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.
As of about three hours after polls closed, Virginia House Democrats have flipped 11 seats so far, according to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the arm of the party that works to elect Democrats to statehouses. They will have at least a 62-seat majority, the largest House majority for Virginia’s Democrats since 1989.
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.
