Democratic candidates won all 30 of Northern Virginia’s seats in the Virginia House of Delegates on Tuesday as the party was set to significantly expand its 51-49 majority in the state’s lower chamber.
As of 11 p.m., Democrats had picked up 13 seats statewide, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. With only one race undecided, the Democrats will hold at least 64 of the 100 seats, the most they have held in nearly 40 years.
This is obviously “good” but can someone help me understand how meaningful this is?
I presume this is a good indicator that the happenings in recent month have “activated” voters?
It means that voting still matters. Even if intimidation, lying, and fear tactics from the other side steal some votes away… we can still win next November, and hopefully, November 2028.
You forget the ones who encourage sitting it out as a means of protest. Even if the candidates are both shit, your country needs you to pick a side. Remember: sometimes it’s not about endorsing the candidate, so much as it is to deny the other a seat in power. The system will function as it normally does, but the choice is very much yours. You don’t get to sit it out because you disagree with one or two bullet points, then whine about the next 4 years.
Oh fuck off. Some people dont want to take part in a political system that directly equates to genocide overseas
In a winner-take-all election, anything less than a vote for the runner up is an endorsement of the winner.
You’re not “refusing to take part” in the election, you’re just voting “either is fine by me.”
Ah, a “trump supporter by inaction”. You got us here.
I care about the genocide in other parts of the world.
I also care about feeding our own people, having due process for everyone here, women’s rights, lgbt rights, immigration rights, Healthcare, government spending, employee rights, free speech rights, climate change etc etc etc
I care about the world, but I also know which candidates will fuck myself, friends, family and neighbors over. I have to vote for a nonperfect candidate sometimes to protect those around me. Until we have another alternative to first past the pole, it’s the system we have.
And you’ll never get these things by throwing Palestinians under the bus; that’s how solidarity works. Remember Abandon Harris? I mean, hello, Obama and Biden both deported millions of people throughout their terms, and Democrats are certainly not going to give you healthcare or do shit about climate change. If they don’t care about brown kids on the other side of the world, they don’t care about you. The people who do care about you tend to also care about brown kids on the other side of the world, so it’s either take on injustice at home and abroad or surrender to injustice both at home and abroad.
Frankly voting at this point is more about getting committed progressives into positions of power where they can resist MAGA fascism. There’s no way the fascists will actually let you vote them out.
See? Liberals and leftists can work together.
Trump’s shutdown has fucked federal workers, and half of NoVa is either a federal worker, a contractor, or someone whose livelihood hinges on the above getting their next paychecks. This has royally fucked Northern Virginia specifically. So it would signal the GOP is eating shit for their national policy platform of “Eliminate the federal bureaucracy at all costs”.
But when you asking what kind of politicians are replacing the outgoing GOP reps? Well… consider the new Virginia Governor - Abigail Spanberger - spent the last week of her campaign condemning “Defund the Police” despite nobody asking her about it. These are still going to be Ivy League educated, ultra-nationalist, neoliberal hacks. And they’re going to be governing a population that gets its paychecks based on how many high explosive devices we ship to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
You’re getting the kind of politician that wants to put a Rainbow Flag sticker on the B-2 bombers that struck Iran. Folks who think school vouchers need to be means tested, but don’t instantly recoil at the idea of both a Christian and Muslim private school cashing the checks.
Virginia’s trading out a long and ugly legacy of Strom Thurmond-ism for a bright refreshing cup of Joe Biden-ism. Yay…
It’s amazing how mild of a statement has sparked 5 years of bipartisan backlash. Like, defund the police was the alternative to keeping letting them kill people or abolishing them or even holding them accountable for murders they commit. Just don’t give them a reward for highway robbery and murder
Maybe this turns out to be baby steps? We’ve seen the power of creeping change, maybe creeping progress is the antidote to the accumulated regressive rot.
Uh… when, exactly? The past half century of American politics has been an unmitigated disaster on all fronts other than maybe LGBT rights.
That’s what I was promised under Obama. shrug I guess Americans are taking another bite at the apple.
Maybe if we didn’t elect Trump immediately after Obama, we would still be creeping in the right direction
Might be worth interrogating why Obama’s popularity tanked following his election.
This is fairly meaningful for Virginia. There are only a few blue islands (major cities) in the state and last night we saw Dems sweeping votes in very red traditional Republican areas. I was looking at the maps last night astounded. Virginia is an old time type of prude/conservative but the fact that we also hold a lot of federal jobs played into this sweep in my opinion. People here are very pissed off and the younger folks really turned out.
Yeah, my dad is from there originally and moved back with my mom when they retired. A 15 point gap in the governor’s race is crazy. Democrats really expanded their map in the southeast around Norfolk and the lower peninsula. Some of those areas are rapidly developing, so I wonder how much it has to do with demographic shifts. Judging by the huge swings, I can’t see how Republican insanity isn’t driving some significant portion of this.