RICHMOND — Some of the most far-reaching actions the Virginia General Assembly is likely to take next year could happen in the first few days after the legislature convenes: votes on four proposed amendments to the state constitution affecting same-sex marriage, abortion access, voting rights and redistricting.
Democrats who control the legislature, which kicks off its session Jan. 14, plan to make an early statement with those topics even though it will ultimately be up to the state’s voters to decide whether to incorporate the changes into the constitution.
The redistricting amendment has drawn particular attention, with Republicans condemning it as reckless overreach. Though it has a lot of procedural hurdles to overcome, the proposal would empower the General Assembly to draw new congressional district maps outside the usual every-10-years process, giving Democrats authority to gerrymander to favor their party in next year’s congressional midterms.
With President Donald Trump pushing states such as Texas and North Carolina to draw new Republican-friendly districts ahead of the 2026 fight for control of the House of Representatives, several Democratic-led states have followed suit, such as California and Illinois. Virginia lawmakers have suggested they could respond by turning as many as 10 of the state’s 11 congressional districts into likely Democratic seats. The state’s delegation is now split between six Democrats and five Republicans.
“We have no choice,” House Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) told the left-leaning podcast MeidasTouch early in December, referring to the general redistricting effort. “I don’t think any Democrat wants to be in the position we are. We are against gerrymandering, we are hoping there is a federal ban on gerrymandering, but we have to level the playing field.”
Scott said that it’s not “outside the realm of possibility” to get to 10-1, something state Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) has been pushing on social media for weeks.
But would Democrats really go that far? Senate Majority Leader Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) said in an interview that although no maps have been proposed yet, it’s premature to get into specifics.
Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D), who would have no role in approving the amendment but sets a tone as the leader of her party, has expressed reservations. In public appearances, Spanberger has pointed out that she won her election by 15 percentage points and carried two congressional districts now represented by Republicans — the First (Rep. Rob Wittman) and the Second (Rep. Jen Kiggans).
“So with or without any sort of redistricting, I have my eyes on those districts and I know we can win them in November,” Spanberger said Dec. 9 in Richmond at a conference sponsored by Politico.
Spanberger went on to say that it’s important for Democrats to keep their options open, given the tactics of Trump and other states, but that she is more focused on the themes of affordability that got her elected. She will respect whatever voters decide about redistricting, she said.
In Virginia, a constitutional amendment has to go through a multistep process to even be considered. The legislature has to pass the proposal’s exact language twice — once before and again after an election of the House of Delegates. Only then can the matter go before the public in a referendum.
The redistricting amendment was a last-minute proposal brought up in a special legislative session just days before Virginia’s Nov. 4 elections. Democrats pushed it through on a party-line vote. The process is being challenged in court by Republicans but so far has withstood scrutiny.
The other three proposed amendments have been in the works for several years and won initial passage in the 2025 General Assembly session.
Both Scott and Surovell said their chambers plan to vote on all four proposed constitutional amendments as soon as procedurally possible next month — most likely within the first three days of session.
Here is a quick look at what each would do:
Redistricting
The proposal does not come with any particular maps, it simply would empower the General Assembly to draw new congressional districts any time between passage and 2030 if lawmakers decide other states are doing the same. State legislative maps are not affected.
The power would expire at the end of this decade. At that point, a bipartisan redistricting commission — created by a constitutional amendment that Virginia voters overwhelmingly approved five years ago — would draw new maps as usual following the next U.S. Census.
Accomplishing all this in time for next year’s elections would be a logistical sprint. Voters would have to pass a referendum as soon as April for there to be time to create new maps for primaries ahead of the November elections.
Same-sex marriage
This amendment would undo a ban on same-sex marriage that was put into the state constitution after a public vote in 2006. That language was rendered moot by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision a decade ago establishing a federal right to same-sex marriage.
Some lawmakers want to change the state constitution in case today’s more conservative Supreme Court decides to reverse itself on Obergefell, as it did on abortion rights by overturning Roe v. Wade. A reversal would make Virginia’s ban operative again.
A handful of Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the amendment in both the House and Senate.
Abortion access
Democrats have said enshrining access to abortion in the state constitution is a priority because of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision striking down Roe. The proposed amendment states that “every individual has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom” and sets out parameters for abortion that track with Virginia law.
The state permits abortion during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, or until about 26 weeks. The procedure is legal in the third trimester only if three doctors certify that the mother’s life or health is at serious risk.
Republicans have argued that the amendment’s language is overly broad and would take precedence over state law requiring parental notification for minors seeking an abortion. Democrats counter that parental consent would still be required.
Voting rights
Virginia is the only state that permanently disenfranchises someone convicted of a felony and requires them to individually petition the governor for rights restoration. Recent governors of both parties had moved toward a process of automatically restoring voting rights once a person completed their sentence, but outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has required individual petitions and slowed the restoration of rights dramatically.
The proposed amendment would take it out of the hands of the governor and automatically restore a person’s rights once they completed a felony sentence.
A few Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the measure this year in both the House and Senate.
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