The Virginia state Capitol in Richmond within the spring of 2025. (Photograph by Markus Schmidt/Virginia Mercury)
In a dramatic however in the end symbolic present of defiance, Virginia Home Democrats on Wednesday tried — and failed — to override 13 of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s vetoes from this yr’s legislative session, realizing full nicely the numbers had been by no means of their favor.
Youngkin, a Republican, rejected 157 of the 915 measures despatched to his desk by the Democratic-controlled Common Meeting in February, flexing his veto pen extra aggressively than any Virginia governor in many years.
However with Democrats holding solely slim majorities — 51-49 within the Home and 21-19 within the Senate — their possibilities of reversing any of these selections had been at all times slim. Overriding a gubernatorial veto in Virginia requires a two-thirds vote in each chambers.
Nonetheless, Wednesday’s veto session was much less about math and extra about momentum in a pivotal election yr. With each seat within the Home of Delegates on the poll and a gubernatorial race already underway, Democrats used the day to attract sharp contrasts with the Republican agenda — and with the occasion’s customary bearer, President Donald Trump.
Almost each Democratic lawmaker who rose to talk did so with a standard chorus, casting Home Republicans as “fearful of Trump” and unwilling to face up for Virginia values — from voting rights and gun security to honest wages and union rights.
Bid to ban assault-style weapons falls brief
Whereas the Senate declined to take up any of the vetoed payments, Home Democrats fell brief of their try to override Youngkin’s veto of a invoice limiting assault-style firearms. The 50-46 party-line vote was a setback for laws central to Virginia’s ongoing gun debate.
House Bill 1607, an identical to Senate Bill 1181, would have made it a Class 1 misdemeanor to import, promote, or switch assault-style firearms, with exceptions for antiques, inoperable or operated by hand weapons, and people made earlier than July 1, 2025. It additionally barred these underneath 21 from possessing such firearms and banned high-capacity magazines.
Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax, a fight veteran and the invoice’s sponsor, defended it as a public security measure.
“These weapons had been designed for the battlefield, not for our streets,” Helmer stated. “They don’t have any place in Virginia. Our legislation enforcement officers work tirelessly to maintain our group secure … The least we are able to do is to help them.”
He accused GOP lawmakers of bowing to particular pursuits: “As soon as once more, the Republicans’ priorities usually are not the priorities of Virginia’s working households. They’re too fearful of Donald Trump to behave to take away weapons of conflict from our communities.”
Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper, additionally a veteran, pushed again, saying the invoice would punish law-abiding residents.
“I additionally carried weapons abroad in fight conditions, and I don’t recall as soon as once I was both conducting fight operations (or) any half within the oath I swore to the Structure to then be capable to come again, sit on this legislature and deprive Americans of their constitutionally protected rights to defend themselves.”
Defending voting rights
The Home additionally got here up brief in an effort to override Youngkin’s veto of HB 1657, a invoice that will have required the Division of Elections to finish any large-scale voter roll removals a minimum of 90 days earlier than any major or normal election — a safeguard at the moment in place just for federal races.
Mirroring SB 813, the measure permitted removals in circumstances of dying, felony conviction, psychological incapacity, or on the voter’s request — all allowed underneath present legislation. It additionally would have prolonged the time registrars should course of cancellations from 30 to 60 days and doubled the response window for voters flagged over citizenship issues from 14 to twenty-eight days.
“The proper to vote is sacred because the cornerstone of our democracy and the foundations of our commonwealth,” stated Del. Rozia Henson, D-Woodbridge, the invoice’s sponsor. “To have an individual’s voting rights stripped away so near an election is solely one thing that you simply can not fathom.”
Henson added, “Let me be clear, if you’re ineligible to vote, you merely can not vote, however it is usually the legislation that voters can’t be systematically purged on the whim of the governor. But time and time and time once more, Republicans have proven that they’re too fearful of Donald Trump to face up for our democracy and too afraid to guard the fitting to vote.”
The same destiny befell HB 2002, which sought to restrict native registrars to canceling voter registrations solely based mostly on knowledge from the Division of Elections or authorised state businesses — except a voter submitted a written request to cancel their very own registration.
