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Former Del. Lashrecse Aird won Tuesday’s Democratic primary for a seat in the Virginia state Senate by defeating scandal-plagued incumbent Joe Morrissey, a self-described “unapologetically pro-life” lawmaker who has long been one of the most conservative Democrats in the legislature, in a 69-31 landslide.
Morrissey’s defeat in the reliably blue 13th District outside of Richmond comes months ahead of a Nov. 7 general election where all 40 seats in the upper chamber are on the ballot for four-year terms. Democrats are looking to defend their 22-18 majority under a brand-new map, and they’ll be relieved that they’ll no longer need to worry about the ever-present possibility that Morrissey could provide a crucial vote for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s agenda.
For decades, Morrissey confounded observers by surviving an endless series of scandals that most recently included allegations by his estranged wife that he’d abused her and had sex with her when she was still a minor. The senator, though, became the pivotal vote in the chamber following the 2021 elections, when Youngkin flipped the governorship and Republicans took back control of the House of Delegates. (Aird that year narrowly lost her campaign for reelection to Republican Kim Taylor.)
The Senate was not on the ballot that year, but Democrats held just a 21-19 edge at the time. Had Morrissey ever chosen to side with Republicans on any given vote—as he sometimes threatened to do—Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears’ would have been able to break ties in the GOP’s favor.
Democrats’ greatest fear was that Morrissey would break ranks on abortion, especially after he cosponsored a proposal to largely ban abortion after 20 weeks and said he was open to backing Youngkin’s own anti-abortion bills. But Democrats got a reprieve in January when Aaron Rouse flipped a GOP-held district in a special election in the Virginia Beach area that focused heavily on abortion.
Virginia Democrats, though, recognized that it would take the loss of just one seat in November to restore Morrissey to his previous position in the cat-bird seat, and they worked overtime to avoid that scenario. Aird, who declared she was “100% pro-choice,” earned endorsements from U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, multiple members of the House, and all six women in the party’s Senate caucus, as well as from abortion rights heavyweights like Planned Parenthood.
Morrissey pushed back by insisting he probably would have opposed Youngkin’s proposed 15-week abortion ban, though he simultaneously mocked Aird’s focus on the issue. He also tried to attack Aird for the support she received from Clean Virginia, an environmental group founded by hedge fund CEO Michael Bills. “My opponent is a one-trick pony: ‘Let me just talk about abortion; let me borrow a half-million dollars from my billionaire friend in Charlottesville; let me flood the airwaves with that and let me try to steal a state Senate seat,” he told the Associated Press.
Morrissey, for his part, received large contributions from Dominion Energy, the mammoth energy producer that Clean Virginia argues has far too much influence in state politics. But not only did Aird decisively outraise Morrissey, the incumbent also faced the challenge of introducing himself to many voters he’d never represented before. This was the first election to take place using a revamped Senate map drawn by the state Supreme Court, and Morrissey only represented about 45% of the residents of the new 13th District.
Aird’s win makes her the heavy favorite this fall in a district that, according to data from Dave’s Redistricting App, supported Joe Biden 62-37 in 2020 and Democrat Terry McAuliffe 57-42 in the 2021 election for governor, even as he was losing statewide to Youngkin. But the battle for both legislative chambers is only getting started, and because Earle-Sears won’t have to face the voters again until 2025, Senate Democrats can only afford to lose one seat if they’re to retain control.
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