Virginia Speaker-designee Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) said in an appearance on “Meet The Press Now” shared to social media on Monday that he expects Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) to sign Democrats’ forthcoming legislation to restore voting rights for felons but added that he is ready to take the decision “away from the governor” if he resists their “opportunity” to “restore rights.”
“There are several issues we can work on, I think the governor’s already signaled that he’s ready to reset and ready to work with us,” Scott (pictured above) said, noting Youngkin’s previous suggestion the parties could work together on mental health, drug addiction, and other issues.
When asked about the Democrats’ legislative plans to restore voting rights for felons, Scott said Youngkin should emulate previous Democratic governors. He claimed “Youngkin has decided to slow everything down a bit and take us a little backwards.”
Scott added that Youngkin “has the opportunity to step up and take advantage of this historic opportunity and restore rights,” but warned that “if he doesn’t, we introduced a constitutional amendment to take it away from the governor.”
WATCH: What issues can Virginia Democrats work with GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin on next session?
Virginia Speaker-Designee @DonScott757 (D) says there are several:
➡️ Mental health reform
➡️ Dealing with the opioid crisis
➡️ Increasing economic development
➡️ Public education pic.twitter.com/RFCxKV189p— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) November 21, 2023
In the wake of the Republican losses sustained on November 7, Youngkin signaled he was ready to pursue bipartisan legislation, acknowledging Virginia will “still have a divided government” and politicians will “have to come together to progress legislation.” Shortly after, Scott said he was interested in a relationship “reset” with the Republican governor. However, he said Democrats were ready to push their campaign promises and party priorities through the Virginia General Assembly without his support.
The reset Scott mentioned may have been complicated when Democrats released their legislative plans for 2024 on Monday.
Virginia Democrats plan to enshrine abortion and automatic restoration of voting rights for felons into the Virginia Constitution and plan to introduce legislation to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour and ban AR-15 rifles in the state.
Scott, who was convicted of drug offenses in 1994 and served seven years in prison but claimed he never saw the drugs, stated in a Democratic press release that he was “especially glad to see the resolution to start the process” to codify automatic restoration of voting rights into the state constitution.
Though Youngkin faces the prospect of governing without a majority, his allies will retain their leadership positions in the Virginia House of Delegates when the caucus resumes minority status in January.
A leadership challenge was mounted by Republican delegates who were upset over Youngkin’s management of Republican campaign messaging during the election, and blamed Speaker Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) for not pushing back on Youngkin and his Spirit of Virginia political action committee.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Don Scott” by Don Scott. Background Photo “Virginia Capitol” by Famartin. CC BY-SA 4.0.
