Government | Politics 2024: L. LOUISE LUCAS

Since Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s election, Lucas has become the face of Virginia Democrats’ “blue brick wall” strategy to block Republican priorities in Richmond. Key to her public image is the state senator’s brash and outspoken presence on X, where she has more than 95,000 followers.

Democrats’ success in the November elections and a reshuffling of political maps propelled Lucas into the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee in January. She is widely seen as the decisive factor in the demise of Youngkin’s proposal to build an arena for the Washington Wizards and Capitals in Alexandria.

The first female shipfitter at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and a businesswoman whose ventures include a cannabis store, Lucas came to the Senate from Portsmouth City Council in 1992. When Democrats retook control of the General Assembly in 2020, she became president pro tempore. That year, Portsmouth’s police chief charged Lucas with two felonies related to protests at a Confederate monument; the charges were later dismissed, and in late 2021, Lucas won a $300,000 settlement from the city that she pledged to donate to community nonprofits.