Virginia’s new Democrat governor was inaugurated just six days ago, but already the safely ensconced Democrat legislature has a plan: more than 1,000 bills to supplement the administration’s already aggressive agenda of executive orders.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger campaigned as a pragmatist — a moderate former CIA agent fighting for an “Affordable Virginia” and giving the increasingly blue state a reprieve from President Donald Trump and her own predecessor, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
It’s a brave new world out there, folks. And ‘moderation’ is coming for the rest of this country, as soon the voters get in line.
Spanberger sold voters “moderation.” Her party intends to legislate like it never heard the word.
The new blue majority have been in power in this once-red state for less than two weeks, and already they’ve reminded Americans their view of “pragmatism” is discarding the notion as soon as they assume power. Taken as a whole, their agenda provides provided a blueprint for exactly what other purple-state voters can expect under any unified Democrat government — and why it’s so dangerous.
Virginia’s executive and legislative branches have already unveiled plans to decriminalize heinous crimes, protect and pay for illegal aliens, end investigations into massive fraud against taxpayers, empower radical and failing public school bureaucrats, raise taxes across the board, meddle in private lives and businesses in the name of climate change, restrict firearms, obscure shady elections, and make housing more affordable — for government employees.
That may sound like your typical partisan attack, worth glossing over in our ever-shriller news-smothered lives. But every proposal below is either an authentic executive order or a true piece of legislation introduced in the Virginia House or Senate for consideration in the coming days and months.
Lawless by design
Democrats want softer sentencing rules. House Bill 244 would weaken guidelines that judges use to sentence convicted criminals, giving even more discretion to Democrat judges already inclined toward leniency for robbers.
That’s child’s play next to HB 863, a 28-page bill to reduce mandatory minimum sentences on a whole host of crimes, including rape, possessing or distributing child pornography, repeat violent crime, and attacking law enforcement officers.
House Bill 1070 goes farther, restricting how prosecutors can refer to a suspect’s prior convictions during the phase when the judge or jury decides guilt.
After conviction, Senate Bill 21 would shift juvenile crime oversight toward the Virginia Department of Health and Human Services, sidelining the Department of Juvenile Justice and reframing ultraviolent juvenile crime as a “health” crisis.
Then comes the cultural haze. The governor’s allies want Virginia to host 350 marijuana shops within four years, while preventing local communities from saying “no thanks” and allowing stores to operate within 1,000 feet of schools and churches. SB 62 would even retroactively reduce sentences for some marijuana-related crimes, including transportation and distribution.
Democrats do have a taste for toughness — when it targets the wrong people. House Bill 7 would bar law enforcement agents from wearing masks, inviting activists to identify and harass them at home. Senate Bill 137 would criminalize coming within eight feet of someone who stands within 40 feet of an abortion clinic.
RELATED: ‘Place your left hand on the Quran’: Foreign-born lieutenant governor does not swear in on Bible
Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images
Benefits for illegal aliens
Not everyone will be upset about the new laws, of course. Illegal immigrants have reason to celebrate, starting with the new governor’s immediate move to declare Virginia a sanctuary state and end an order compelling local cooperation with federal law enforcement.
House Bill 650 would block arrests at courthouses and bar federal agents from showing up there for that purpose. House Bill 912 would expand access to Virginia’s K-12 public schools for illegal aliens, funded by taxpayers. House Bill 553 would require language programming for inmates — a bill sponsored for Virginia Rep. Jessica Anderson, who gained a little local notoriety for TikToking herself peeing in public.
Virginia employers who make a pretty penny employing illegal labor need not worry either — unless they don’t pay illegal aliens enough. HB 675 wouldn’t hold them accountable for undercutting American workers but will be sure to fine them if they try to skirt minimum-wage laws.
Those aliens would be suckers to work for low wages when they could open a day care, though. No joke. That same pee video rep’s HB 1369 would protect fraudsters taking federal money, barring the state from “determin[ing], verify[ing], or otherwise requir[ing] proof of eligibility … for such public benefits.”
Don’t everyone rush to start a nonprofit at once, though. There’s plenty to go around. HB 259 would send more money toward starting at-home child-care programs.
Call it the Minnesota dream, imported to the Old Dominion.
Public schools: Parents and kids last
Virginia’s public schools already struggle with basics. Democrats want them to absorb more bureaucracy and more ideology.
House Bill 614 mandates history and social science instruction through the lens of “marginalized” identities. It includes traditional categories such as black Americans, women, immigrants, and the disabled. It also explicitly requires emphasis on “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer” experiences — plus whatever additional categories “the Board deems appropriate, in order to affirm such communities.”
Some might not want all that for their kids, so HB 359 makes it more difficult to homeschool or use any state benefits to attend private school.
And no matter where you send your kids, you’ll be paying for public school breakfast, which HB 96 mandates for all students through high school.
If you’re good at something, never do it for free, so HB 382 will give school board chairmen a nice raise.
Meanwhile, HB 355 would impose mandatory mental health screenings for students. It does not impose them on the lunatics who run the system.
