All General Assembly seats up for election, abortion remains major issue for Henrico candidates
Newly redistricted House District 57. Illustration by Victor Romanko.
Selna Shi, News Editor
Jessica Vigil, Contributing Writer
All seats in the General Assembly are up for election this year. House District 57 and Senate District 16, which both cover Henrico County, are critical seats that could determine Virginia’s direction with abortion.
All districts in Virginia were redrawn in 2021, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. House District 57 is one of seven house districts that do not have a projection of a possible winner, according to VPAP.
Virginia is the only state in the South where abortion is still legal, however, the state bans abortion after 26 weeks and six days of pregnancy, according to the Virginia Legislative Information System.
House of Delegates Democratic candidate Susanna Gibson, a nurse practitioner, is running in House District 57 against Republican candidate David Owen, a businessman campaigning on funding law enforcement and lower inflation, according to Owen’s website.
Gibson and Owen’s race in House District 57 is a competitive seat, as Virginia could pass its first restrictions on abortion laws. The Virginia State Senate failed to pass Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 15-week abortion ban in February, according to a previous Commonwealth Times article.
Owen is anti-abortion and supports Youngkin’s 15-week abortion ban, Owen said in a video recorded by Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“Personally I am pro-life, and we need to start saving some of the unborn children,” Owen said in the video.
Alexandra Reckendorf, a VCU political science professor, said this year’s election could mean Republicans owning the “trifecta:” the governorship, house of delegates and the state senate.
The Republicans currently hold a slim majority in the House and Democrats lead the Senate with 22 to 18, the General Assembly website states.
“It [this upcoming election] could be viewed as a chance for the Democrats to maintain the split. Having a divided legislative branch means that the governor, who is a Republican, can’t easily enact conservative policies,” Reckendorf said.
Henrico County has voted Democrat the past three elections, according to VPAP.
Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-12, and Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-72, are competing in Senate District 16.
Senate District 12 leans Republican, however, Dunnavant chose to run in Senate District 16, which leans Democrat, according to VPAP.
Dunnavant, a practicing OB-GYN, was the only Republican who voted against Senate Bills 1284 and 1385, according to a previous Commonwealth Times article.
SB 1284 would have prohibited abortion except for cases in which the pregnant person’s life was in danger or the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. SB 1385 would have prohibited abortion after the first 15-weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape and incest.
While Dunnavant voted against SB 1385, she released a one minute ad in June stating her position on abortion.
“Abortion should remain legal for up to 15 weeks. After 15 weeks, there should be reasonable exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother and severe fetal anomalies,” Dunnavant said in the ad.
Dunnavant said in the ad that she cannot accept the current Virginia law on abortion.
VanValkenburg said at a forum last week that he supports the current abortion law in Virginia.
“Rather than focusing on and prioritizing taking away women’s rights, we should be focusing on other issues like lowering healthcare costs,” VanValkenburg said at the forum.
Protecting abortion rights is on Gibson’s priority list, according to Gibson’s website.
Gibson live streamed sex acts on streaming service Chaturbate last year, however, the videos were leaked last week, according to The Washington Post.
Chaturbate is a live webcam website where users can “masturbate while chatting online,” according to its website.
Gibson asked viewers for “tips,” which are “tokens” purchased through Chaturbate, in exchange for certain requests. Gibson said the money is for a “good cause,” according to the article.
Gibson violated Chatuarbate’s terms and conditions by “requesting or demanding specific acts for tips,” according to Chaturbate’s terms and conditions.
Chaturbate’s live streamed videos are archived onto other public websites. More than a dozen of Gibson’s videos appeared on Recurbate, an archive website, according to the Washington Post article.
Gibson stated to The Washington Post that she did not give permission to Chaturbate to allow her videos to be shared on other websites.
Gibson said to The Washington Post that the leaked videos are “an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me and my family.”
Daniel P. Watkins, a lawyer for Gibson said, circulation of Gibson’s videos violates Virginia’s revenge porn laws.
Reckendorf does not think Gibson’s scandal is great for Gibson herself or for the Democrat party, but voters most likely will care more about the stake abortion-rights are at than Gibson’s scandal, Reckendorf said.
“Democrats [voters] who look at this and say ‘look I don’t love that our candidate has been putting porn out for public consumption, I don’t love it. But I also don’t love the prospect of abortion becoming more or less illegal in the commonwealth,’” Reckendorf said. “Those kinds of individuals will kind of stick with Susanna.”
Reckendorf said Gibson’s situation could’ve been avoided if the Democratic party did a better job with their internal opposition research. Opposition research is information that could be used to attack the other candidate for, like policies, political position and personal issues, Reckendorf explained.
Voters can apply for an absentee ballot until 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27. The last day to register to vote and update voting information is Monday, Oct. 16, and Saturday, Nov. 4 is the last day to vote early.
Election Day is on Tuesday, Nov. 7 from 6 a.m. through 7 p.m.
