Democrats are poised to maintain control of the Virginia House of Delegates and expand their slim one-seat majority, a rebuke of the Trump administration as control of state-level legislative bodies increasingly signals whether states will follow the federal government — or fight against it.
All 100 seats were up for grabs in the purple state, where President Donald Trump’s policies around
mass firings of federal workers and tariff-induced price increases have become increasingly unpopular.
Trump turned a lot of blue states red last year. This year his policies have turned a lot of those states back to blue.
As of about three hours after the polls closed, Virginia House Democrats had flipped 11 seats.
Those seats were Republican seats. Clearly people who voted GOP last time voted Democratic this time.
Flipping 11 seats should concern Republicans and makes me happy af.
And I think women are still pissed off in Virginia about abortion. Abortion emerged as one of the key issues in the battle for the statehouse.
As red states hurried to enact bans and restrictions, Democrats in Virginia pushed for a constitutional amendment that would do the opposite — enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution.
But state law requires both the state House and Senate to vote on the issue twice, with one election in between, before it can appear on a ballot. In 2023, Democrats won the House and approved the measure, with no Republicans joining.
Some of the most important races this cycle became about abortion. One Democrat, Jessica Anderson,
made it a top issue in her campaign. And in Prince William County, an exburb of Washington, D.C., Democrat Elizabeth Guzman
ran ads against her opponent, incumbent Republican Ian Lovejoy, saying he supports an abortion ban.
Project 2025
With its Democratic majority, the chamber will likely approve the measure again next year, meaning a constitutional amendment protecting abortion access may be on the ballot next time Virginians go to the polls.