2019 Virginia political crisis facts for kids
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The Virginia political crisis of 2019 occurred when all three of Virginia's statewide elected executive officials (all members of the Democratic Party) became engulfed in scandal over the course of one week in February 2019. All three (Governor Ralph Northam, Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, and Attorney General Mark Herring) were consequently the subjects of nation-wide bipartisan calls for resignation or removal from office.
The issues raised together created a crisis in Virginia as all three statewide officials were engulfed in scandal over the span of a few days and the potential of all three resigning or being forced out of office became apparent.
Background
Given the racially charged nature of the scandals, national media focused attention on Virginia's complicated history with race. Virginia had been a corner of the Atlantic slave trade triangle, and the Capital of the Confederacy. Its history has featured Monument Avenue, Massive Resistance, and the first elected African American state governor in US history, Douglas Wilder. More recently, Virginia voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and was the site of the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in 2017.
Virginia has had two Democratic senators since 2008 and Democrats had controlled all three statewide offices since 2014. The 2017 elections had been contentious and close, leading to Democrats maintaining control of all three statewide offices while Republicans clung to a 51-49 majority in the Virginia House of Delegates and a 21-19 majority in the Virginia Senate.
Positions affected
The situation involved the position of the Governor of Virginia, as well as the two positions (Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General) that directly follow in the gubernatorial order of succession, with widespread bipartisan calls for resignations having the potential for a state constitutional crisis.
