Virginia primaries offer glimpse at future emergency medicine issues across state
By Aimee Perron Seibert/Commonwealth Strategy Group
VACEP Government Affairs
The new Virginia General Assembly building in Richmond will be open for business in the 2024 session.
Due to redistricting of the Virginia electoral map in 2022, every seat in the House and Senate is open, making this year’s elections the most crucial General Assembly election in recent history.
Last week, Virginia held its primary elections to determine which candidates will be on the November ballots. The results were a mixed bag for the emergency physician community and give us a preview of what may be in store. Lawmakers often pass rules and regulations that impact how emergency physicians and their teams practice and are paid — which in turn impacts patient care.
We lost some longtime advocates on the side of physicians in the scope of practice arena, but we also lost some opponents.
Overall, we have a lot of education ahead of us with an unprecedented number of new legislators who will need to learn about emergency medicine’s primary issues that can be impacted be lawmakers, for better or worse.
High-level results
In the Senate, nine new legislators are in safe Republican or Democratic seats, and some previously served in the House (Lashrese Aird, Angelia Williams Graves, Suhas Subramanyam and Jennifer Carroll Foy). Glen Sturtevant is a Senator who is returning after a 2019 defeat. Four others will be new to the state legislature.
In November, Senate control will be decided by about six competitive seats.
In the House, 24 primaries were held, with all four incumbents winning their races to return in January. In the upcoming November House elections, control will be decided by approximately nine competitive races.
What’s this mean for you, as an emergency physician? That it’s more important than ever for you to donate to the Virginia Emergency Medicine Political Action Committee (EMPAC-VA) It is going to take a lot of time and effort to get to know all these new legislators, build new relationships and educate them about the issues that are important to emergency physicians.
Here are results of the 10 most-contested Senate races last week. Winners are bolded.
Senate District 11- Democrat (Charlottesville, Nelson, Amherst)
Senator Creigh Deeds
Delegate Sally Hudson
Senate District 12- Republican (Chesterfield, Colonial Heights)
Glen Sturtevant (former Senator)
Senator Amanda Chase
Tina Ramirez
Senate District 13- Democrat (Henrico, Petersburg, Hopewell)
Lashresce Aird (former Delegate)
Senator Joe Morrissey
Senate District 17- Republican (Hampton Roads, Southside)
Delegate Emily Brewer
Hermie Sadler
Senate District 18- Democrat (Chesapeake, Portsmouth)
Senator Louise Lucas
Senator Lionel Spruill
Senate District 29- Democrat (Prince William, Stafford)
*Senator Jeremy McPike
Delegate Elizabeth Guzman
Senate District 35- Democrat (Springfield, Annandale)
Senator Dave Marsden
Heidi Drauschak
Senate District 36- Democrat (Fairfax)
Stella Pekarsky
Senator George Barker
Senate District 37- Democrat (Fairfax, Falls Church)
Saddam Azlan Salim
Senator Chap Petersen
