Which GOP Virginia State Senators Might Be Potential “Flips” on Medicaid Expansion?

UPDATE 2/18/18: I posted the following after the election in November 2017.  I’m reposting it now because the GOP-controlled Virginia State Senate apparently is NOT going to include Medicaid expansion in its budget, and we need to know which Republican Senators might – just might – be susceptible to pressure. The names I’ve been hearing are Glen Sturtevant (10th), Frank Wagner (7th), Siobhan Dunnavant (12th), all in districts Ralph Northam won, PLUS a couple in southwestern Virginia – Bill Carrico (40th), Ben Chafin (38th) – who might agree with Del. Terry Kilgore’s reasoning on this one, since they’re from the same area of the state that would benefit enormously from expanding health care coverage. Oh, and Sen. Emmett Hanger (R-24th), who apparently supports Medicaid expansion, giving Dems 20 votes in the State Senate and raising the question of whether the LG can break ties in the case of budget votes (see here and here for more on that complicated subject)…

P.S. Stay tuned today as the GOP-controlled House and Senate release their budget proposals, and as we potentially see ” a political showdown over the next three weeks with the Senate Finance Committee, which already has said it will not include full Medicaid expansion in the budget it will propose later on Sunday, leaving a gulf of almost $400 million between the two spending plans.” Oh, and so much for the State Senate being the more “moderate,” “reasonable,” “centrist,” etc. legislative chamber anymore.

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Check out the following visual by VPAP, which shows the Virginia State Senate districts won by Ralph Northam and Ed Gillespie last Tuesday. The results: 24 Northam-won districts to 16 Gillespie-won districts. Those Northam-won districts includes several currently held by Republicans, and several where Northam won huge (e.g., bye bye Frank Wagner, Dick Black and Glen Sturtevant; maybe time to “spend some more time with your family” or something? LOL): District 8 (Bill DeSteph) — Northam won 49.8%-49.0%; District 12 (Siobhan Dunnavant) — Northam won 51.5%-47.2%; District 7 (Frank Wagner) – Northam won 53.6%-45.1%, District 13 (Dick Black) — Northam won 55.2%-43.7%, and District 10 (Glen Sturtevant) — Northam won 57.7%-41.0%.