In Fall elections, pro-life candidates won every race for vacant seats in the Virginia General Assembly. All four winning candidates were endorsed by the Virginia Society for Human Life Political Action Committee (VSHL PAC).

On November 5, two General Assembly races were contested at the same time as the statewide U.S. Senate and House of Representatives elections were being held.

For the 24th District House of Delegates seat vacated by the resignation of Delegate Vance Wilkins, Lexington Republican Ben Cline handily defeated Democrat Mimi Elrod with 57.4% of the vote.

The State Senate District 39 seat was previously held by retired Sen. Madison Marye, who voted consistently pro-abortion, but the district was transferred to Northern Virginia in the redistricting process. In this race, Republican Delegate Jay O’Brien of Clifton received 56.6% of the vote to defeat Democrat Rosemary Lynch who was endorsed by the National Organization for Women Political Action Committee (NOW PAC). This opened up the 40th Delegate District seat that had been held by Mr. O’Brien.

On December 17, a special election was held to fill the 40th District Delegate position. Clifton Republican Tim Hugo swamped three opponents with 67% of the vote. The opponents were Democrat Carol Hawn and Independents Joseph Oddo and Mark Calhoun.

These pro-life victories follow on the heels of Centreville Republican Ken Cuccinelli’s winning race in the 37th State Senate District on August 6 (see the article in the Lifesaver, October 2002).

The result of these four victories is that there are two additional solidly pro-life Senators and two previously pro-life Delegate seats have been retained as pro-life. This should help significantly in the future since the Senate has historically been the more difficult place for pro-life legislation.

Published in VSHL Lifesaver, January, 2003