• Press Release

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, VA Democrats Join EMILYs List to Explain What’s at Stake Next Week

October 28, 2021

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, VA Democrats Join EMILY's List to Explain What's at Stake Next Week 

In case you missed it, today, EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler hosted a press call to discuss the state of the race ahead of next week’s elections in Virginia. She was joined by Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Eileen Filler-Corn and Del. Hala Ayala, running to be the first Afro-Latina lieutenant governor of Virginia.

Quotes from the speakers can be found below.

EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler said, “In recent years, EMILY's List tripled the size of our state and local program, and that expansion began with our work in the Virginia 2017 elections. In the past two cycles, we have been proud to work with great candidates and partners to help elect the groundbreaking women who helped form the Democratic majority in the legislature. And after they took control, those women were leaders in expanding Medicaid, raising teacher pay, and defending Virginians' rights — including voting rights, reproductive rights, and equal rights for all women. They have made the kind of progress we all knew they would make. And it has made Virginia better. Now, we need to ensure we do not go back.”

Del. Ayala said, “Virginia’s state Senate is at a 20-20 tie on the issue of abortion, and our next lieutenant governor will likely cast the deciding vote on if a bill like the one we’re seeing in Texas will make it out of the General Assembly.”

“My opponent has made it clear she won’t hesitate to bring Texas’ vigilante abortion ban to Virginia. To her, and to radical Republicans across the nation, I say: not in our Commonwealth, and not in our country,” Ayala continued.

“House Democrats have spent the last two years in the majority delivering for the people of Virginia and moving our Commonwealth forward. As we talk to more and more Virginians, we are seeing energy and excitement around the work we have done with a Democratic House and a Democratic governor and what we will continue to do if and when Virginia elects Terry McAuliffe, Hala Ayala, and Mark Herring, and sends our majority back to the House of Delegates,” said Speaker Filler-Corn.