Republicans look to maintain narrow majority in house and flip state senate, which could carry national implications
As he approached another door in Fredericksburg, walking past Halloween decorations and trees starting to lose their autumn leaves, Muhammad Khan prepared his pitch to voters. Over the past several weeks, Khan has spoken to many of hisMembers of Unite Here, a hospitality workers’ union, have knocked 230,000 doors on behalf of Democratic candidates in Virginia ahead of Tuesday, when all 140 legislative seats in the battleground state will be up for grabs.
Cole lost his House of Delegates seat in 2021, when Republicans secured a narrow majority in the chamber on the back of Youngkin’s success. Just one year after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by 10 points in Virginia, Youngkin won the state’s governorship by two points in 2021. The 2022 midterms suggested that swing voters in Virginia may indeed be drifting back toward Democrats following Youngkin’s election. In 2022, Republicans targeted three congressional seats in Virginia, but they only managed to flip one district while Democrats held the other two.
But the issue of abortion has presented a challenge for Republicans in Virginia and across the country. As he has knocked doors in Virginia, Khan has shared his personal story of immigrating from Pakistan and finding good-paying union work to support his family, and he has used that story to make a larger argument about the need to elect pro-union Democrats.