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Redistricting has twice disrupted Emmett Hanger’s 37-year tenure in the General Assembly. He had served nine years as a Republican member of the House of Delegates when, in 1991, redistricting removed him from a strongly Republican district and placed him in a district more friendly to Democrats. That November, Hanger lost to Democratic challenger Creigh Deeds.
Four years later, in 1995, Hanger returned to the General Assembly when he won a state Senate seat, ousting veteran Democratic Sen. Frank Nolen. Hanger is now in his 28th – and final – year in the Virginia Senate. The most recent redistricting left him with a grim choice – face an intra-party challenge from one of two GOP colleagues in one of two GOP-leaning districts.
Hanger opted instead to call it a career. He announced last week that he would not be a candidate for reelection in what would have been a Republican primary on June 20. He will, in effect, be retiring from the General Assembly when his current term ends later this year. Today we pay tribute to his lengthy legislative career, a portion of which he served representing parts of the Rockbridge area.
We have long admired Hanger for his penchant for putting principle ahead of party. While there is no doubt that he is a true conservative on both fiscal and social policy matters, he has worked with the opposition party when he thought it was the right thing to do. One such occasion occurred in 2004 when he helped end a budget stalemate by supporting legislation which raised certain fees and taxes but enhanced funding for transportation and education.
Hanger again memorably played a bipartisan leadership role in 2018 when he supported legislation to expand Virginia’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act, thus extending health care coverage to an additional 735,000 low-income Virginians. This ended a years-long impasse in which Republicans had blocked acceptance of federal dollars from coming into Virginia to pay for health care for the poor.
Hanger established himself early on as an advocate for tax reform, land conservation, agriculture and farmland preservation. He helped establish the Farmland Preservation office and chaired the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a multistate organization whose objective is to prevent pollution from reaching the bay. He has been a strong supporter of the Virginia Horse Center and Natural Bridge State Park, even when these entities were no longer in his district.
Hanger has long worked hand-inhand with his one-time political foe, Deeds, to achieve objectives of mutual interest, including helping to bring about muchneeded reforms to the state’s mental health services. Ironically, Deeds’s legislative career could be coming to an end this year as well – also because of redistricting. Deeds faces a stiff intra-party challenge in a June 20 primary to represent a reconfigured district encompassing Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
Redistricting is leading to a huge changing of the guard in Richmond. We’ll reserve judgment on whether this turns out to be a positive development overall. We can definitely say we regret that there will be at least one less bipartisan voice of reason when Hanger departs the General Assembly.
As political polarization has taken hold of our state and nation in recent years, Hanger’s willingness to work with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle distinguished him and allowed him to be a very effective lawmaker. He was a moderate and, at times, a maverick, who worked for the greater good of his constituents and the state. His departure will leave a huge void in the General Assembly. We wish him well in his retirement.