Taxes on everything
Virginia Democrats inherited a nearly $3 billion budget surplus. They plan to raise taxes anyway — not just on billionaires, but on nearly everyone.
There’s no limit on what you can tax when you go for goods, labor, and now the services of that labor. House Bill 978 taxes services: gym memberships, laundry and dry cleaning, pet-sitting, repairs, mechanics, landscaping, storage, deliveries, travel services, décor services, and digital services. If what you’ve read so far makes you anxious, I’m sorry to say that therapy makes the list too.
But if it gives you a heart attack and you’re already on Obamacare, HB 405 would help cover the skyrocketing costs of that Democrat boondoggle. And there are real costs to health insurance. HB 1182 would require your Virginia insurance plan to cover condoms.
Then come new taxes on hotels (HB 524), events (HB 550), deliveries (HB 900), heavy car use and highway use (HB 1179), and landscaping tools (HB 557). House Bill 881 would ban gas-powered leaf blowers. Welcome to California East.
Blowing your brains out will cost you more, thanks to HB 919’s increased taxes on guns and ammunition.
HB 334 would add more local sales taxes. HB 378 targets investment taxes. HB 188 hikes taxes 74% for those making $1 million or more.
The new slush funds
What else are we going to pay for with all this free money? Saving the planet, for one. You might have thought global warming doom-whispering hasn’t been in since Al Gore checked out, but in Virginia it’s back, baby.
HB 324 would establish a new slush fund for electric vehicle infrastructure. And if you’re doing any business with local public schools, HB 1340 lets you take a little off the top to buy yourself a new Tesla.
HB 1230 sets aside $100 million for “sustainable aviation fuel,” whatever that means. HB 920 expands offshore wind subsidies fivefold — but not necessarily for white male-owned energy firms. HB 61 mandates preferential treatment for women- and minority-owned businesses in state contracting, even if costs rise.
Cities and localities can get in on the game too. In fact, they’re required. House Bill 256 would mandate that localities submit “environmental justice strategies.”
Own some land? HB 1091 treats solar panels as “agriculture.” If you’re an actual farmer, though, watch out: HB 950 elevates environmental enforcement so high that it removes the need for a warrant before flying camera drones over private property.
So much for self-defense
Of course, the rich men down in Richmond can’t have you shooting those drones down, so access to firearms is about to be severely restricted in a state once celebrated for sportsmanship and self-defense alike.
Want to shoot on private land? Better buy more, son. HB 926 would restrict shooting unless you own at least five acres.
It’s a noisy sport, after all. But HB 207 would add a $500 tax for suppressors.
Some weapons are scarier than others, so HB 217 bans “assault weapons.”
And HB 969 would establish the Virginia Gun Violence Prevention Center — another bureaucracy that will not stop criminals but will surely harass lawful owners.
RELATED: Trump’s agenda faces a midterm kill switch in 2026
Jim Watson/Getty Images
Housing relief — for bureaucrats
Democrats did think about affordability. They just defined the beneficiaries carefully.
House Bill 1130 would steer “surplus” city buildings toward housing for government employees, while House Bill 164 removes a $25,000 cap on grants for government employees buying homes, opening the door to far larger taxpayer-funded assistance for the big American purchase.
But that’s not all. During government shutdowns, federal employees whose votes have made so many Democrat dreams come true would get extra time to pay their taxes, thanks to HB 915. The state is deeply determined to show its thanks to those loyal voters especially. HB 494 grants special treatment in state hiring to federal employees laid off under the Trump administration.
Entrenching the machine
If you’ve made it this far, you might be thinking “Well, by golly, I’ll vote these bastards out in two years’ time.” But hold on, old buddy. Democrats have bills for that, too.
HB 82 allows absentee ballots to arrive and be counted three days after Election Day is “over.” HB 773 would provide a week to “cure” incorrect ballots, while HB Bill 1244 would allow for “emergency absentee ballots” to be made available shortly before elections.
Other innovations include ranked-choice voting (HB 630), voting by internet (HB 493), and a total ban on Virginians challenging suspected fraud at a polling place (HB 640).
You won’t have to raise any money from local citizens and businesses to run, thanks to HB 162, which would let candidates raid the taxpayer for their campaign costs. They might not even need to really live in the commonwealth after HB 835 hides their addresses from even irritating reporter FOIA requests.
To make sure everything runs above board, Senate Bill 52 would block cleanup of voter rolls in the three months before an election. And since we live in the future now, HB 968 bans hand-counting ballots.
Virginia’s new leadership campaigned on “Affordable Virginia.” To get there, somehow, SB 22 mandates racial bias training for nurses, HB 858 would rename Columbus Day as “Indigenous Peoples Day,” HB 994 allows localities to install as many speeding and crosswalk cameras as they want, and HB 415 makes the long-neglected pawpaw the official state fruit.
It’s a brave new world out there, folks. And “moderation” is coming for the rest of this country, as soon the voters get in line.
Politics, Virginia, Spanberger
