Virginia held her provincial elections on March 30th, 2019, and the results speak for themselves. The ruling National Union Party lost seats in every direction, and dropped over 10% from their 2015 result. Readujuster leaders Tom Perriello and Jennifer McClellan claimed victory, promising that “Virginia would once again be for lovers”.
The story behind the Readjuster’s victory last night is one that sounds like it came from the minds of a conspiracy theorist. Yet somehow, the Commonwealth became synonymous with chaos. It began with William Howell’s resignation as Premier in 2017 and the planned handover to National Union whip Tommy Norment. Things did not go as planned though. In December 2018, additional allegations about Norment’s previous affair surfaced in addition to allegations of racial insensitivity from his past. Faced with pressures from the backbench, Norment resigned before the start of the 2019 session. This began the 2019 succession crisis.
The media, emboldened by already on kill, applied their previous scrutiny to the potential successors. One by one, National Union Provincial MPs found themselves exposed to the presses on their past failings. But it wasn’t only the National Union, as other party leaders tried to exert influence over the situation, they found themselves under attack. With over a third of the chamber facing some sort of allegation, be it sexual abuse, racial insensitivity, or corruption, the speaker seized control of the situation. Speaker Roxann Robinson had already been acting as the unofficial Premier during the collapse of the day to day order, but now action was needed. In consultation with the parties, she declared that the chamber no longer possessed a quorum representative to the people. Her bill to move up the 2019 elections was accepted unanimously.
The 2019 elections were unprecedented in the number of new provincial representatives elected. Past legislators, even though they were free of sin, lost their renominations at the local party conventions. People were fed up with politics as usual. Outsiders from the media, universities, small businesses, military, and activist groups were the most common nominees. Perriello symbolizes this perfectly, an airlifted leader from Philadelphia to stand above the chaos of the Chamber. But the party divide also reflects the disconnected politics. The Virginia Traditional Party surged above its standard baseline, boosted by those on the right disgusted the National Union and by those who thought that the politicians shouldn’t have resigned. The Environmental Party had a breakout moment, winning seats on the back of disgusted voters. The readjusters have subsequently reached out to the Appalachians, their traditional allies, but no government has yet been formed.
Note, I added the county lines as another layer this time around. Tell me how you like it.