Sen. Louise Lucas Archives - Virginia Business

Youngkin vetoes cannabis, minimum wage legislation

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed legislation Thursday that would have put Virginia on the path to a $15 per hour minimum wage and set up a retail cannabis market, killing bills that were important to Democratic state legislators he blamed for torpedoing the $2 billion Alexandria sports arena deal he’d championed.

Amid a deepening partisan divide in Richmond, Republican Youngkin announced six more vetoes Thursday evening, targeting legislation supported by Democratic lawmakers that would have set a $15 per hour minimum wage in Virginia beginning in 2026, as well as a measure that would have established a retail market structure for recreational marijuana sales beginning next year.

The vetoes were hardly a surprise to political observers across the state, as Youngkin had previously signaled his lack of support for a legal cannabis retail market, although legislators from both parties said before this year’s General Assembly session that they have problems with the status quo, in which it’s legal to possess small amounts of marijuana and purchase cannabis products with a doctor’s prescription in licensed dispensaries — and yet the billion-dollar recreational cannabis retail black market remains unregulated and untaxed.

HB 1 and its Virginia State Senate counterpart, SB 1, would have increased the state’s mandatory minimum wage from $12 an hour to $13.50 starting Jan. 1, 2025, and set a $15 per hour minimum wage at the start of 2026. The legislation passed through the General Assembly along party lines this session — with 51 Democrats voting yes, and 49 Republicans voting no in the House of Delegates, and 21-18 in the Senate, with Republican Sen. Mark Peake abstaining.

Youngkin wrote in his veto statement that raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour in less than two years “would implement drastic wage mandates, raise costs on families and small businesses, jeopardize jobs and fail to recognize regional economic differences across Virginia.” He had previously said there was no need for the state to raise the mandatory minimum wage, and that the free market was taking care of the issue.

The Virginia Chamber of Commerce applauded the minimum wage veto, saying in a statement Thursday, “Although Virginia’s economy has recovered strongly from the pandemic, surpassing pre-pandemic employment levels, not all regions of the commonwealth have experienced equal economic growth. Raising the hourly minimum wage to $15 would have led to shuttered businesses and lost jobs, particularly in the areas most in need of strong economic growth and particularly for Virginia’s small businesses.”

However, Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, tweeted Thursday evening that “every working American deserves a living wage. Period,” in reference to the minimum wage veto, and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, a Democrat who is running for his party’s nomination for governor, wrote that he has proposed raising city employees’ minimum wage to $20 an hour, adding, “It’s high time our governor stops playing political games and focuses on what our families need to rise to the middle class.”

Cannabis retail legislation

Cannabis bills HB 698 and SB 448 passed mostly along party lines too, although Republicans Del. Chris Obenshain and Sen. Christie New Craig joined Democrats in voting yes. If enacted, the measures would have established a framework to allow legal retail sales of recreational marijuana in Virginia starting May 1, 2025, and issued state licenses to sell marijuana on Sept. 1, 2024.

“The proposed legalization of retail marijuana in the commonwealth endangers Virginians’ health and safety,” Youngkin wrote in his veto statement on the cannabis legislation. “States following this path have seen adverse effects on children’s and adolescents’ health and safety, increased gang activity and violent crime, significant deterioration in mental health, decreased road safety, and significant costs associated with retail marijuana that far exceed tax revenue. It also does not eliminate the illegal black market sale of cannabis, nor guarantee product safety. Addressing the inconsistencies in enforcement and regulation in Virginia’s current laws does not justify expanding access to cannabis, following the failed paths of other states and endangering Virginians’ health and safety.”

The twin bills’ chief sponsors — Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, and Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax — blasted the governor’s veto in statements Thursday. “Gov. Youngkin’s dismissive stance towards addressing Virginia’s cannabis sales dilemma is unacceptable. Public servants are obligated to tackle pressing issues, regardless of their origin or culpability. They cannot cherry-pick which problems to address,” Rouse said, while Krizek said the governor’s “failure to act allows an already thriving cannabis market to persist, fueling criminal activity and endangering our communities.”

