Virginia’s upcoming election day is expected to be widely important, as parties fight to gain control of the House of Delegates and state Senate. In both offices, every single seat is up for election and how they get filled will be a huge determiner of how the parties’ successes will go. Each party has its own motives, as they often do, to fill the seats and hold control. The platforms they are each working on revolve around the same or similar issues, but typically with opposing views on them.

Largely, one of the main areas of concern has to do with abortion rights.

With the Republican Governor, Glenn Youngkin, in office, Democrats worry that Virginia will soon join the rest of the southern states with tightened abortion ban laws. Many of the states rushed to pass these laws immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, having been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to restrict reproductive rights. Virginia has not yet done so as Democrats held the majority in the state Senate office and were able to shut down any anti-abortion bills. Now, many worry that if Democrats are not able to maintain their majority in the Senate and even flip the House of Delegates, such bills will go into law in Virginia.

It is likely that if Republicans win most of the seats, Governor Youngkin will ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, only granting a few exceptions.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (or DLCC for short) has been working hard in the state since the beginning of the year to build the Democrat candidate’s campaigns. The president of the organization, Heather Williams, spoke to a reporter from ABC News and was quoted saying “Our goal in the next few weeks is just to keep everyone super laser-focused.” However, this has been difficult due to the financial success the Republican party has been having. They raised millions through the governor’s political action committee. Governor Youngkin has overall had a successful time getting donations, as many in the party around the country are viewing him as a hopeful to last minute announce his presidential campaign. Many people support him in this and are showing this with their donations.

The election is set for November 7^th. Many around the country will be watching with bated breath to see what the results will be.