November 8th, 2016 was a moment of reckoning for me, as it must have been for many others. I watched, slack-jawed and dumbfounded, as Donald Trump was elected to the highest office in American politics. Instantly, the world seemed to be a much darker and less promising place than the one I had known only a few moments prior. While it is not surprising that this momentous defeat left many people feeling demoralized and pessimistic about the future, time has shown that this state of affairs was nothing if not fleeting. Proof of this came in January, when the presidential inauguration brought out a wave of political activism and showed the American sprit to have been undimmed by the events of the preceding few months. The outpouring of protest and civic engagement surrounding the event was heartening, not only because it showed a deep displeasure with the outcome of the election, but also because it demonstrated the willingness of of the general public to take political action in response to the challenges and outrages of the Trump Administration. …show more content…
The State’s Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General will also be will also be elected on the same day, as will all of the members of the state legislature. The composition of the next legislature will likely be just as important as who occupies the Governor’s Mansion. Despite the Accomplishments of the last four years, the McAuliffe Administration was often stymied by the large Republican majority that they faced in the House of Delegates (the lower house in the state legislature) which blocked a variety of reforms including blocking a full Medicaid expansion. Although Democrats hold all three statewide offices and won the state in the past three presidential elections, they only hold approximately one third of the seats in the House of Delegates, a disparity that is explained in large part by the extensive gerrymandering to which the House has been