Democrats Poised To Keep Control Of Virginia House Of Delegates

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.

It’s been a big night for Virginia’s Democrats with their candidates notching wins in the races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Democrats are expected to have at least a 62-seat majority — their largest Virginia House majority since 1989, according to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the arm of the party that works to elect Democrats to statehouses. As of about three hours after the polls closed, Virginia House Democrats had flipped 11 seats.

And for the first time in 50 years, Democrats have extended their majority in Virginia’s lower chamber. Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger will be the first Democratic governor to begin serving with a trifecta in almost 40 years.

Abortion emerged as one of the key issues in the battle for the statehouse.

Virginia is the last state in the South to maintain abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. 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.

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.