2023 will be a critical election year for Virginia.
The Current Situation
In 2023, all the seats in the General Assembly will be up for election. In the House of Delegates, all 100 seats will be contested and in the State Senate all 40 seats will be contested.
Members of the House of Delegates are elected to two-year terms of office. In the 2021 election, Republicans won the majority of seats in the House of Delegates, ousting the radical Democrat House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn.
Virginia State Capitol
Under the leadership of Ms. Filler-Corn, the General Assembly passed legislation to 1) allow early voting 45 days prior to an election without a stated excuse, 2) repealed the law that required that voters show a photo ID prior to casting a ballot, 3) authorized automatic voter registration for individuals accessing service at a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office or the DMV website. Governor Northam signed the legislation.
Delegate Todd Gilbert is now the Speaker of the House. Todd represents the 15th House of Delegates District which encompasses part of the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The district is made up of Page and Shenandoah Counties, plus parts of Rockingham and Warren Counties. Todd is an excellent Speaker of the House, deftly moving conservative Bills through the legislative process.
Members of the State Senate are elected to four-year terms of office. The election of 2019 resulted in a Democrat majority. Presently, there are 21 Democrat State Senators and 19 Republican State Senators. The Democrats in the State Senate routinely block legislation that originates in the House of Delegates. It now time to elect conservative Republican State Senators. Virginia needs conservative Republican majorities in the General Assembly to repair the damage that has been done by the Radical Democrats.
The Plan
The Republican Freedom Caucus of Virginia PAC was formed to participate in political contests within the Republican Party. Under the bylaws of the Republican Party of Virginia, Republican Committees may not endorse, fund or support a particular candidate in a Primary, Convention or Party Canvass.
The requirement to be neutral in a Republican Party contest is appropriate for official Republican Committees. Yet, that requirement leaves individual Republicans without a collective organization to financially support conservative candidates in Party contests.
The Freedom Caucus PAC shall provide that collective organization for conservative Republicans. For example, Medicaid Expansion was opposed by nearly all Republicans in Virginia. However, Republican State Senator Emmet Hanger energetically supported Medicaid Expansion in direct opposition to all the Republican City and County Committee Chairmen in the 6th Congressional District. Those Committee Chairmen appealed to Mr. Hanger repeatedly to represent his constituents by opposing the legislation. He refused to do so.
Sen. Hanger (center) during the Medicare Exp. debate.
The Medicaid Expansion legislation was debated in the General Assembly in May 2018. Republican Emmet Hanger was the Floor Manager of the Democrat Bill in the State Senate. The law was passed and as the final vote was cast, the Democrats in the General Assembly cheered.
On May 30, 2018 the Washington Post reported, in part, “The decision marks a leftward shift in the legislature and an enormous win for Gov. Ralph Northam (D), the pediatrician who ran on expanding access to health care.”
The Freedom Caucus PAC was founded to elect conservative Delegates and State Senators who will faithfully represent those who elected them to office.
The Future
The Freedom Caucus PAC will identify conservative Republican candidates for the General Assembly in the early months of 2023. Then it shall begin the work to get them elected.
If you agree with our plan, please sign up for the Freedom Caucus PAC Newsletter to stay informed of our progress. To get on the mailing list, send an email to Ken Adams at FreedomCaucusPAC@Lumos.net. Please note: We will send out Newsletters only when we have substantive news to report!
Ken Adams, John Chroniger, Cher McCoy, Steven Richards and Gene Rose