Thursday’s vetoes came after the legislative scuttling of a $2 billion deal to bring a proposed sports arena in Alexandria, a controversial deal touted by Youngkin as potentially producing 30,000 jobs for the state and billions in economic activity, while critics in the Virginia State Senate — led by Democratic Sen. Louise Lucas, who chairs the powerful Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee — balked at the idea of the state taking on approximately $1.3 billion in debt and establishing a state authority to manage the properties.

Although the deal was still considered alive — at least on paper — until the state’s 2024-26 budget is finalized in April, the Washington Wizards and Capitals’ majority owner, Monumental Sports & Entertainment CEO Ted Leonsis, and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser signed an agreement Thursday that will keep the NBA and NHL teams in the District of Columbia through 2050, putting an end to all negotiations between Monumental, the state and the City of Alexandria.

The arena proposal, while not directly tied to cannabis and minimum wage legislation, became a partisan battleground as Youngkin indicated that he wouldn’t compromise with Democrats on either priority, despite needing their votes to establish the state authority to own the arena and entertainment district. Meanwhile, Lucas blocked Senate Finance Committee votes on legislation that would have created the authority, and the state legislature’s 2024-26 budget amendments dropped all mention of the authority.

In a news conference after the General Assembly’s regular session closed in March without a Senate vote on the arena authority, Youngkin said he didn’t “have any interest in the cannabis legislation. … Bluntly, you want to talk about putting a cannabis shop on every corner. I don’t quite get it.”

JBG Smith pledges 1,000 affordable housing units if arena passes

Developer JBG Smith pledged Friday to preserve 1,000 workforce-affordable housing units in Alexandria near the proposed sports arena and entertainment district, up from its previous promise of 500 units — upping the ante on the controversial project, which has one more chance to succeed this year.

The $2 billion public-private project championed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin — which would move the Monumental Sports & Entertainment-owned Washington Wizards and Capitals teams to Alexandria — has faced significant opposition in the Virginia Senate, led by Sen. Louise Lucas, chair of the Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee. She blocked every opportunity for a Senate floor vote on a state sports arena authority that would own the buildings and property in Potomac Yard, but there’s still a slim chance for the deal if the arena authority is part of the state’s finalized 2024-26 budget expected to be enacted in April.

According to JBG Smith Chief Strategy Officer Evan Regan-Levine, the company had committed to “preserving the affordability of more than 500 affordable workforce housing units in Alexandria — with a specific focus on the Arlandria neighborhood near the site — to avoid displacement of existing vulnerable residents.” In Friday’s announcement, JBG Smith said it would instead preserve 1,000 units of workforce housing, in response to discussions with city officials, state lawmakers, Alexandria residents and the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development — contingent on the General Assembly’s passage of a budget that includes the arena authority.

“Our extensive conversations with members of the Alexandria community, leaders such as Mayor Wilson, the council and legislators from the commonwealth further reinforced the centrality and necessity of housing preservation efforts in Alexandria,” said AJ Jackson, JBG Smith’s executive vice president of social impact investing. “As a result, we are doubling the number of units we are preserving to maintain affordability and prevent displacement in advance of the arena’s opening so that as many Alexandrians as possible are able to take advantage of this incredible economic development opportunity.”

In announcements about the arena project, Youngkin touted the possibility of up to 30,000 more jobs in Virginia and billions in tax revenue, and a report released in February by George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis found that the project would include the construction of 5,405 workforce-affordable housing units, more than twice the 2,250 affordable housing units the City of Alexandria aims to have by 2030.

JBG Smith said in its announcement Friday that the increase of preserved affordable housing from 500 to 1,000 units would help toward the city’s housing goal. If the arena authority is passed by state lawmakers, the developer will collaborate with the city to “proactively identify and preserve the affordability of 1,000 workforce housing units within the City of Alexandria, with a particular focus on the neighborhoods adjacent to the proposed arena development.”

Earlier this month, as the Virginia General Assembly regular session ended without arena legislation passed, Youngkin declared, “I believe the Senate is about to make a colossal mistake,” but Lucas has held firm. A major holdup for Lucas and some other Senate Democrats was Youngkin’s apparent unwillingness to make compromises on Democrats’ priorities, including setting a $15 per hour minimum wage in Virginia by 2026 and setting up a structure for recreational cannabis sales and taxation.