The invoice additionally aimed to reinstate protections for active-duty army members, Individuals briefly abroad and their households, guaranteeing their registrations couldn’t be canceled whereas they remained eligible.
“In Virginia we imagine in honest, safe, and accessible elections,” stated Del. Amy Laufer, D-Albemarle, the invoice’s sponsor. “We’ve got an obligation to make sure that our elections are safe with out undermining the elemental proper to vote, and we can not enable outdoors influences or partisan video games to threaten that sacred proper.”
Minimal wage hike fails
An try by Home Democrats to override Youngkin’s veto of a proposed minimal wage enhance additionally fell brief.
HB 1928, sponsored by Del. Jeion Ward, D-Hampton, outlined a phased wage hike — codifying the already-scheduled enhance to $12.41 per hour on Jan. 1, 2025, adopted by raises to $13.50 in 2026 and $15.00 by 2027.
Ward framed the laws as important to working households. “Elevating a minimal wage is about folks, it’s about households struggling to maintain lights on,” she stated. “It’s about mother and father working double shifts to afford childcare. And it’s in regards to the staff who preserve Virginia operating, however they’re nonetheless left behind.”
However Republicans pushed again, arguing the invoice would backfire on the very folks it supposed to assist.
“What your invoice really does is make it unlawful to rent somebody at a certain quantity,” Freitas stated. “There’s no such factor as only one minimal wage, there may be at all times two. There’s the arbitrary wage that you simply set, after which there may be $0. And lots of people are going to finish up getting $0.”
He warned that larger wage mandates might get rid of jobs altogether: “You don’t simply raise folks as much as a better wage.”
Marijuana justice efforts stalls
One other proposal — HB 2555 — which might have supplied sentencing reduction for people convicted of marijuana-related felonies, additionally didn’t clear the hurdle of a veto override.
The invoice would have granted computerized hearings to these nonetheless incarcerated or underneath supervision as of July 1, 2025 for marijuana offenses dedicated earlier than legalization in 2021.
The invoice acknowledged Virginia’s shift in marijuana legal guidelines and aimed to offer reduction for folks nonetheless serving time for outdated crimes. However Youngkin, in his veto assertion, argued that the invoice went too far by probably benefiting people convicted of significant crimes.
“Whereas framed as a measure for non-violent offenders,” he wrote, “this invoice would enable sentence reductions for people convicted of significant crimes, together with these involving fentanyl distribution, gross sales to minors, and violent offenses the place marijuana was an element.”
He additionally warned of broader penalties for the justice system. “The proposal locations an undue burden on courts, prosecutors, and victims,” Youngkin said, “requiring hearings even for these whose sentences had been enhanced by prior marijuana convictions however had been primarily convicted of way more critical offenses.”
Henson, who sponsored the laws, defended the invoice as a matter of justice.
“We got here a good distance in legalizing marijuana,” he stated. “The query is why are they afraid to present somebody a second likelihood?”
“Justice is meant to be about steadiness,” Henson added. “We’ve got folks convicted of marijuana-related offenses nonetheless struggling, despite the fact that what they did is now not in opposition to the legislation. This invoice gave an opportunity to make issues proper.”
No strengthening of union rights
Lastly, the Home was unable to safe sufficient votes to override the governor’s veto of HB 2764, which might have allowed collective bargaining for Virginia’s public workers.
The measure aimed to repeal the state’s ban on public-sector union negotiations and create a Public Worker Relations Board to supervise the method for state and native staff.
The invoice required good-faith bargaining over wages, hours and dealing circumstances, and eliminated a provision mandating secret ballots in union elections — a change critics stated might compromise worker privateness.
In his veto assertion, Youngkin known as the proposal a serious coverage shift that will “threaten the funding and supply of essential state and native providers” and price taxpayers “lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} a yr.” He additionally criticized the shortage of a funding plan, saying businesses had been unprepared for the authorized and administrative calls for.
Del. Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax, the invoice’s sponsor, stated the measure was about standing with staff.
“Virginia has a possibility to steer,” she stated. “We will display that we worth our staff … by giving them a seat on the desk and (bettering) our providers.”
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