2019 Virginia political crisis
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Over the course of one week in February 2019, all three of Virginia's statewide elected executive officials (all members of the Democratic Party) became engulfed in scandal, and were consequently the subjects of nationwide bipartisan calls for resignation or removal from office.
The crisis began when a photo surfaced of Governor Ralph Northam's page in his 1984 medical school yearbook depicted an individual in blackface and an individual in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. Northam had sparked a national outcry two days earlier over comments interpreted by conservatives and anti-abortion groups as supporting infanticide. Amid widespread calls for Northam's resignation, Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax had multiple sexual assault allegations raised against him dating to 2000 and 2004. Attorney General Mark Herring revealed shortly thereafter that he had also worn blackface while in college.
The issues raised together created a crisis in Virginia as all three statewide officials were engulfed in scandal over the span of a few days and the potential of all three resigning or being forced out of office became apparent.[1] It also forced Democrats to grapple with racial and sexual assault scandals within their own party.[2][3]
Although the approval ratings of Northam and Herring largely recovered by the end of their terms in office, all three figures involved in the crisis were replaced with Republicans after the next elections in 2021.
Northam was term-limited. Fairfax chose to run for governor in 2021, but lost the primary to former governor Terry McAuliffe, receiving 3.56% of the vote and placing fourth in a 5-way election. Herring, the Attorney General, was defeated in his bid for reelection by delegate Jason Miyares. In 2026, Fairfax was found dead in his house alongside his wife in an apparent murder–suicide case.
Given the racially charged nature of the scandals, national media focused attention on Virginia's complicated history with race.[4] Virginia had been a corner of the Atlantic slave trade triangle, and had a leading role in the Confederate States of America. Its history has featured Monument Avenue, Massive Resistance,[5] and the first elected African American state governor in US history, Douglas Wilder.[6] More recently, Virginia voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and was the site of the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in 2017.
Virginia has had two Democratic senators since 2009 and Democrats had controlled all three statewide offices since 2014. The 2017 elections had been contentious and close, leading to Democrats maintaining control of all three statewide offices while Republicans clung to a 51-49 majority in the Virginia House of Delegates and a 21-19 majority in the Virginia Senate.
Positions affected
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The situation involved the position of the Governor of Virginia, as well as the two positions (Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General) that directly follow in the gubernatorial order of succession, with widespread bipartisan calls for resignations having the potential for a state constitutional crisis.[7][8][9][10]
Ralph Northam
On January 30, Northam had made controversial comments about abortion during a WTOP interview about the Repeal Act, where he stated that if a severely deformed or otherwise non-viable fetus was born after an unsuccessful abortion attempt, "the infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother."[11] The comments sparked an outcry as conservative politicians and media figures characterized Northam's comments as promoting infanticide.[12] After the yearbook photo was publicized, many conservative media outlets compared the two controversies and described them as a "bad week" for the governor.[13][14]
On February 1, 2019, images from Northam's medical school yearbook were published on the right wing[15] website Big League Politics.[16] The photos showed an image of an unidentified person in blackface and an unidentified person in a Ku Klux Klan hood on Northam's page in the yearbook.[17][18][19] Northam later said he is "99 percent sure" of who the people on his yearbook page are.[20] A spokesman for Eastern Virginia Medical School confirmed that the image appeared in its 1984 yearbook.[21]
According to The Washington Post, the photo was sent as a tip to Big League Politics by one or more medical school classmates who were concerned about Northam's abortion comments.[22] Shortly after the news broke, Northam apologized for appearing in the photo.[21]
Separately, a 1981 yearbook from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) listed "Coonman" as one of Northam's nicknames, interpreted as a racial slur.[23] The following day, Northam held a press conference in which he reversed his stance and denied that he appeared in the 1984 photo, but did admit to having "darkened [his] face" with shoe polish as part of a Michael Jackson costume around the same time.[24] Northam said only two people at VMI had referred to him as "Coonman", and that he regretted its inclusion in the yearbook.[25]
Reaction to the press conference was intensely negative and calls for Northam's resignation continued.[26] The 1984 yearbook photo also brought renewed attention to a 2013 video clip in which Northam appeared unwilling to shake hands with his African-American opponent for lieutenant governor, E. W. Jackson, after a debate, though it was possible Northam did not see Jackson extending his hand.[22] Northam evaded the media for several months in the aftermath of the revelations.[27]
A months-long investigation into the photo that appeared in the 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook could not conclusively determine who was in the photo or how the image ended up there. A team hired by EVMS released a 55-page report on May 22, 2019, saying: "We could not conclusively determine the identity of either individual depicted in the photograph." McGuireWoods contacted over 80 people connected to the school, including five members of their yearbook staff at the time.[28]
Justin Fairfax
Fairfax was preparing for Northam to resign, even going so far as to notify family that as the next man in the line of succession he was about to replace Northam as governor,[29] when Big League Politics reported on February 3 that Fairfax had been accused by Vanessa C. Tyson, an associate professor at Scripps College and fellow at Stanford University, of sexual assault at a hotel at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.[30][31] Fairfax denied the accusation, saying his encounter with Tyson was consensual and the timing of the reports was intended to smear him as he was about to ascend to the governorship.[32]
Fairfax also insinuated that supporters of Northam, or someone connected with Richmond mayor Levar Stoney, a potential political rival since both were speculated as possible Democratic candidates for governor in 2021, may have been behind the allegation going public.[33][34][35] A few days later, Tyson released a statement publicly detailing her allegations.[36][34] Tyson said she is a Democrat with no political agenda and felt compelled to release the statement because Fairfax "has tried to brand me as a liar to a national audience, in service to his political ambitions, and has threatened litigation."[37]
On February 8, a second woman, Meredith Watson, came forward with sexual assault allegations against Fairfax, alleging that he raped her[38] in a "premeditated and aggressive" attack in 2000 when both were undergraduate students at Duke University.[39] The second accusation led to a cascade of calls from fellow Democrats from Virginia and around the country for Fairfax to resign.[40] Delegate Patrick Hope, a Democrat, said he would initiate impeachment proceedings against Fairfax if he did not resign within three days, but backed off the threat amid concerns from fellow Democratic state legislators.[41]
Mark Herring
On February 6, Herring, who had already called on Northam to resign, issued a statement in which he admitted to wearing blackface himself as a 19-year-old University of Virginia student, saying he was trying to look like rapper Kurtis Blow at a party.[42] The scandal added to the tumult that now engulfed the entire executive branch of Virginia's government.[43] Herring's revelation led to a pause in the demands for resignation as Democrats and many Republicans were unsure of how to react to the expanding crisis.[43]