2025 Virginia Legislative Preview
Moderate legislators, like Edd Houck and John Chichester, who once held the extremists at bay while across-the-aisle deals were cut are nowhere to be found. The result? Gridlock.
By Dr. Stephen J. Farnsworth
GUEST COMMENTATOR

If you like legislative gridlock, then you have come to the right place, Virginia.
The 2025 Virginia Legislative session, which begins in earnest on Monday, will likely be remembered for two things: strenuous efforts by Republicans to make Democrats look bad and strenuous efforts by Democrats to make Republicans look bad. Put them together, and that adds up to a lot of stalled legislation and finger-pointing.
To be sure, there may be room for some compromises around the edges of lawmaking this winter, particularly given the Commonwealth’s strong financial health. Lawmakers might be able, for example, to agree on small tax cuts or modest funding increases for mental health, education, or maternal health programs. But any major issue that can be put off until 2026 seems likely to be delayed until after the November elections, which involve the three statewide elective offices and all 100 seats in the House of Delegates.
In one corner of Capitol Square is Gov. Youngkin, a Republican in the fourth and final year of his term. Over the past three years, Youngkin demonstrated little interest in being Virginia’s answer to moderate Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland. Youngkin offered no olive branch to Senate Democrats, the majority party in the upper chamber throughout his term. Youngkin instead promoted conservative efforts to shape COVID responses and push the content of public education rightward, among other things.
This combative approach made headlines and built a national reputation for the governor on Fox News and on other conservative media outlets. But it didn’t lead to a lot of legislative success.
In the opposite corner are the Democratic majorities in the Virginia House and Senate, narrow partisan advantages secured most recently by the results of the January 7 special elections. They are not fans of compromise either. When Gov. Youngkin proposed the development of a huge professional sports complex in northern Virginia a year ago, Democratic lawmakers showed no interest in listening to a governor they believed was not listening to them. Despite Youngkin’s promotion of the massive project, Democrats made sure it went nowhere.
A generation ago, the Virginia Capitol was a far more congenial place. In those days, the real power in the Legislature was in the hands of a half-dozen or so moderate senators of both parties who told the extremists on both ends of the political spectrum what would pass and what would not.
At the core of this centrist coalition were two highly influential senators from the Fredericksburg area – Edd Houck, a moderate Democrat from Spotsylvania County, and John Chichester, a moderate Republican from Stafford County. They were part of a centrist team that called the shots back then, working across party lines with a regularity that seems entirely foreign when compared to today’s highly combative political environment.
While it is tempting to blame the current generation of lawmakers for the declining levels of cooperation, it is important to remember they respond to voter preferences. The moderates who ruled Richmond a quarter of a century ago were defeated at the ballot box or retired as the electorate became increasingly polarized. The moderates were replaced by more extreme voices, pushing most Democrats and Republicans now serving further away from the ideological center.
If voters wanted more compromise, and if lawmakers could see there was a political advantage to compromising, there would be less partisan conflict. If voters nominated and then elected more moderate lawmakers, there would be more compromise. Instead, the increasingly partisan dynamics of nomination and election contests across the Commonwealth demonstrate to many lawmakers that compromise is not valued -- in fact embracing moderation hurts one’s chances of being renominated or re-elected.
Since voters consistently demonstrate that they value partisan loyalty more than moderation and compromise, no one should be surprised that gridlock is on the rise in Richmond. It’s part of the Washington-ization of Virginia politics, something that has been going on for a while now.
As we will see in this winter’s legislative session, the qualities that voters prioritize will be the priorities that elected officials represent.
Stephen J. Farnsworth is professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington, where he directs the Center for Leadership and Media Studies. He has studied and written about Virginia politics for nearly 30 years.
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