Virginia Democrats preserve majority in first statewide elections since Trump’s victory

Democrats in Virginia preserved their majority in the state legislature late on Tuesday in the first statewide elections since Donald Trump’s presidential victory in November.

In special elections for open seats, Kannan Srinivasan, a Democratic state representative, defeated Republican Tumay Harding in a race for an open state senate seat in Loudon county, Virginia, just outside of Washington DC.

Democrat JJ Singh won an open state house seat in the same county, over Republican Ram Venkatachalam. Republicans held onto a state senate seat vacated by John McGuire, who won a first term in the US House of Representatives in November 2024.

The state Democrats have a slim 21 to 19 seat majority in the state senate and 51 to 49 lead in the state house, making things hard for the state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, in the final year of his first term in office. He flipped the governorship to Republican in the November 2021 election.

The results could limit Youngkin’s conservative agenda and give Democrats a boost before Trump is set to take office later this month. Democrats are seeking to pass three constitutional amendments in Virginia this year to codify abortion rights, same-sex marriage equality, and the restoration of voting rights for Virginians after a felony conviction. These measures must pass the state legislature prior to being placed on the ballot for voters later this year.

Meanwhile Democratic congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, after serving three terms representing Virginia’s seventh congressional district, is leaving office this month and set to begin campaigning to challenge Youngkin for the governorship this year.

The race is largely viewed as a referendum on Trump’s popularity in the first year of his second term in office, even though Spanberger in an exit interview played down such a framing. Kamala Harris won the state over Trump with 51.8% of the vote in the November election, despite losing the White House.

“If the national media wants to opine and cherry-pick and choose to perceive things through that national lens that’s their choice,” she told ABC7News in Washington DC. “But at the end of the day, I’m running for governor to serve Virginians and to serve the commonwealth that I love. And so my focus and my responsibility is to run a race focused on Virginia.”

She said she expects education and housing affordability to be defining campaign issues this year. She won national office in a swing district and was part of the cohort elected in the 2018 midterm election “blue wave” of Democratic wins during the Trump administration. She also won prominence for being part of a small group of women entering Congress who had served in national security roles, having been an operative in the CIA.

Republicans currently hold a majority in 24 state legislatures around the US compared with 15 for Democrats, with the remaining state chambers split.