Election paperwork submitted to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday revealed that a state legislator from Virginia, who served time in prison for contributing to the delinquency of a child and later married his 17-year-old victim, is running in a special election to replace a congressman who died late last year.
After the Loudoun County rape and subsequent efforts to provide explicit sex education to elementary school students, Democrats in Virginia resisted the image that they were too lenient on the sexualization of minors. In light of this, the announcement that state Senator Joe Morrissey will run to replace retiring Representative Don McEachin has been met with surprise and dismay.
Former lawyer Morrissey was charged with various charges in 2014 relating to an alleged affair with a 17-year-old employee. He had already been disbarred twice. Four felonies were leveled against Morrissey, who was then in his forties, by NBC-12: electronic solicitation of a juvenile; possession of child pornography; distribution of child pornography; and overseeing indecent liberties with a minor.
According to the source, Morrissey was suspected of knowing the part-time clerk was young since she listed her age as 22 on the application. Reports indicate that he admitted guilt in return for a lesser charge of “contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile” and a six-month jail term.
The two fell in love, got engaged, married, and had a child together.
Traditionalist parents have more significant concerns than Morrissey’s brush with the law. He was a co-author of a Senate bill in 2020 that would have allowed parents to be denied custody of their children if they did not “confirm” their transgender status. New to the definition of “abused or neglected child” is a parent who “inflicts… emotional injury on the grounds of the child’s gender identity or sexual orientation.”
The bill’s proponent in the House of Delegates, Elizabeth Guzman, has already told the local press that she wants to introduce a similar law this year that would make it a crime not to verify gender identity. Guzman commented to WJLA: “It could be illegal to do so. A misdemeanor charge is possible.”
Morrissey’s promotion is possible because, according to quote Republican political analyst and creator of the Virginia Project David Gordon, “child abuse is not an obstacle for Democrats.”
Gordon told The Daily Wire, “Given his track record, I was shocked to see that he cosponsored the notorious Guzman child kidnapping measure.”
To win Morrissey’s House seat in this particular election would not be his first electoral triumph. Morrissey withdrew as a state delegate following his conviction, prompting a special election; he then campaigned in that election as an independent and won, giving him the right to vote in the General Assembly even though he was spending his sentence in prison on work release.
After being elected as a Democrat to the state senate in 2019, the Richmond Free Press remarked that “criminal justice reform has been a signature part of the legislation he has submitted.” The publication claimed in January that Democrat Ralph Northam had pardoned Morrissey as one of his final acts in office.
Our pleas for a response from Morrissey have gone unanswered.
In Virginia’s Fourth Congressional District, where the city of Richmond is located, black people make up a sizable portion of the Democratic vote. Therefore, the winner of the Democratic primary will very indeed become the Democratic nominee. The Democrats’ nominee will be chosen in a “firehouse primary” on December 20 at five locations, including a union hall and a Baptist church. A special election will take place on February 21.
Alexis Rodgers, chair of the California Democratic Party for the 4th Congressional District, declined to comment on Morrissey.
Despite his image as a maverick owing to his odd personal life and his inability to vote according to party doctrine, Morrissey is among the more moderate Democrats in the Virginia Senate.