According to a Washington Post story published Wednesday, the Republican Youngkin met virtually with Lucas for budget negotiations, and she said, “He brought up the arena again, and I told him that was a nonstarter for me.”

Lucas: Alexandria arena deal is dead as far as she’s concerned

A bill that would establish a state authority for the proposed Alexandria basketball and hockey arena is not on the Virginia State Senate’s Finance and Appropriations Committee’s docket “because [Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s] proposal is not ready for prime time,” wrote Sen. Louise Lucas, the committee’s powerful chair.

According to a video released by Senate Majority Leader Scott A. Surovell on Monday, Lucas, D-Portsmouth, said in a media interview that “as far as [she’s] concerned,” the deal — proposed by Monumental Sports & Entertainment CEO Ted Leonsis and championed by the governor — is dead.

She added that it was a mistake not to involve the Democratic legislative leadership — particularly Surovell and House Speaker Don Scott — in discussions about the proposed arena before it was announced as close to a done deal in December 2023.

Lucas doesn’t have the final word on the measure, but her disapproval puts the arena’s backers at a significant disadvantage.

Her tweet and statement came after Youngkin lashed out at Democrats in a speech over the weekend at Washington and Lee University. Despite sounding a note of compromise and concession after Democrats regained control of the General Assembly in the 2023 legislative elections, Youngkin told students Saturday that the Democratic Party does “not believe in — nor do they want — a strong America.”

Virginia Democrats were irritated by Youngkin’s statements, which took place during W&L’s 28th annual Mock Convention, an event at which Donald Trump Jr. also appeared. Youngkin’s comments added on to earlier concerns voiced in December by Lucas and others, who are concerned that the state would be left with massive debt from the proposed arena, as well as major traffic and infrastructure challenges.

In a Dec. 19, 2023, tweet, Lucas said the deal did not have her support. “Anyone who thinks I am going to approve an arena in Northern Virginia using state tax dollars before we deliver on toll relief and for public schools in Hampton Roads must think I have dumbass written on my forehead.”

SB 718, which was sponsored by Surovell on Youngkin’s behalf, would establish the Virginia Sports and Entertainment Authority and Financing Fund, which would own the land and buildings on the proposed $2 billion sports and entertainment campus in Alexandria, centered around a new arena for the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards.

“The governor is confident at the end of the day that the General Assembly will come together because this project is good for the entire commonwealth,” Youngkin’s communications director, Rob Damschen, said in a statement Monday. “It creates 30,000 jobs and unlocks billions in new revenue that can be used to fund expanded toll relief in Portsmouth, increased funding for I-81, and new money for education for rural and urban school divisions across the commonwealth.”

Monica Dixon, president of external affairs and chief administrative officer for Monumental, also said Monday, “We are encouraged by the momentum from Friday when the House bill passed with a 17-3 margin. We have had healthy discussions with members across the General Assembly and [city council] in Alexandria, and we are eager to work with the lawmakers in Richmond to provide all information they might need to feel comfortable about this deal. This project will deliver tremendous benefits for the City of Alexandria and the entire commonwealth of Virginia, including tens of thousands of new jobs and billions in revenue and economic impact.”

In December 2023, Youngkin and team owner Ted Leonsis unveiled plans that had been under private discussion among state and city officials. While some business and political leaders voiced excitement and praise for the project, which would move the NHL and NBA pro teams from Washington, D.C., to Alexandria, some state Democrats — notably Lucas — and many Alexandria residents expressed everything from worries and doubts to outright opposition, particularly regarding how it would add to area transportation demands and whether Virginia could be left paying the bill for the pricy arena.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks with reporters after an event where he and Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Wizards NBA basketball team and Washington Capitals HNL hockey team, announce plans for a new sports stadium for the teams, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Alexandria, Va. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has reached a tentative agreement with the parent company of the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals to move those teams from the District of Columbia to what he called a new “visionary sports and entertainment venue” in northern Virginia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

On Jan. 19, Surovell’s bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee, but as Lucas said Saturday, it has not been placed on the docket for a vote. The House version of the bill, however, is still in action, and if it survives a floor vote in the House, that bill will come up for a vote in the Senate.

Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor and director of the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, said Monday that he thinks “greater deference and a sweeter deal are necessary to make this package happen. At some point, if Youngkin wants this deal, he will have to bend on important Democratic priorities, including more funding for education.”

Indeed, Surovell said Monday that the governor has not been willing to work with Democrats on most of their priorities, including retail sales of cannabis and raising the minimum wage. The possibility of giving Metro more state funding is the exception, he noted.

Given Youngkin’s speech over the weekend, Farnsworth said, “it is not clear that the governor is willing to do what it takes to get a deal through the Democratic majority legislature. A governor cannot operate like a CEO when there is divided partisan control in Richmond.”

In addition to the lack of discussion about Democrats’ legislative priorities, the governor’s speech “gave a lot of people concern whether he’s interested in working with us or not,” Surovell noted. Lucas said she views this situation as showing Youngkin’s “lack of respect.”

David Ramadan, a former Republican delegate and now a professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, retweeted Youngkin’s tweet Sunday that shows the governor saying that Democrats “are content to concede, to compromise away, to abandon the very foundations that made America exceptional.” In response, Ramadan, who is working for the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce in lobbying for the arena, wrote, “This is a perfect example of what NOT to do in the middle of a legislative session — period.”

Government | Politics 2023: L. LOUISE LUCAS

The undisputed queen of snarky Virginia political tweets, with 90,400 Twitter/X followers, Lucas delights in poking at Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

In June, she pulled off a nailbiter primary victory against longtime Democratic Sen. Lionel Spruill. Although she’s expected to win the general election, she has bigger fish to fry as Democrats aim this fall to hold on to control in the Senate, maintaining what Lucas calls a “blue brick wall” against Republicans’ proposed abortion restrictions.

As president pro tempore and chair of the Senate’s Education and Health Committee, Lucas is a power player who has her eye on chairing the powerful Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee after its co-chair, George Barker, lost his primary in June. In April, Lucas said some Northern Virginia Democrats backed Spruill’s campaign to keep her from leading the committee, which negotiates the state budget.

The first female shipfitter at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Lucas is a former Portsmouth City Council member and won her Senate seat in 1991. She has been an administrator at Norfolk State and Old Dominion universities. Co-owner of a cannabis shop in Portsmouth, she helped pass marijuana legalization legislation in 2021.

Chase apologizes to Va. Senate ‘if I offended any one of you’; censure still in play

Updated Jan. 24

In a bid to avoid becoming the first state senator censured since 1986, state Sen. Amanda Chase on Friday apologized to her Senate colleagues, saying she was sorry “if I offended any one of you.”

Her words were not enough to avoid censure, the chief patron of the censure resolution said in an interview with Virginia Business on Friday afternoon, confirming he would not withdraw the measure. It’s likely to come up for a vote by the full Senate on Wednesday.

The Washington Post reported Thursday night that Chase, R-Chesterfield County, and Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun, chief patron of the censure resolution, had struck a deal that if she apologized and “clarified” her remarks about participants in the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol, he would withdraw his resolution to censure her for “fomenting insurrection against the United States.”

In her speech on the floor of the Senate on Friday, Chase continued to defend her participation in a Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally at the National Mall that led to a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Chase posted on Facebook on Jan. 6 that pro-Trump rioter and Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt “was brutally murdered by Capitol Police today. . . . These were not rioters and looters; these were Patriots who love their country and do not want to see our great republic turn into a socialist country.”

Bell said he sponsored the measure because, as a retired military officer, “this was something that really hurt me to my core” and that he considers Chase’s words and actions as “aiding and comforting the enemy.” He spoke three times with Chase about the resolution — including once in person Thursday at the Science Museum of Virginia, where the Senate is convened, and on the phone Thursday night. He made it clear that if she gave an “unconditional” apology and condemned the people who committed violence and those who wore anti-Semitic and other offensive garments, he would strike the resolution to censure her.

