Don’t Expect Virginia Democratic Disputes to Cool Off Any Time Soon
THE MIDDAY READ. FXBG Advance, Monday, July 6, 2026
By Stephen J. Farnsworth, SPECIAL TO THE ADVANCE
The Budget May Be Settled, But Little Else Appears to Be
Virginia lawmakers approved a budget just in time for the new fiscal year, but the feuds among Democrats that triggered the lengthy political standoff in Richmond are not going away anytime soon.
At the core of this dispute, one finds sharply different views of how Democrats should present themselves in today’s Virginia. The long-standing impasse over the regulation and taxation of data center projects, papered over with an 11th-hour compromise that averted a Washington-style government shutdown, speaks to the depth of internal partisan disagreements.
For decades, many Virginia Democrats have worried about being too liberal to win statewide elections. Generations of Virginia Democrats have rallied behind a centrist vision of the party championed most notably by Chuck Robb, who revived the party’s fortunes in the late 1970s and 1980s by emphasizing economic development above all. Move too far to the left, the theory goes, and the party’s electoral prospects will crumble.
This approach had successes over the years, including Senator Mark Warner’s 2001 gubernatorial election, the successful 2006 senatorial campaign of Jim Webb and most recently the landslide victory of Gov. Abigail Spanberger last November. Many Democratic governors subscribing to this perspective over the years have worried as much about retaining Virginia’s reputation as an extremely business-friendly state as any Republican governor would.
The alternative perspective, buoyed by a string of five consecutive Democratic Electoral College victories in Virginia starting with 2008 presidential election, argues that the Commonwealth’s steadily less conservative electorate allows Democrats to be more aggressive in promoting liberal causes without risking electoral defeat. This view, particularly widespread among Democratic members of the General Assembly representing urban and suburban areas, encourages taking a much more aggressive stand against data centers and their impacts, including massive increases in demand for electricity and water, along with heightened noise pollution.
Of course, a Democratic lawmaker representing Fairfax County or the City of Richmond can be quite liberal without risking a backlash from voters. Failing to be sufficiently liberal, in fact, might cause problems for an incumbent seeking a future Democratic nomination, as many highly partisan primary voters are looking for increasingly combative candidates.
But what works for Democrats in Alexandria may not work statewide. Indeed, Spanberger’s moderate vision during her years representing the Fredericksburg area in Congress triggered some anxiety among Democratic liberals last year, but the party’s left flank never offered voters its own champion to challenge Spanberger on her way to become the party’s gubernatorial nominee.
Which side has the better argument? Statewide election results are mixed. If Democrats run toward the left, that can create an opening for Republicans, as demonstrated by Glenn Youngkin’s election as governor five years ago. Of course, Spanberger’s huge margin last November suggested that many prominent liberal Democrats, had any of them been the nominee, also could have defeated the deeply flawed campaign of Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears.
The within-party tension, then, isn’t going away. Democratic governors and gubernatorial candidates usually fear being tagged as too liberal, while many Democratic legislators have more latitude to run to the left—and may even need to do so to win contested primaries in party-dominant districts where a Democratic nomination usually secures a general election win.
Democratic disputes over data centers and other hot button left-versus-center conflicts like ending right-to-work likely will shape the next round of Senate of Virginia and House of Delegate elections in 2027. Indeed, given the growing anger in the U.S. and Virginia electorates, one might expect that the current Democratic legislative caucus—arguably the most liberal in the history of Virginia—will become even more so after the next round of state elections. So, don’t expect these intra-party disputes to cool off following the budget agreement. They seem more likely to intensify going forward.
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Steve Farnsworth is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Mary Washington and the author or coauthor of nine books and dozens of research articles on U.S. and Virginia politics.
