Democrats Flip Virginia for the First Time in 22 Years

Democrats have taken control of both chambers of Virginia's legislature.

Democrats turned Virginia blue for the first time in 22 years. After the state-level elections, they took control of both the House and Senate on Tuesday.
 
Some of Virginia’s victors include 94th District Delegate Shelly Simonds, who defeated Republican David Yancey in a rematch. She tied in 2017 and lost a random lottery drawing that decided the winner.

Ghazala Hashmi became the first Muslim woman elected to the Virginia Senate, and will represent the state’s 10th Senate district. She immigrated to the U.S. from India as a child and said she was motivated to run after Trump’s travel ban.  
 
Joshua Cole, 28, won Virginia’s 28th district (yes, you read that right), defeating Paul Milde III. In the 2017 election, he fell just 73 votes short of victory.

Juli Briskman also ran for county board of supervisors in Virginia and won. She was at the center of a viral photo from 2017 of her riding a bike and giving Trump’s motorcade the middle finger as it drove back to the White House from his Sterling, Virginia golf course. Because of the photo, Briskman said she was forced to resign from her position as a marketing executive at Akima LLC.

With Virginia’s victory, Democrats now have a path to pursue a progressive platform and implement policy changes that many in the country have been pushing for years. Their new legislative power, combined with Democratic Governor Ralph Northam’s, may soon lead to harsher gun control measures and higher minimum wage.