Eleven of the 13 incumbents the Republicans are targeting won by a little over 50 percent of the votes to beat GOP state House incumbents in the 2019 elections, with only 2 winning with a 10-point lead.
Democrats currently hold 55 of the 100 seats in the House of Delegate. Democrat governor Ralph Northam won his election by 9 points and President Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 points.
Virginia’s first-term Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn is trying to help keep her party’s slim majority by telling supporters that if Republicans regain control, they will reverse Democrat progress on gun control, voting, and other laws.