Virginia Democrats’ Increasing Political Obstructionism

During the 2013 campaign for Virginia governor, the GOP nominee, then-Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, warned that if his opponent, Democrat and Bill Clinton confidant Terry McAuliffe, were to win, “D.C.-style politics would take over in Richmond.” Well, a dozen years later, his words seem to be prophetic and ironic at the same time.

McAuliffe did become the 45th governor of Virginia, and though he faced some posturing by the GOP over his appointees to boards and commissions, that D.C.-style “if he wants it I’m against it” obstructionism was minimal even though he faced a Republican Party majority in the Virginia House and Senate.

It’s said that the man that Bill Clinton counted on to book guests into that exclusive Lincoln Bedroom Airbnb at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue knew how to “work a room,” and that might have played into it. Politics is a method that humans developed for handling interpersonal relationships long before we founded the Republican and Democratic parties.

However, fast forward to today, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin—not the type to “hoist a few beers” with the boys—certainly doesn’t come across as unlikeable, so perhaps there is more to this zeal with which the Democrats (now the majority party in the General Assembly) went after the men and women he asked to serve on his policy and management boards.

Could it have been because he denied McAuliffe that rarest of Virginia political victories, a second term as governor, when Youngkin defeated him in 2021?

This January, as the General Assembly began its short legislative session (only 30 days), the Senate, which confirms the governor’s appointees, dispatched nine of his appointments on straight party-line votes.

Among those the Senate rejected:

• Marc Short, who was previously chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, from the George Mason University Board of Visitors.
• Jeff Goettman, Youngkin’s former chief of staff, from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
• Kenneth Marcus, assistant secretary of education for civil rights in President Donald Trump’s first administration, from the George Mason board.
• Yesli Vega, former GOP congressional candidate, from the Board of Health.
• Meg Bryce, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s daughter, from the state Board of Education. She had tried, unsuccessfully, to win one of the most costly school board races in U.S. history (with both candidates spending over $100,000) in 2023.

Bryce told The Daily Signal that she was “not surprised by the VA [Virginia] Democrats’ efforts” but that “the people that I got to know at VDOE [Virginia Department of Education] are good, intelligent, hardworking people with children’s best interests at heart” and that “if more people in Richmond were like that, we would be better off.”

Perhaps Cuccinelli was right, D.C.-style politics has come to Virginia, and now we may only be left with a choice between obstructionism or extremism, depending on whether one party or the other can win both houses and the Governor’s Mansion at the same time.

Ironically, Cuccinelli’s appointment may be the final chapter in this saga, as he was nominated to serve on the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors but will most likely not have his position confirmed by the Senate.

That same Senate operates its own kind of political protectionism. The Senate majority party packs Senate committees with overwhelmingly partisan majorities to make sure bills that might cause someone to even consider voting with “the other side” often never even get a hearing. Those bills that eventually do get onto the docket face an increasingly typical “five minutes and you are out” presentation leading to a predictable 9-4 or 8-5 party-line vote.

Virginia Del. Nick Freitas told The Daily Signal that 130 bills were denied even the opportunity for a subcommittee hearing during the 2025 General Assembly session. While some of that may have happened because of the volume of legislation that was proposed, one can also see how either party in the majority can stack the deck to make those bills being denied a vote seem plausible to a reporter working on deadline or a concerned constituent.

Politics is the social skill of consensus-building, done through debate, the sharing of evidence, and interaction. Today, it’s become much simpler: Just be in the majority and get your legislation passed.

Or, as Mel Brooks once said, “It’s good to be the king,” or in Latin, “Est bonum esse regem.” Quite the opposite of Virginia’s state motto, “Sic Semper Tyrannis” (“Thus always to tyrants,” meaning tyrannical leaders will inevitably be overthrown) and not quite as catchy, but I guess we’ll have to get used to it.

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