General Assembly tracker: Everyone who says they aren’t coming back next year
By: Graham Moomaw and Sarah Vogelsong - February 24, 2023 12:12 pm

As the 2023 legislative session draws to a close, a mounting number of delegates and senators are announcing this one will be their last.

Fourteen lawmakers have said they don’t intend to run again this fall, when every one of Virginia’s 140 General Assembly seats are up for election.

Some of the announcements were expected. A handful of older, long-term representatives like Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, are effectively retiring after years in the legislature. Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, is also saying goodbye as she heads to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The 2023 election cycle will be the first under the new legislative maps drawn in the independent redistricting process of 2021. Because those maps gave less protection to incumbents, several lawmakers were drawn into the same district as one or more colleagues. That dynamic is partly fueling the retirement wave, as some lawmakers choose to step down rather than face a primary or compete in a dramatically different district.
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