“I believe in second chances,” Bell said, and he said that Chase had taken notes when they met in person and agreed to Bell’s terms. Thursday night, he contacted her because he had received an interview request from a journalist for comment on the situation and wanted to let her know that he had not talked to the press about their agreement. “It’s a disappointment,” Bell said, and added that he was “a bit surprised about how disjointed her comments became.”

Chase spoke about nine minutes Friday, addressing numerous topics, from the 2020 election to calling out a member of the media by name.

“I have not come in here storming the Senate of Virginia in any type of insurrection-type behavior,” said Chase, who is seeking the GOP’s 2021 gubernatorial nomination. “If I have offended any one of you in this room because I am very passionate about the Constitution, I apologize.”

She added that she had “openly condemned the actions of those at the Capitol,” but continued to say that her part in the day’s events involved no violence and that the people surrounding her in Washington, D.C., were “people I call patriots. These people love their country, just like I do.”

She said her goal of participating in President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 “Save America” rally was to “protect” the legitimacy of the presidential vote, which she has repeatedly claimed without evidence was “stolen” from Trump through voter fraud.

Chase also criticized a journalist from Roanoke public radio station WVTF, Michael Pope, whom she said misattributed a quote to her, in which she used the word “patriots” with regard to participants in the demonstration in a Facebook post. Chase said she never called the people involved in the breach “patriots,” only the ones who did not take part in violence. “We have to hold the media accountable. There are some reporters giving all of our reporters a bad name.”

However, fellow Republican Sen. David Suetterlein of Roanoke County defended Pope and said that Chase had used the word “patriots” to describe pro-Trump demonstrators in the Facebook post, which has now been removed, along with her official Senate Facebook page. “I think it’s unfair to malign the member of the press who simply quoted it,” Suetterlein said.

Chase also reversed herself Friday on comments about Democrats’ participation in Black Lives Matter protests last summer, saying, “Going forward, if you decide to participate in a rally or a protest and something happens, as it happened to the senator from Portsmouth, I didn’t file a censure for you, and I’d ask that you do the same for me.”

Chase promised last week to “start calling people out in this room,” indicating on social media that she would propose censure resolutions against any Democratic senators who participated in social justice protests last summer that led to property damage. Last week Chase also said she was planning to file a resolution to censure Sen. L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, for taking part in a social justice demonstration in June 2020 during which a Confederate statue was taken down by protesters. On Twitter Wednesday, Chase said that the filing was “mysteriously being held up in the Senate Clerk’s office” and shared a resolution document calling for Lucas’ censure “for encouraging protesters to break the law and asking police to stand down while rioters broke the law and destroyed public property. … Senator L. Louise Lucas has clearly abused her position as a state senator.”

The resolution had not been assigned a number or appeared in the state’s Legislative Information System as of Friday, and Chase may already have reached her legislation limit, set before the 30-day session.

By Friday night, Chase had changed her conciliatory stance, tweeting: “If Virginia Senate Democrats censure me, I’ll wear it like a badge of honor and raise lots of money statewide to defeat Terry [McAuliffe]. To me; it’s a win win.” On Saturday, she tweeted, “Virginia Senate Democrats really didn’t want an apology; they wanted complete submission. And that’s not going to happen; not today; not tomorrow; not ever.” She also continued criticizing Lucas.

With multiple Democrats as co-sponsors, the censure resolution was passed on a party line vote Tuesday by the Democratic-controlled Privileges and Elections committee, moving it to a future vote on the Senate floor. If passed, it would be the first censure of a state senator since 1986.

In response to Chase’s participation at the rally came calls for her resignation by Virginia Senate Democrats and the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce. The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus voiced its support for the censure of Chase in a statement this week.

Bell said he considered filing a resolution to expel Chase from the Senate, the most serious penalty the body can enact, but he didn’t believe he had the two-thirds majority vote necessary to remove her from the seat in the Senate, which is divided 21-18 in favor of Democrats and has one vacancy due to the Jan. 1 death of Sen. Ben Chafin, R-Russell County. But also, Bell said Friday he believes “things should be done in steps,” and that’s what the party has done, starting with its call for Chase’s resignation on Jan. 6.

