https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Virginia_political_crisisBeginning in February 2019, it emerged that [Democrat] Governor Ralph Northam and [Democrat] Attorney General Mark Herring had both donned blackface during their young adulthood in the 1980s, while [Democrat] Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax had multiple sexual assault allegations raised against him.
Given the racially charged nature of these scandals, national media focused attention on Virginia's complicated history with race,[1] from being a corner of the Atlantic slave trade triangle to being the Capital of the Confederacy to Monument Avenue to Massive Resistance[2] to Douglas Wilder (the first Black Governor of any state in the union)[3] to voting for Barack Obama in 2008.
After the first full week in February, Northam and Herring were both adamant in their refusal to resign, while Democrat Patrick Hope indicated he was initiating impeachment proceedings against Fairfax. This opened up the possibility that two white men who openly admitted they had donned blackface would maintain their terms while an African American man would face impeachment and removal for unproven accusations. Given the optics of this situation, many leaders in Virginia softened their stances on resignation for any of the three state-wide elected officials as of February 11, 2019
So it looks like they'll all just at this point try to bluff their way through the scandal.
Gee, why do people hate politicians?
