RICHMOND — Democrats advanced plans for giving lawmakers broad new powers to redraw Virginia’s congressional districts just hours after kicking off the 2026 General Assembly session Wednesday, approving the measure in the House of Delegates and putting it on track for a state Senate vote later in the week.
The proposed redistricting amendment could go before the state’s voters as soon as April if it clears the Senate as expected. Democratic leaders promised Wednesday to unveil potential new maps by the end of the month so voters would know what to expect.
The measure was among a group of big-issue amendment proposals that advanced on largely party-line votes. The others would enshrine same-sex marriage, secure access to abortions and automatically restore voting rights to people who complete felony sentences. The full House approved all four, and the Senate advanced them out of committee.
The quick action on a slate of hot-button topics on Day 1 of the session was a demonstration of the power Democrats enjoy after wins in last fall’s elections left them with a massive 64-36 majority in the House of Delegates and an incoming executive branch that is all blue, along with continued control of the state Senate.
Republicans are challenging the redistricting amendment in court, but on Tuesday they lost a bid for a restraining order that would have blocked action. They also don’t have the votes to stop any of those proposals from advancing in the legislature. Two measures had a smattering of bipartisan support: One Republican in the House joined all Democrats in supporting the amendment for felon rights restoration, and three Republicans joined in voting for same-sex marriage.
The redistricting amendment does not specify how Virginia’s 11 congressional districts should be redrawn; the state’s delegation is now split between six Democrats and five Republicans. Some Democratic leaders have suggested they could go as far as 10-1 or 9-2 in favor of their own party, and Republicans on Wednesday blasted the effort as a raw power grab.
“Come to your senses,” House Minority Leader Terry G. Kilgore (R-Scott) said in floor debate. “This is not the way we should be going.”
But Democrats insisted the proposal is a necessary response to President Donald Trump’s pressure on other states such as Texas and North Carolina to create red-leaning districts so Republicans can hold onto control of the U.S. House of Representatives in this fall’s midterm elections.
“Our hand was forced here by the extreme actions coming from [the] president,” resolution sponsor Del. Rodney T. Willett (D-Henrico) said before the vote. “When a bully punches you, sometimes you have to punch back.”
National Democrats quickly praised the actions in Virginia, with the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee calling it “essential action to safeguard our democracy” and former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder saying the multistep process to put the matter before Virginia voters “stands in stark contrast to the illegitimate power grab engineered by Republicans in Texas and anti-democracy efforts now underway by politicians in Florida.”
On a celebratory day when every delegate was sworn in for a fresh two-year term and Del. Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) was reelected as the only Black person ever to serve as speaker of Virginia’s House, Democrats said the amendment votes were a preamble to the real business of the session.
“Before we can even get to our main focus of affordability, we must first address protecting our democracy and Virginia’s freedoms,” Del. Marcia S. “Cia” Price (D-Newport News) said in a morning news conference.
Outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) will get one last chance to address the legislature Wednesday evening before handing over the keys to the Executive Mansion on Saturday, when Abigail Spanberger (D) is sworn in as governor. She will be joined by Ghazala Hashmi (D) in the lieutenant governor’s office and Jay Jones (D) as attorney general, and they have promised to stand up to the Trump administration and its policies on tariffs, government-slashing and immigration that they say have degraded the quality of life in Virginia.
Democrats have pledged to use restraint in exercising their consolidated power, but they will face tensions within their own party between liberal lawmakers who want to push for change — such as ending the state’s “right to work” law that discourages organized labor — and moderates, led by Spanberger, who preach pragmatism and moderation.
On Tuesday, Senate Democrats unveiled their priorities for the upcoming session, all focused on the theme Spanberger made the centerpiece of her campaign last year: affordability. House Democrats had rolled out a similar slate of priorities several weeks ago.
Both chambers’ lists included efforts to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour; encourage localities to create more affordable housing; mitigate the impact on residential power bills of providing massive amounts of electricity to data centers; and increase access to health care and mass transit.
This year’s legislative session is scheduled for 60 days and will focus on constructing a two-year state budget. (Odd-year, mid-budget sessions take 46 days.) While Youngkin has said he is leaving the state in good fiscal shape, legislative staffers have projected tight times ahead for Virginia’s finances.
The need to recalculate the state’s share of K-12 public education and increasing estimates for Medicaid responsibilities are together expected to create more than $3 billion in new spending obligations. Conforming Virginia’s income tax policy to changes in the federal income tax passed by Congress could reduce revenue another $1 billion, all at a time when inflation is expected to continue and the job market is projected to be soft.
Those factors are likely to limit how ambitious Democrats can be in funding new priorities — unless they decide to raise taxes.
Senate Majority Leader Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) said he expects lawmakers to take a look at the state’s tax code, which has not been overhauled in years. The top tax bracket starts at annual income of $17,000, for instance, and digital-era services such as streaming video are not taxed at all, he pointed out. “We’ll have a conversation about that,” he said.
Karina Elwood contributed to this report.
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