PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — 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.
FILE - Virginia Senate President pro tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, listens to debate on the Senate floor, Feb. 17, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly, File)
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — The FBI searched the Virginia state Senate leader's hometown office on Wednesday as part of a corruption investigation, a person familiar with the matter said. Federal agents also were seen at the senator's nearby cannabis business.
The search at Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas’ office in Portsmouth comes after the Democrat helped lead the state’s recent redistricting effort.
The FBI said only that it was conducting a court-authorized search in Portsmouth. The person who confirmed the FBI’s search was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
A message seeking comment was left Wednesday on a cellphone for Lucas, who has been a state senator for 34 years. Her daughter Lisa Lucas Burke told WAVY-TV that the family had no idea what the federal action was about.
“We're trying to figure it out. That's all I know,” she said.
Besides the search at Lucas' office, which houses her disabilities-services business and is her political base in Portsmouth, agents in FBI T-shirts also went into the nearby cannabis store that she opened in 2021. Several entrances to the Cannabis Outlet's parking lot were blocked by unmarked vehicles with flashing blue lights, as was an entrance to the politician's office.
Lucas, a prominent backer of legalizing marijuana, has said the store sells legal hemp and CBD products. It has drawn scrutiny from local media amid allegations that some products were mislabeled.
Virginia has legalized pot possession, but retail sales of recreational marijuana remain illegal in the state.
State House Speaker Don Scott said he was deeply concerned by the FBI search.
“Right now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public,” Scott, a Democrat, said in a statement, adding that more facts were needed “before anyone rushes to political conclusions.”
Gov. Abigail Spanberger declined to comment.
Other Virginia Democrats were quick to note that the search comes as the FBI and Justice Department have opened a spate of politically charged investigations into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump.
Last week, the Justice Department charged former FBI Director James Comey with making a threatening Instagram post against Trump, an accusation that Comey — who for nearly a decade has drawn the president’s ire — has denied. A court had dismissed federal prosecutors' earlier case accusing Comey of lying to Congress.
A separate mortgage fraud case, also ultimately dismissed by a court, targeted Democratic New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who had brought a major civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his business. Both she and Comey, who was a longtime Republican but has split from the party in the past decade, denied the charges and said the prosecutions were vindictive.
Such cases “have undermined public confidence” in federal prosecutors in Virginia, state Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat, said in a statement.
The FBI and Justice Department have also provoked concerns among Democrats about ongoing election-related investigations, including the seizure by agents of ballots and other information from Fulton County, Georgia.
Lucas has been a vocal leader of Virginia's redistricting effort, which voters approved last month. A sign urging people to “vote yes” to “stop the MAGA power grab” still hung Wednesday on a fence separating her office's parking lot from that of the cannabis shop.
Amid a national, state-by-state partisan redistricting fight kicked off by Trump’s desire to aid his fellow Republicans, Virginia voters OK'd a Democrat-backed constitutional amendment authorizing new U.S. House districts. The plan could help the party win up to four additional seats.
“We are not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response,” Lucas said after the vote. Trump, meanwhile, denounced the results.
The state Supreme Court let the referendum proceed, but has yet to rule whether the effort is legal. The court is considering an appeal of a lower court judge’s ruling that the amendment is invalid because lawmakers violated procedural requirements.
Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.
Lucas, 82, has been a figure in Virginia politics since the 1980s, when she became the first Black woman elected to a city council seat in her native Portsmouth. She now is the first woman and first African American to serve as the Senate’s president pro tempore.
Earlier in life, she was the Norfolk Naval Shipyard's first female shipfitter, according to her biography in the state library. The job entails making, installing and repairing sometimes enormous metal assemblies for vessels.
In recent years, she has been the CEO of a Portsmouth business that runs residences, day programs and transportation for intellectually disabled adults.
Associated Press writers Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; Jake Offenhartz in New York; and Claudia Lauder in Philadelphia contributed.
FBI personnel enter a building in Portsmouth, Va., Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/John Clark)
FBI personnel enter a building in Portsmouth, Va., Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/John Clark)
FBI personnel enter a building in Portsmouth, Va., Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/John Clark)
FBI personnel enter a building in Portsmouth, Va., Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/John Clark)
FILE - Virginia Senate President pro tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, listens to debate on the Senate floor, Feb. 17, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly, File)
