Eight Virginia lawmakers are endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential bid, Biden’s campaign announced Thursday. The list includes prominent members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus like Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, president pro tempore of the Senate; Sen. Lionell Spruill, D-Chesapeake; Del. Delores McQuinn, D-Richmond; Del. Roslyn Tyler, D-Sussex; and Del. Cliff Hayes, D-Chesapeake.
In the decade since Del. Delores McQuinn (D-Richmond) first took office, fair housing bills have been introduced each year in the Virginia General Assembly, only to never see the light of day under Republican leadership. Come January, McQuinn is hoping that Democratic control of the House of Delegates will break that legislative impasse.
Virginia state Del. Delores McQuinn was with Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam the night the racist photo surfaced last February. A member of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus, she was shocked that the man she had helped elect two years earlier once wore blackface. But while she expected him to resign, she advised against it. “It is not time to retreat,” Ms. McQuinn says she told him. “It is time to teach. This is a moment to turn this pain for all of us into something different.”
An event marking the 400th anniversary of slavery in Virginia held at the Lumpkin’s Slave Jail site in Richmond highlighted a problem: It’s not easy to find the historic site. “There were individuals who were calling me — ‘How do we get in?’” said Del. Delores McQuinn, D-Richmond, who coordinated the event Tuesday to counter the Jamestown festivities that other lawmakers went to commemorating the 400th year of democracy in Virginia. Nearly 20 state lawmakers attended the Richmond event.
Close to 20 state lawmakers who chose not to attend events commemorating the 400th anniversary of democracy in Virginia instead attended a ceremony in Richmond recognizing the 400th anniversary of slavery. The ceremony, organized by Del. Delores McQuinn, D-Richmond, was held at the Lumpkin's Slave Jail site in Shockoe Bottom, the second largest hub of the slave trade in America before the Civil War.
Del. Lashrecse D. Aird faces an awful dilemma. The Petersburg Democrat and other members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus have called for the resignations of Gov. Ralph Northam (D), whom many had worked to elect, and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D), only the second African American to win statewide office in Virginia’s history. But constituents have been telling Aird they don’t want either man to step down.
Dominion Energy is gradually retiring its high-emissions coal-fired plants in favor of more efficient natural gas plants. But some Democratic delegates say those facilities are still heavy polluters and are advocating a statewide push to renewable energy. Delegates Sam Rasoul and Delores McQuinn are sponsoring legislation for the upcoming General Assembly session that would require the state’s energy suppliers to move to 80 percent renewable energy by 2028. It would also place a moratorium on state approvals for almost all new energy infrastructure related to fossil fuel beginning in 2020.