At this point of the session, Bell or any other member of the Senate would have to get unanimous consent to file a resolution past deadline, or two-thirds consent to change the rules — neither of which is likely in this case.

Chase also was stripped Tuesday of her final committee assignment on the low-profile Local Government committee, and was on the receiving end of criticism from her Republican colleagues.

Sen. Mark J. Peake, R-Lynchburg, said earlier in the week that “in pursuit of her personal goals,” Chase likes to say, “Look at me, I fight the good old boys.” Although Chase said she was being punished for not paying Republican Senate caucus dues, others said that was false, as dues are optional and do not affect committee assignments. In 2019, Chase left the caucus when it re-elected Sen. Thomas Norment, R-James City County, as its leader — and that was why she lost seniority privileges and assignments, Suetterlein said earlier this week.

Chase’s statement Friday caps a period in which the senior Chesterfield County senator has often antagonized Democrats and Republicans by embracing and echoing Trump’s combative stances, including a refusal to wear a face mask when the state Senate meets and pushing the false narrative that Trump was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.

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Facing her own censure, Chase plans resolution to censure Lucas

As state Democrats seek to censure her for participating in the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally that preceded the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol, state Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield County, said she planned to file a resolution Monday to censure Democratic colleague Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, for taking part in a social justice protest last summer in Portsmouth.

Chase, who is running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, warned her colleagues last week on the Senate floor, “If you’re going to call me out, I’m going to start calling people out in this room.” Chase said Friday that she planned to file a censure resolution Monday against Lucas.

Chase also tweeted Friday that she planned “to call for censure of every last legislator who has arrested or participated in a rally that ended in destruction.”

“Amanda Chase is reacting to the filing of SR91 to censure her for helping incite the insurrection to overthrow the government,” Lucas said in a tweet Friday. “We can no longer allow her to spread conspiracy theories without consequences.”

A resolution sponsored by Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun, calls on the state Senate to censure Chase for “fomenting insurrection against the United States” after she “addressed a crowd gathered in Washington, D.C., to urge that action be taken to overturn the lawfully conducted 2020 presidential election.” Eleven other Democratic senators, including Lucas, are listed as co-sponsors. The resolution has been referred to the Senate Privileges and Elections committee, which meets Tuesday.

In her speech last week, Chase said it was “outrageous” and “hypocritical” that lawmakers who participated in social justice protests last summer after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis would seek to punish Chase for speaking at the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally. Chase added that she “will not be lectured about civility by the same politicians who remained silent while our cities and communities were burned and destroyed by domestic terrorist groups Antifa and BLM.”

According to videos she posted on her personal and Senate Facebook pages on Jan. 6, Chase had left the Capitol area before the breach, and departed Washington, D.C., altogether by mid-afternoon. She has defended her participation in the demonstration — which drew calls from Senate Democrats and others for her to resign. Chase said she “absolutely” won’t resign and has continued to argue without proof that she believes the presidential election was “stolen” from President Donald Trump.

Chase said Friday she planned to file her own resolution to censure Lucas on Monday. As of noon, it had not yet appeared in Virginia’s Legislative Information System, although there is typically a delay between filing and publishing. Chase’s resolution is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Lucas, who has represented her district since 1992 and serves as Senate president pro tempore, was among 19 co-defendants charged last August with felonies related to a June 2020 protest that led to the toppling of a Confederate statue, charges that were later dropped. Lucas and other political figures, including the city’s vice mayor, a local school board member and the president of the Portsmouth NAACP, had spoken earlier in the day at the protest in Portsmouth but had left before the statue, erected to honor local Confederate soldiers, came down. One man was seriously injured when the statue fell but has recovered.

The timing of the warrants — months after the protest and the day before Lucas was set to join the Senate in Richmond for its special session in August — led to widespread criticism of Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene, who has since been fired and plans to sue the city.

The last time a Virginia state senator was censured was in 1986, when Norfolk Sen. Peter Balabas was censured for unethical conduct. Censuring does not include any other penalties, but it is the harshest sanction the body can use against one of its own, except for expulsion, which requires a two-thirds majority vote.