PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas has carved out a reputation as a fierce and outspoken advocate during her political career. One issue, in particular, has been at the forefront of her agenda: legalization of marijuana, which she says disproportionately affects members of the African American community.
She felt so strongly about the issue, the Democrat lawmaker sponsored a legalization bill and opened her own cannabis shop. Now, she’s under the microscope as federal law enforcement appears to have raided her hometown political office and that cannabis business. It wasn’t immediately clear what they were looking for but it’s drawn attention to Lucas and her 34-year career in politics.
Lucas has never shied away from the attention, with a pugnacious presence on social media where she often sends salty insults to her political foes.
She prodded President Donald Trump after Democrats won a redistricting battle in Virginia last month, and often posts political memes that would rival the president’s rough-and-tumble social media presence.
After Texas Sen. Ted Cruz criticized the Democrats’ proposed redistricting map in Virginia on X, Lucas replied, “You all started it and we (expletive) finished it.”
In 2019, she became the state’s first Black woman to hold the leadership post of Senate president pro tempore after Democrats seized the majority.
The next year, she appeared at a protest of a Confederate monument that led to felony charges against her. A judge later dismissed the charges.
Lucas was born in Portsmouth and worked at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard earlier in her life, where she was the first female ship fitter, according to a biography in the state library.
She has been the CEO of a Portsmouth business that runs residences, day programs and transportation for intellectually disabled adults. And in 2021, Lucas opened a store in her hometown of Portsmouth, The Cannabis Outlet, that sells legal hemp and CBD products.
“Let’s talk about pot,” Lucas said in a social media post on X in 2022. “Yes, we legalized it and I even opened the Cannabis Outlet after we did! But the job isn’t done. People are still in jail for something that is legal today.”
An armored FBI vehicle and several agents were seen outside Lucas’ cannabis store on Wednesday. The FBI would say only that it was conducting a court-authorized search warrant in Portsmouth.
