Statement by Del. Eileen Filler-Corn After VA House Dems Vote to Oust Her as Leader: “I was proud of all that we accomplished after taking the majority in 2019…[and] look forward to working…to retake the majority”

Here’s a statement from @EFillerCorn on the VA House Dems’ leadership vote this morning to oust her as leader:

“I thank the people of Virginia and my colleagues in the House of Delegates for allowing me to serve as the first woman and first person of Jewish faith to serve as Speaker in the 403-year history of our Commonwealth – truly the honor of my life. I was proud of all that we accomplished after taking the majority in 2019 and was willing to step up as Minority Leader once more to regain that majority. Our caucus is made up of 48 talented and diverse individuals and I look forward to working with them to retake the majority.” 

As the RTD reports:

What motivated this vote? From what I’ve heard, it was a mixture of gripes and grievances from a variety of Virginia House Democratic caucus members. Among other things, I was told that Virginia House Democratic caucus members didn’t see their loss of the majority in November 2021 coming, and felt that they should have seen it. I’ve also heard complaints that Del. Filler-Corn and Caucus Chair Charniele Herring ended up with a lot of money in their accounts at the end of that election, with Democrats needing just a few hundred more votes in a handful of districts to have kept their majority. And various members seems to believe that House Dems could have kept their majority if they had just done some basic things differently. Of course, as the saying goes in politics, “when you win, everyone thinks you’re a genius; when you lose, everyone thinks you’re an idiot.” And no, that makes absolutely no sense (e.g., you can run a superb campaign and lose an election regardless; you can run a TERRIBLE campaign but still win, for a variety of reasons; etc.)

Anyway, the bottom line in my view is simple; if Dems had kept their majority, there’s no way that Eileen Filler-Corn would have been ousted as leader. But they did, and here we are.  So, thanks to Eileen Filler-Corn for all her hard work, dedication and sacrifice the past few years in helping Democrats take back the House of Delegates majority and pass literally HUNDREDS of progressive and pro-environment/pro-clean-energy bills. Regardless of today’s vote, Eileen Filler-Corn will go down as a historic figure in Virginia history  – not just the first female Speaker and the first Jewish Speaker, but also for all her many, many accomplishments. That’s something she can and should be proud of, regardless of this morning’s vote!

P.S. We’ll see who Democrats choose as their new leadership team, and whether that team has a plan for winning back the majority – and is able to executive effectively on that plan…including fundraising, candidate recruitment, messaging, policy priorities, etc, etc. Good luck to whoever’s in charge!