Of course it does. But it would be more meaningful with effective Democratic leadership. On votes that were important to preserving women’s rights, an almost solid Democratic caucus nearly succeeded in halting reactionary social engineering. But Senator Saslaw failed to influence either of two colleagues to simply walk away.
Senator Mamie Locke (D-2nd) and Delegate Robin Abbott (D-93rd) express their dissatisfaction with the lack of success the Democratic members of both chambers have had working together. As Senator Locke points out, if a bill comes across from the House of Delegates with what appears to be overwhelming Democratic support, there is small reason to suspect serious deficiencies. So it isn’t just in the Senate where Democratic leadership fails.
Two of the bills, HB 2434, Health Insurance Abortion Opt-Out, and SB 924, Abortion Center Safety, passed on a 20-20 vote. In both cases, if either Senator Colgan (D-29th) or Senator Puckett (D-38th) had just not voted, the measures would have failed.
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